346 Georgopoulou
San Marco in 1479;55 the piazza was lined by the palace and residence of the
counsellor, shops (botege) selling foodstuffs, a large loggia, and several public
loggias which may refer to particular buildings or to arcaded spaces around
the square.56
In reality many of the structures that housed the administration of the new
colony were located in earlier Byzantine buildings. The basic street pattern
of the Byzantine city remained in place, and many old Byzantine structures
were reused to house Venetian officials as in the case of the castellum in the
port (Figure 10.4). Urban practices and the architecture of Candia like the agri-
cultural, political, and social organisation of the island, also wavered between
two worlds.57 Through naming and usage loci gained a new identity tied to
the colonists. For example, in Candia two important Byzantine landmarks, the
ducal palace and the cathedral church, were reused without major modifica-
tions. Obviously, economic considerations may have been the primary reason
that prompted the Venetian regime to preserve these buildings in the capital
of Crete; it was simply cheaper not to build something anew.58 It was also an
effective statement of control over the civic resources, like the use of spoils as a
sign of supremacy over the enemy. The principal church of Crete’s capital city,
the former Orthodox cathedral dedicated to the early Christian patron saint
of the island, St Titus, was taken over by the new Latin archbishop. Thus, a
structure that must have had a long association with the Greek Orthodox pop-
ulation of the island because it housed the relics of the island’s early Christian
patron saint, was instantly transformed into the symbol of the new official Latin
Christian rite of Venetian Crete.59 It could be argued that this take-over down-
played the change in order to invite the local Orthodox population into the
fold. Yet, doctrinal differences between Latin Catholics and Greek Orthodox
were used as one of the most significant ideological reasons for the numerous
rebellions of the 13th century in Crete. The central location of these monu-
ments and their new owners/primary users made them immediate, everyday
reminders of the new colonial dominion on Crete. Their loaded symbolic
significance presented to the Venetian authorities a fertile ground on which
to found the myths of Venice’s colonial heritage. To dissociate the buildings
55 Konstantinos N. Sathas, ed., Documents inédits relatifs à l’histoire de la Grèce au Moyen
Âge, (Μνημεία Ελληνικής Ιστορίας) 9 vols. (Paris, 1880–90), 4:180.
56 Sathas, Documents, 4:21, 111, 115, 137, and 166.
57 Georgopoulou, Venice’s Mediterranean Colonies, p. 75.
58 It was common practice after all to use ancient spoils (column drums) as building
materials as on the curtain walls of the city of Canea near the harbour.
59 Georgopoulou, Venice’s Mediterranean Colonies, pp. 109–18.