Rethymnon (City), Crete Island

Nothing too fancy from the outside, the Church Of The Four Martyrs is quite literally a work of art inside. I've never seen such bold and intricate decorations in a church before, and the fact that they're painted onto arches and domes gives them an almost 3-D effect. They seem to reach out and engulf you. It's quite wonderful. It's fairly modern though, no great history associated with it.

The cathedral was right behind our apartment. We guess that it was maybe the cathedral clock that chimed every half hour, 24 hours a day. We expected this to keep us awake at night but ample helpings of wine and cakes usually saw us out like a light each night.
The interior of the cathedral is quite lovely, but for something even better seek out The Church Of The Four Martyrs (see next tip).

The Rimondi fountain is a set of lions heads (the lion of St Mark, the symbol of Venice) that spout water into a trough. It's set amongst the remnants of some archways and against a very pretty pink rendered building. Nearby in the small square is one of our favourite eating and drinking places, Gallerie 1926.

There's really not much left to see of this, but it's the only remaining Venetian gate into the city. The others have been dismantled over time to give improved access to the city. Just beyond the gate are a number of shops selling fruit, veg, fish, bread etc. from open frontages. It gives the area an air of a market square and in addition there are other good gift and craft shops around this area.
If you go back (turn 180 degrees from this view) and up to the main road (maybe 80m or so) and turn right, a little way along is "Select", the best cake shop we found in Rethymnon (and maybe Crete).

A bit of a mouthful, this old derelict mosque stands at the eastern end of the old town just before you hit the beach resort. It's quite pretty but hemmed in by and overgrown garden and trees. In its ground are some remaining moslem gravestones.

The Fortezza was built around 1570 by the Venetians and is considered to be the biggest that they ever built. Inside it is sprawling, with a mixture of open land and scattered buildings. Amongst these is a mosque, a theatre and a couple of churches, and the open land is a nice place to bring a picnic and relax for a while. The views from the ramparts of the Fortezza over the whole of Rethymnon are spectacular.

There's quite a few attractive, historical buildings in the Old Town too, such as this former mosque (Nerantzes Mosque) which is now used as a concert hall and music centre. This was right behind our apartment and the minarette filled the view from our bedroom window. Lovely.

The harbour is lined with restaurants and tavernas, mainly specialising in seafood. The views across the harbour to the lighthouse are very nice, especially in the evening around sunset when the lighthouse is bathed in a warm glow.
The waiters/front men at these places are very pushy though, and physically block your path as you try to walk along the harbour side. This is very frustrating when all you want to do is walk round and have a look at the views etc!
I would have liked to have eaten here one day but there were so many other places to eat that we never got round to it.

The Venetian Harbour area at Rethymon is very attractive, built as it is of very warm coloured stone that looks especially good at sunset. The most prominent feature on the harbour is the lighthouse (shown here) and this is also the best place to go to get a good view back across to the harbourside restaurants, which themselves form an attractive view.

Rethymnon Old Town is a warren of narrow streets filled with colourful buildings, many of which seem to be tavernas, restaurants or shops, though there is plenty of residential housing too around the fringes. It's lovely to just wander through them all, finding what is around the next corner.