Images of Destruction

The sight encountered by a French officer on entering the town in June 1669 was blood-curdling in the extreme: "The town was in a horrendous state. The streets were full of shot, shells and shrapnel from mines and hand grenades. Not a single church or building stood that had not been blasted through and left almost in ruins by enemy cannon fire. The houses were no longer anything more than wretched hovels. The stench everywhere was disgusting. At every turn one could see people lying dead, wounded or mutilated." (Chryssoula Tzombanaki, Chandax: The City and the Walls, S.C.H.S. - Vikelaia Municipal Library, p. 77)