On Monday 10th November, the clock on the south façade of the Municipal Agora in Chania was reinstalled, and restarted. Following a precarious ride up on a crane lift, the Mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis stepped onto the scaffolding and attached the hands to the clock at 12.55 – the time at which it had stopped when taken down for the renovations four and half years previously. A press release from the Municipal Council recorded the event as follows.
The countdown has begun for Municipal Agora in Chania
Time has “restarted” for the Municipal Agora of Chania, as on Monday 10th November 2025 the historic clock was installed with its hands showing 12:55, the time at which it stopped at the beginning of renovation works on the historic building. The Mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis was present, accompanied by the deputy mayors for Technical Services Michalis Kalogridakis, Local Economy and Development Giannis Nikiforakis, and Education Antonis Vardakis, while also present were Chania’s Director of Technical Services Giorgos Efthimiou, the works supervisor Ioulia Manolikaki and others.
The Mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis rode up on a crane lift to the façade of the Agora to place the hands of the clock ceremonially at 12.55 – the time at which it had ceased to function at the start of the renovation operations four and a half years ago. Photos: Municipal press office.
Expressing his satisfaction with the progress, the Mayor said: “Today we have reinstalled the landmark clock of the Municipal Agora: essentially time for our market has started to tick again. After a long intermission, the municipal market is being finished in stages, and within a short while it will be given over entirely to the citizens, the shop owners and visitors to the Municipality of Chania.
“It has been a very great effort, involving difficult processes, but thanks to the persistence of our technical services the works are being completed in the best possible way to ensure the stability, the functionality but also the image of the municipal market for the coming decades. For us it is a day of celebration, and we are sure that having overcome the difficulties of communication with the shop owners as regards the operational regulations, everything will be as it should for our emblematic monument to be delivered.”
And he continued: “According to the schedule which we have agreed with the contractor and the shop owners, by Easter they will already be in there and we will be in the final straight for the inauguration of our Municipal Market.”
Providing more detail about the work still to be completed, Giorgos Efthimiou said: “What remains is to complete the roof sections on the eastern and southern parts; the foundations are being laid in the central section of the market for the marble flooring; we are waiting for the special photovoltaic glass panels which will be installed on the roof; and the immediate next step will be the installation of the electrical equipment.”
The reinstallation of the clock signals the reintroduction of one of the most characteristic features of the building’s frontage, and the return of Chania’s Municipal Market to operation.
(www.chania.gr)
A market for local products
Asked by Haniotika Nea about the operational regulations for the market, the mayor said that the Agora would be primarily a market for food. “We have already specified the products and the trading which will be allowed, and the Agora will not have touristic products,” he said.
“It will have a clear orientation towards local or national products, towards the culture, the wealth of tastes and aromas and the overall experience which the Cretan soil can offer from dozens of certified producers, the producers of the primary sector and the manufacturers of products. It will be an important format for us to promote that which we can offer as a locality, and we will not be giving space to all those products which a local resident or a visitor can easily find in dozens of other shops in the vicinity of the Municipal Agora.”
(Haniotika Nea, 10/11/25; the page includes links to two videos, of the Mayor riding up in the crane lift and of work proceeding in the interior of the Agora.)