Makasi Gate: the "Gate of memory"

One of the two most powerful bastions of the city was Martinengo, named after Gabriele Tadini di Martinengo (1480-1544), the distinguished Venetian military engineer and successful officer who, in 1519, undertook the general supervision of the defensive works in Crete. The military Gate leading to the southeastern "low square" of the Martinengo Bastion and to the trench was known as the Martinengo Gate or Makasi Arcade - the Turkish word meaning "holder of the keys". Although Martinengo Gate served military purposes, it featured a rather elaborate inner monumental facade, similar to that of a main/ urban Gate. The façade does no longer exist nor does "pigaida", the big well located near it, which irrigated the orchards and watered the area and was first depicted on Venetian maps in 1573. Later, Makasi Arcade was linked to one of the grimmest moments of local and world history. During WWII, war prisoners were detained in the Arcade before being transferred to concentration camps. That is why the Arcade has been transformed into a place of memory for the city and its history: in its first inner section, we find votive columns with the names of the captives, while the second section, which leads to the eastern "low square" of the Martinengo Bastion, will soon host an exhibition dedicated to the National Resistance.