A STONE CANNONBALL AND VENETIAN CANNONS IN CRETE 16th 17th CENTURY
 

Hi all,
i want to present you some interesting finds from the island of Crete.
Crete was under venetian rule from 1204 to 1669 during these years Venetians built a lot of castles on the most strategic places of the island. Such a place was the small island of Grambusa on the far west side of the island of Crete, where the Venetians built a very strong castle in 1580s in order to supply the crews comming from Venice, going eastwards and protect the area from the pirates. This Island is famous concerning pirate stories tresures and ship wrecks. Me and some friends went to explore this island and we found some interesting things, that i want to share with you. We explored the marked area near the small harbour and we found a big bronze piece from a 16th or early 17th century Venetian Cannon, a stone cannonball from the same weapon and some Venetian potery. The Cannon is a petriera da mascolo and was used by both military and merchant vessels. These types of Cannons were breech loading. The particular piece that we found belongs to the breech and obviously was detached by an explosion

A STONE CANNONBALL AND VENETIAN CANNONS IN CRETE 16th 17th CENTURY
 

Wonderful discovery! :)

Here are some pictures from a Venetian Petriera da mascolo in the historical and folk art museum of Rethymno. It was found in 1960s-70s. Note the breech loading chamber. Of particular interest is the broken upper piece of the chamber. Probably the gun was deactivated in order not to be used by the Turks, during the Veneto-Turkish conflict 1645-1669.

Nice ... very nice.