Investigation, analysis and rehabilitation of the failures of St Dimitrios Bastion in the old city of Chania, Crete
Investigation, analysis and rehabilitation of the failures of St Dimitrios Bastion in the old city of Chania, Crete
Saint Dimitrios Bastion constitutes a landmark of Chania in Crete. It is a part of the Venician fortifications of Chania built between 1538 and the end of the 16th century. It was a part of the new Venician fortification system based on walls (cortina), bastions (baluardi) and defensive constructions over the bastions themselves serving as elevated fortified but secondary defensive structures termed cavallieri.
From a technical point of view, the Saint Dimitrios Cavalliere (also known as Lando) constitutes a circular wall rising to 7.5m from the level of the bastion, retaining sloping ground behind it up to a plateau rising another 6m above the top of the wall. The circular wall has a diameter of approximately 70m and the elevated plateau hosting the cannon positions a diameter of approximately 40m. The wall was failing systematically as early as approximately 1600 and demanded additional retaining at its front by raising a sloping backfill holding the wall from collapsing. This fill in front of the wall survived until the 20th century. Recent years excavations to reveal the walled part of the Cavalliere have been followed by numerous failures of the wall and the sloping backfill behind it, the latest of which being the failures at three locations in 2017 and 2019, following severe rainfall incidents.
The paper presents the results of the geotechnical investigation performed to identify the soil layers at the wall foundation and in the backfill behind it, the geotechnical analyses performed to understand the failure conditions and the various engineering solutions examined for the rehabilitation.
Michael Bardanis; George Dounias
4th International Symposium on the Preservation of Monuments and Historic Sites
Case Histories in Heritage Preservation
https://doi.org/10.53243/tc301-2026-10