The Lighthouse, Chania - Crete | 01 Aug 2014
35.519517° N | 24.016751° E
The Lighthouse of Chania is the long – standing emblem of the City and one the oldest lighthouses, not only in Greece and the Mediterranean, but in the world.
It was initially constructed on a natural rock by the Venetians sometime between 1595 – 1601 AC. In 1645 the city fell to the Turks after a long siege. The new conquerors showed no special interest in the maintenance of Chania's Venetian Harbor, which was left in full abandonment. During the years of the concession of Crete in the Viceroy of Egypt Muhammad Ali (1830-1840), in exchange for the help offered to the Sultan during the Revolution of 1821 in Crete and the Peloponnese, the value of the port was recognized and the redevelopment of the area started. Among other works, the lighthouse was restored and took a different shape.
In 1864, the lighthouse was assigned to the French Company of Ottoman Lighthouses, and during the final years of the Turkish occupation, the staircase of the east side was constructed, in the entrance of the lighthouse tower. At the end of the 19th century, a guard house was constructed next to the base of the lighthouse, which was later demolished, before 1967. After the latest restoration, completed in 2006, the lighthouse was given its original shape of the Venetian period.