The bare shell of the Agora in Chania is by now such a familiar sight that it is not surprising that locals have become pessimistic about the prospects of it ever being finished, and see it joining the collection of half-ruined buildings which litter the city. Of the work which is visible, the whole of the roof structure has been removed and taken away for reconstruction, all the interior partitions and fittings have been stripped out leaving the bare walls, and substantial excavations have taken place on the floor area between the walls, now filled in leaving piles of earth. Additionally, the shell has been stabilised with the insertion of iron girders along the top of the apertures in the exterior walls, presumably to bring the building up to modern standards of earthquake resistance.
All this happened up to the summer of this year, when work apparently ceased, leading to the pessimism about its completion. However, as intermittent reports in the local media have made clear, there has been plenty of activity off-site, and the problems which led to a cessation of activity now seem to have been resolved.
It may be remembered that the contract for renovation was originally signed in January 2022, with a deadline for completion of 24 months – i.e. January 2024. However, in August of this year the Haniotika Nea reported that the contractor had been given an extension of 6 months to summer 2024, the mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis telling the newspaper that the extension had been granted following “a recent investigation by the archaeological authority”. From this and subsequent press reports, it appears that the excavations for the new floor of the building had uncovered parts of the Venetian fortifications, a discovery which, as always in Greece, required the immediate intervention of the archaeological authorities.
Venetian fortifications revealed
The surviving walls of Chania are those which were built by the Venetians between 1538 and 1568, to defend it from raids by Turkish pirates. The walls were roughly quadrilateral in plan, with defensive bastions at each of the four corners, substantial parts of which still exist. While the north side was open to the sea via the harbour, the south side was closed by a continuous wall, in the middle of which was a piattaforma or platform, surmounted by two further bastions. The wall and the bastions no longer exist, having been demolished in 1911 to make way for the Agora. It is the remnants of these constructions which were revealed by excavations in the floor of the Agora, and which attracted the attention of the archaeological authorities, who deemed it necessary to preserve the remnants untouched as far as possible.
The solution devised by the city’s Technical Services, in consultation with the contractor, was to raise the floor of a number of the shops within the Agora building by 15 cm to accommodate the Venetian wall, along with some other changes, and a revised plan incorporating the changes was to be submitted to the Central Archaeological Council in the summer. At this point submission, of the plan was delayed by differences of opinion between the Central Archaeological Council and the Service of Modern Monuments and Technical Works of Crete, a department of the Culture ministry based in Heraklion. This bureaucratic hurdle has only recently been surmounted, reportedly following an appeal to the Culture minister.
In his interview with the Haniotika Nea in August, the mayor Panagiotis Simandirakis was at pains to point out that despite the planning delays work had not completely ceased. “At the same time I want to emphasise that the works are proceeding according to plan,” he said. “There are works which you can see and which have to do with the masonry and the load-bearing structure. But there are also works which are being carried out off-site, such as the construction of the roof, and I want to announce that in September the work of installing the new roof on the building will start. All that is a reply to those who falsely spread rumours that work on the Municipal Agora has stopped. We have responsibilities to the citizens and the shopowners, and they should know that the service and the municipality is fighting on their behalf.”
Permissions finally granted
As it turned out everything took a little longer than expected and the building is still awaiting its new roof. One possible clue lies in an interview given by Mr Simandirakis to the Kissamos newspaper Neoi Orizontes in November, in which he stated that “the state of the roof, the deterioration which took place over time, means that we have to proceed with a total reconstruction. Some small parts of historical importance will be retained, such as one which bears the marks of the Italian bombardment, but otherwise there will be a complete replacement.” In the same interview he also mentioned that a further complicating factor was a change of ownership of the contracting company, which had resulted in the need for a new “organogram” and allotment of responsibilities.
Finally, an up-to-date report in the Haniotika Nea (18th December) notes that the revised plan for the monument “was approved on 14th December by the Culture ministry’s Directorate of Protection and Restoration of Modern and Contemporary Monuments and it is estimated that the restoration of the monument can now proceed at a faster pace”.
Bearing in mind that there are just over 6 months to go to the revised completion date, a period which must include both installation of the new roof and fitting out the interior with the new shops, with all that entails, a faster pace will clearly be needed. The mayor, in his interview with Neoi Orizontes said he was confident that the contractor was up to the job: “The restoration of the Municipal Agora may be a very big project for Chania, but I don’t think it creates problems as regards the company’s construction capacity,” he said. He also emphasised that while there might be cost increases for some materials as a result of inflation, funding from the Regional Authority was assured.