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KastélliThe hill of Kastélli, on the opposite side of the Outer Harbor, was the center of the Minoan, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, and Turkish cities that preceded modern Chaniá. Its old buildings were pretty much leveled by bombing in 1941, but you can see part of the wall that once protected it (and kept it separate from less exalted neighborhoods).
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The Renieri archThis arch was once at the entrance to the mansion of an important Venetian family. The mansion is gone, but the arch is still here. Nowadays it opens out to a road that communicates with the newer part of town and is large enough to accommodate trash pickup trucks, which stop just outside. That's why Chaniá's stray cats like to hang out there.
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CretianaJust inside the Renieri arch, this shop specializes in Cretan products. The board painting shows the traditional outfit of Cretan males. Instead of the pleated white kilt called the foustanélla, they wore baggy trousers called vráka, and high boots rather than the pompom shoes (tsaroúchia) that go with the foustanélla. (Foustanélla and tsaroúchia were a northwestern Greek style adopted in the 1800s as the “official” national costume.) In place of a hat, Cretan men usually wore a black kerchief called a saríki, woven net-fashion and ornamented with little round knots, like the one draped over the top of the painting in the picture. As you might imagine, this costume is are no longer everyday wear, though it was well into the the 20th century. The saríki was tied about the temples, leaving the top of the wearer's head bare, and no doubt as cool as possible for someone working hard under a hot sun.
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