Major Public Works
This period saw the completion of numerous major public works projects in Heraklion. As new forms of transport, the car and aeroplane called for new infrastructure and radical intervention. A new road network was built along the north shores of the island, linking Heraklion to the other large towns, and even to the hinterland to some extent.

Increased shipping necessitated an extension to the port, involving the construction of a new long breakwater, which was handed over for use in 1931. The Mikros Koules (small fortress) and sections of the Venetian dry docks were demolished in 1936. Further work was carried out in the port two years later, to enable large vessels to approach the wharf.

At the same time, the arrival of refugees from Asia Minor and the concomitant increase in the population placed a strain on the water supply, and in 1926 work began on a new aqueduct from the springs at Astraki in Pediada district. Likewise, the town was first supplied with electricity in this period.

New public buildings were erected, and older ones were turned over to new uses. In the late 1920s, the earlier Kislades (Turkish barrack house) was divided into three, according to plans drawn up by the architect Dimitris Kyriakos.





1913  |  1915  |  1918  |  1922  |  1924  |  1925  |  1926  |  1928  |  1929  |  1931  |  1932  |  1934  |  1935  |  1936  |  1938  |  1939  |  1940
View of the port and the walls, 1932 (Liana Starida Collection)
View of the entrance to the port, shortly before demolition work began on the small Koules. The Fytakis Mansion, Heraklion's first high-rise building, is visible in the background, 1936 (Yiannis Perdikoyiannis)
The new concrete harbour wall. The small-gauge railway used by British company Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons is also visible (Babis Kyrimis Archive, Historical Museum of Crete, © S.C.H.S, Heraklion)
A bus ticket, 1932 (Historical Museum of Crete, © S.C.H.S, Heraklion)
The first taxis in Heraklion, 1930 (Liana Starida Collection)
View of Heraklion and the "Three Arches" (now Eleftherias Square), 1938 (N. Alikiotis Press, No 472, Theophanis Kokkinakis Collection)
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