House and Habitat of Venetian Crete in the Early-modern Period

Abstract

The historical construction of the Mediterranean habitat is a highly debated subject and a very diversified historiography has been dealing with it. This article will focus on rural houses and habitat on the island of Crete during the late Venetian period (16th-17th century). It proposes a first reflection on the material and documentary traces of villages and houses, which indicate the ways of building the rural landscape according to precise objectives and needs. The architectural and building features of the houses, as well as the story of their owners and tenants in the context of the society and the economy of the villages, must be explored in order to better understand the permanencies and transformations of settlement strategies in the main Venetian maritime colony.