Date updated: October 23, 2026
There isn’t much left inside the fortress at Rethymno. It’s still nice to walk around and you get great views of the town and surrounding area.
The entrance is at the far end of the old town. Once inside there are good views out over the town, old and new.
The fortress is on a point so there’s water on a couple of sides. These are looking west toward Chania.
There’s no beach near the fortress but you can reach rocks that go down to the water. We could see people swimming from the walls.
From some angles inside the fortress you get a good look at how tall the walls are. A road circles around the outside of it. The town of Rethymno is on a peninsula. The fortress is on the very point of the peninsula.
There’s a pile of cannonballs and remnants of walls and sentry posts. Some were being propped up.
There’s an amphitheater inside in one of the rare shaded areas.
Most of the area inside is bare ground, with a few scattered buildings, including a former mosque and chapel. There was a stage and chairs set up near the mosque. It looked like it was it set up for a wedding. Yesterday we saw a sunken boat. Today a broken chair.
You can go inside the former mosque, though there wasn’t much to see, at least when we were there.
It’s worth going inside the fortress for the views alone. Just plan on it being hot and dusty.
