The Venet­ian fortress, which took 17 years to build (1573–1590), ulti­mate­ly failed to pro­tect the city from the Turks. The builders, in gen­er­al, did not take much care of the defense: an atten­tive trav­el­er will notice that the Fortez­za has nei­ther ditch­es nor but­tress­es. But, hav­ing climbed the hill and bought a tick­et, you can ful­ly enjoy the inter­nal build­ings of the fortress, includ­ing the Cathe­dral of St. Nicholas (also known as the Ibrahim Khan Mosque), the church­es of St. Cather­ine and St. Theodore Trikhin, the West­ern Gate, a tiny cave and some­thing like an amphithe­ater. Do not for­get to take a cam­era — a pic­turesque view of all of Rethym­non opens up from the hill.