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Municipal Market of Chania

The Municipal Market of Chania, the huge building of 4,000 square meters on Hatzimichalis Giannaris, is one of the most important modern monuments of the city of Chania. It was built in 1913 on the bastion Piatta Forma, in the middle of the walls of the Venetian period. In essence this was a serious intervention of modernization and integration of the old with the new, growing rapidly outside the Venetian walls.

Until the late 19th century in the Municipal Market of Chania butchers, fishmongers and vegetable stores were unofficially located, an outdoor street market, where the villagers brought their products to sell them.

In 1908, the municipality decided to ameliorate the place by building the Municipal Market of Chania, whose erection required a loan of 300,000 drachmas from the Bank of Crete. The project was realized by the local engineer K. Drandakis, based on the covered market of Marseille. It has the shape of a cross with four doors, one on each wing. It houses 76 shops arranged in groups in the four arms of the cross.

The official inauguration of the Municipal Market of Chania was made ​​by the then Prime Minister of Greece Eleftherios Venizelos on 4th of December, in 1913, i.e. three days after the official ceremony of the Union of Crete with Greece.

Shortly before the Battle of Crete in May 1941, an air raid shelter was completed on the southeast side of the Municipal Market of Chania.

During the Occupation, the Municipal Market of Chania was used by the Germans for the needs of the occupying army.

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