{"id":1557,"date":"2022-07-20T07:52:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T07:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/?p=1557"},"modified":"2023-09-08T18:29:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T18:29:32","slug":"derelict-cannon-at-the-fortezza-of-rethymno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/?p=1557","title":{"rendered":"Derelict cannon at the Fortezza of Rethymno"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The fortress towering over the little Cretan town of Rethymno is a strange place. Built by the Venetians at the end of the 16th century to protect the town and its inhabitants from Ottoman invaders, it proved ineffective for this purpose in 1646, when it was taken after a short siege. The Ottomans demolished the church and built a mosque in its place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

When the Germans invaded Crete in 1941, the Fortezza was subject to air strikes before paratroops landed south of Rethymno. The Germans then used it as baracks and prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the Fortezza is not really good for a symbol of Greek national pride, yet too prominent to ignore. Maybe it is therefore fitting that the cannon on the site are not mounted and in the positions the fortress has for them. I am actually not sure if these cannon were ever meant to arm the fortress. They could also be salvaged from the sea by the level of decay. But the climate on the Fortezza is very salty, with predominant wind from the sea and high waves, so they possibly have corroded away like this on land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
View over the Fortezza from south. The length of the perimeter is 1307 meters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Derelict
The cannon at the front here is in a little better shape than the others. It retains multiple delicate reinforcement rings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Derelict<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Derelict
The calibre of these pieces is around 6-12 lbs., so not really the kind of ordnance you would expect on a fortress or man of war. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Derelict
The cannon at the front here very much looks like out of the sea.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Derelict
The cannon are basically dumped next to a building that is used as restoration lab of the town’s antiquities department.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fortress towering over the little Cretan town of Rethymno is a strange place. Built by the Venetians at the end of the 16th century to protect the town and its inhabitants from Ottoman invaders, it proved ineffective for this purpose in 1646, when it was taken after a short siege. The Ottomans demolished the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Derelict cannon at the Fortezza of Rethymno”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"iawp_total_views":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[115,91,87,102,80],"class_list":["post-1557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-loader","tag-18th-century","tag-europe","tag-frontloader","tag-greece","tag-iron-cannon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1701,"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions\/1701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kwsantiques.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}