Venetian Fortress of Koules

This guide to the Venetian Fortress of Koules in Heraklion follows Ioannis Vlachos, known as Daskalogiannis, a Sfakian shipbuilder who raised hundreds of highlanders against Ottoman rule after a promised Russian fleet never fully arrived. When his revolt collapsed, the Ottoman commander offered him amnesty if he surrendered, and Daskalogiannis believed him. You'll hear how he was marched in chains to this exact harbor fortress, built with walls nearly nine meters thick, and locked inside one of its twenty-six vaulted rooms. Look up at the weathered lion above the gate, once Venice's mark on a city it would eventually lose after a twenty-one-year siege.