The Venetian shipyards in Heraklion located in the Venetian harbor opposite the Fortress Koules. They are the plae where ships the of the Venetian fleet were manufactured and repaired.

At this plae there were port facilities since ancient times, with the most important to construt under the Arab rule in the 9th century AD. When the island came into Venetian hands, Heraklion or "Candia" as it was called then, was the "Venice of the East". From here began the export trade of the Venetians in the East as it was the most important naval station, docking 50 galleys.

They built 19 shipyards, divided into three groups, the Arsenali Antichi, the Arsenali Vechi and Arsenali Nuovi. They were vaulted elongated structures where manufactured, repaired or kept ships. The shipyards were open to the sea, which penetrated inside them, to a point, to be carried out the ships. They had a length of 50 meters, 9 meters width and 10 meters height and communicated with each other through arched openings closed with wooden door panels.

Next to Arsenali Nuovi there was a salt storage room and a water tank with capacity of 20,000 barrels, used until today for watering the plants of port. Today exist only some parts of the shipyards of Nuovi and Vechi.

You can visit the Venetian shipyards through our tours Tour 1 and Tour 5, and discover one of the greatest monuments of the island.