Venice Loses Candia

1669

After twenty-one years of siege, the longest in European history, the Venetian garrison of Candia on Crete surrendered to the Ottomans. Venice kept a handful of outposts on the Aegean; the Ottomans gained their last great Mediterranean prize. The maritime republic's long decline was beyond disguising, and the loss of Crete closed a chapter in Venetian history that had lasted over four centuries.