1.
Odense
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Odense is the third-largest city in Denmark. It has a population of 175,245 as of January 2016, by road, Odense is located 45 kilometres north of Svendborg,144 kilometres to the south of Aarhus and 167 kilometres to the southwest of Copenhagen. Odense has close associations with Hans Christian Andersen who is remembered above all for his fairy tales and he was born in the city in 1805 and spent his childhood years there. There has been settlement in the Odense area for over 4,000 years, although the name was not mentioned in writing until 988. Canute IV of Denmark, generally considered to be the last Viking king, was murdered by peasants in Odenses St Albans Priory on 10 July 1086. Although the city was burned in 1249 following a royal rivalry, in 1865, one of the largest railway terminals in Denmark was built, further increasing the population and commerce, and by 1900, Odense had reached a population of 35,000. Odenses Odinstårnet was one of the tallest towers in Europe when built in 1935 but was destroyed by the Nazis during World War II, the University of Southern Denmark was established in 1966. In the present day, Odense remains the hub of Funen. Several major industries are located in the city including the Albani Brewery and GASA, Denmarks major dealer in vegetables, fruits and flowers. In sports, Odense has a number of clubs including OB, BM, B1909, and B1913, the Odense Bulldogs professional ice hockey team. Odense is served by Hans Christian Andersen Airport and Odense station, Odense is one of Denmarks oldest cities. Archaeological excavations in the vicinity show proof of settlement for over 4,000 years since at least the Stone Age, the earliest community was centred on the higher ground between the Odense River to the south and Naesbyhoved Lake to the north. Nonnebakken, one of Denmarks former Viking ring fortresses, lay to the south of the river, today, Odenses Møntergården Museum has many artefacts related to the early Viking history in the Odense area. The Vikings built numerous fortifications along the banks to defend it against invaders coming in from the coast. The first church in Odense appears to have been St Marys, the territory, previously part of the vast Archbishopric of Hamburg, was created a Catholic diocese in 988. The first recorded bishops of Odense were Odinkar Hvide and Reginbert, recent excavations have shown that from the early 11th century, the town developed in the area around Albani Torv, Fisketorvet, Overgade and Vestergade. By 1070, Odense had already grown into a city of stature in Denmark, the priory no longer exists, although a church has been situated on the site since about 900. At the beginning of the 12th century, Benedictine monks from England founded St Canutes Abbey and it was here the English monk Ælnoth wrote Denmarks first literary work, Vita et Passio S. Canuti
2.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
3.
Runway
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According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a runway is a defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft. Runways may be a surface or a natural surface. Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally the magnetic azimuth of the heading in decadegrees. This heading differs from true north by the magnetic declination. A runway numbered 09 points east, runway 18 is south, runway 27 points west, when taking off from or landing on runway 09, a plane would be heading 90°. A runway can normally be used in both directions, and is named for each separately, e. g. runway 33 in one direction is runway 15 when used in the other. The two numbers usually differ by 18, Runway Zero Three Left becomes Runway Two One Right when used in the opposite direction. In some countries, if parallel runways are too close to each other, at large airports with four or more parallel runways some runway identifiers are shifted by 10 degrees to avoid the ambiguity that would result with more than three parallel runways. For example, in Los Angeles, this results in runways 6L, 6R, 7L. At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, there are five parallel runways, named 17L, 17C, 17R, 18L, for clarity in radio communications, each digit in the runway name is pronounced individually, runway three six, runway one four, etc. A leading zero, for example in runway zero six or runway zero one left, is included for all ICAO, however, most U. S. civil aviation airports drop the leading zero as required by FAA regulation. This also includes some military airfields such as Cairns Army Airfield and this American anomaly may lead to inconsistencies in conversations between American pilots and controllers in other countries. It is very common in a such as Canada for a controller to clear an incoming American aircraft to, for example, runway 04. In flight simulation programs those of American origin might apply U. S. usage to airports around the world, for example, runway 05 at Halifax will appear on the program as the single digit 5 rather than 05. Runway designations change over time because the magnetic poles slowly drift on the Earths surface, depending on the airport location and how much drift takes place, it may be necessary over time to change the runway designation. As runways are designated with headings rounded to the nearest 10 degrees, for example, if the magnetic heading of a runway is 233 degrees, it would be designated Runway 23. If the magnetic heading changed downwards by 5 degrees to 228, if on the other hand the original magnetic heading was 226, and the heading decreased by only 2 degrees to 224, the runway should become Runway 22. Because the drift itself is slow, runway designation changes are uncommon
4.
Asphalt
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Asphalt, also known as bitumen is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in deposits or may be a refined product. Until the 20th century, the term asphaltum was also used, the word is derived from the Ancient Greek ἄσφαλτος ásphaltos. The primary use of asphalt/bitumen is in construction, where it is used as the glue or binder mixed with aggregate particles to create asphalt concrete. Its other main uses are for bituminous waterproofing products, including production of roofing felt, the terms asphalt and bitumen are often used interchangeably to mean both natural and manufactured forms of the substance. In American English, asphalt is the carefully refined residue from the process of selected crude oils. Outside the United States, the product is often called bitumen, geologists often prefer the term bitumen. Common usage often refers to forms of asphalt/bitumen as tar. Naturally occurring asphalt/bitumen is sometimes specified by the crude bitumen. Its viscosity is similar to that of cold molasses while the material obtained from the distillation of crude oil boiling at 525 °C is sometimes referred to as refined bitumen. The Canadian province of Alberta has most of the reserves of natural bitumen, covering 142,000 square kilometres. Additionally, most natural bitumens contain organosulfur compounds, resulting in a sulfur content of up to 4%. Nickel and vanadium are found in the <10 ppm level, as is typical of some petroleum, the substance is soluble in carbon disulfide. It is commonly modelled as a colloid, with asphaltenes as the dispersed phase, and it is almost impossible to separate and identify all the different molecules of asphalt, because the number of molecules with different chemical structure is extremely large. Asphalt/bitumen can sometimes be confused with tar, which is a visually similar black. During the early and mid-20th century when town gas was produced, coal tar was a readily available byproduct, the addition of tar to macadam roads led to the word tarmac, which is now used in common parlance to refer to road-making materials. However, since the 1970s, when natural gas succeeded town gas, other examples of this confusion include the La Brea Tar Pits and the Canadian oil sands, both of which actually contain natural bitumen rather than tar. Pitch is another term used at times to refer to asphalt/bitumen
5.
Poaceae
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Poaceae or Gramineae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants known as grasses. Poaceae includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and cultivated lawns, Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath, with ca 780 genera and around 12,000 species, Poaceae are the fifth-largest plant family, following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae and Rubiaceae. Grasslands such as savannah and prairie grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40. 5% of the land area of the Earth, excluding Greenland. Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many habitats, including wetlands, forests. Though commonly called grasses, seagrasses, rushes, and sedges fall outside this family, the rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales, but the seagrasses are members of order Alismatales. The name Poaceae was given by John Hendley Barnhart in 1895, based on the tribe Poeae described in 1814 by Robert Brown, the term is derived from the Ancient Greek πόα. Grasses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms, a cladogram shows subfamilies and approximate species numbers in brackets, Before 2005, fossil findings indicated that grasses evolved around 55 million years ago. Recent findings of grass-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites have pushed this back to 66 million years ago. In 2011, revised dating of the origins of the rice tribe Oryzeae suggested a date as early as 107 to 129 Mya, a multituberculate mammal with grass-eating adaptations seems to suggest that grasses were already around at 120 mya. This separation occurred within the short time span of about 4 million years. Grass leaves are always alternate and distichous, and have parallel veins. Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem, the leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths, which discourage grazing animals, some, such as sword grass, are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called the ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath, flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets, each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes, the part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two bracts at the base, called glumes, followed by one or more florets, a floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma—and one internal—the palea. The flowers are usually hermaphroditic—maize being an important exception—and anemophilous or wind-pollinated, the perianth is reduced to two scales, called lodicules, that expand and contract to spread the lemma and palea, these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. This complex structure can be seen in the image on the right, the fruit of grasses is a caryopsis, in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall
6.
Denmark in World War II
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During most of World War II, Denmark was first a protectorate, then an occupied territory under Germany. On 9 April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark in Operation Weserübung, on 29 August 1943 Germany placed Denmark under direct military occupation, which lasted until the Allied victory on 5 May 1945. Contrary to the situation in countries under German occupation, most Danish institutions continued to function relatively normally until 1945. Just over 3,000 Danes died as a result of the occupation. Overall this represents a low mortality rate when compared to other occupied countries. An effective resistance movement developed by the end of the war, the occupation of Denmark was initially not an important objective for the German government. The decision to occupy its northern neighbor was taken to facilitate a planned invasion of the strategically more important Norway. However, as late as February 1940 no firm decision to occupy Denmark had been made, the issue was finally settled when Adolf Hitler personally crossed out the words die Nordspitze Jütlands and replaced them with Dä, a German abbreviation for Denmark. In a much more vague and longer-term way, some Nazis hoped to incorporate Denmark into a greater Nordic Union at some stage, officially Germany claimed to be protecting Denmark from a British invasion. At 4,15 on the morning of 9 April 1940, in a coordinated operation, German ships began disembarking troops at the docks in Copenhagen. Although outnumbered and poorly equipped, soldiers in parts of the country offered resistance, most notably the Royal Guard in Copenhagen. At the same time as the crossing, German planes dropped the notorious OPROP. Leaflets over Copenhagen calling for Danes to accept the German occupation peacefully, colonel Lunding from the Danish armys intelligence office later confirmed that Danish intelligence knew the attack would be coming on either 8 or 9 April and had warned the government accordingly. The Danish ambassador to Germany, Herluf Zahle, issued a warning which was also ignored. As a result of the turn of events, the Danish government did not have enough time to officially declare war on Germany. Denmark was in a position in any event, however. Its territory and population were too small to hold out against Germany for any sustained period, unlike Norway, Denmark had no mountain ranges from which a drawn-out resistance could be mounted. The flat territory of Jutland was an area for the German army to operate in
7.
Great Belt Fixed Link
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The Great Belt Fixed link is a multi-element fixed link crossing the Great Belt straight between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen. The Great Belt Bridge commonly refers to the bridge, although it may also be used to mean the box-girder bridge or the link in its entirety. The suspension bridge, officially known as the East Bridge, has the third longest main span. It was designed by the Danish engineering firms COWI and Ramboll, the link replaced the ferry service that had been the primary means of crossing the Great Belt. At an estimated cost of DKK21.4 billion, the link is the largest construction project in Danish history, operation and maintenance are performed by A/S Storebælt under Sund & Bælt. Construction and maintenance are financed by tolls on vehicles and trains, the link has reduced travel times significantly, previously taking about an hour by ferry, the Great Belt can now be crossed in about ten minutes. The construction of the link and the Øresund Bridge have together enabled driving from mainland Europe to Sweden, cyclists are not permitted to use the bridge, but cycles may be transported by train or bus. The Great Belt ferries entered service between the towns of Korsør and Nyborg in 1883, connecting the railway lines on either side of the Belt. In 1957, road traffic was moved to the Halsskov–Knudshoved route, about 1.5 kilometres to the north, construction drafts for a fixed link were presented as early as the 1850s, with several suggestions appearing in the following decades. The Danish State Railways, responsible for the service, presented plans for a bridge in 1934. The concepts of bridges over Øresund and Storebælt were calculated around 1936, in 1948, the Ministry for Public Works established a commission to investigate the implications of a fixed link. The first law concerning a fixed link was enacted in 1973, political agreement to restart work was reached in 1986, with a construction law being passed in 1987. The design was carried out by the engineering firms COWI and Ramboll together with Dissing+Weitling architecture practice, construction of the link commenced in 1988. In 1991, Finland sued Denmark at the International Court of Justice, the two countries negotiated a financial compensation of 90 million Danish kroner, and Finland withdrew the lawsuit. The link is estimated to have created a value of 379 billion DKK after 50 years of use, the construction of the fixed link became the biggest building project in the history of Denmark. The project comprised three different tasks, the East Bridge for road transport, the East Tunnel for rail transport, the construction work was carried out by Sundlink Contractors, a consortium of Skanska, Hochtief, Højgaard & Schultz and Monberg & Thorsen. The work of lifting and placing the elements was carried out by Ballast Nedam using a floating crane, built between 1991 and 1998 at a cost of US$950 million, the East Bridge is a suspension bridge between Halsskov and Sprogø. It is 6,790 metres long with a span of 1,624 metres, making it the worlds third-longest suspension bridge span, surpassed only by the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge
8.
Copenhagen Airport
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Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup is the main international airport serving Copenhagen, Denmark, the entire Zealand, the Øresund Region, and a large part of southern Sweden. It is the largest airport in the Nordic countries with 29 million passengers in 2016 and it is the third-busiest airport in Northern Europe, and by far the busiest for international travel in Scandinavia. The airport is located on the island of Amager, just 8 kilometres south of Copenhagen city centre, the airport covers an area of 11.8 square kilometres. Most of the airport is situated in the municipality of Tårnby, the airport is the main hub out of three used by Scandinavian Airlines and is also an operating base for Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia and Norwegian Air Shuttle. Copenhagen Airport handles around 60 scheduled airlines, and has a maximum operation capability of 83 operations/hour, unlike other Scandinavian airports, most of the airports passengers are international. In 2015,6. 1% of passengers travelled to and from other Danish airports,83. 5% to/from other European airports, the airport is owned by Københavns Lufthavne, which also operates Roskilde Airport. Copenhagen Airport was originally called Kastrup Airport, since it is located in the town of Kastrup. The formal name of the airport is still Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, to distinguish it from Roskilde Airport, whose name is Copenhagen Airport. The airport was inaugurated 20 April 1925 and was one of the first civil airports in the world. It consisted of a large, impressive terminal built of wood, a couple of hangars, a balloon mast, a landing stage. The grass on the runways was kept short by sheep, which were shepherded away before take-offs, from 1932 to 1939, takeoffs and landings increased from 6,000 to 50,000 and passenger number increased to 72,000. Between 1936 and 1939, a new terminal was built, considered one of the finest examples of Nordic functionalism. The terminal was designed by Vilhelm Lauritzen, who was considered a pioneer among architects, in not only of architecture and construction. In the years of World War II, the Copenhagen airport was closed for operations except for periodic flights to destinations in Sweden, Germany. In the summer of 1941 the first hard-surface runway opened and it was 1,400 metres long and 65 metres wide. When World War II ended in May 1945, the Copenhagen airport was the most modern airport in Europe. On 1 August 1947, Scandinavian Airlines was founded, an important event for the Copenhagen Airport, traffic increased rapidly in the first years Scandinavian Airlines operated. On 26 January 1947, a KLM Douglas DC-3 Dakota crashed at the airport after stopping en route to Stockholm,22 people on board died, including the Swedish prince Gustav Adolf and the American opera singer Grace Moore
9.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
10.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
11.
Chania
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Chania is the second largest city of Crete and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north coast of the island, about 70 km west of Rethymno and 145 km west of Heraklion, the official population of the municipal unit is 53,910, while the municipality has 108,642 inhabitants. This consists of the city of Chania and several towns and villages, including Kounoupidiana, Mournies, Souda, Nerokouros, Daratsos, Perivolia, Galatas. Chania is the site of the Minoan settlement the Greeks called Kydonia and it appears on Linear B as ku-do-ni-ja. Some notable archaeological evidence for the existence of this Minoan city below some parts of todays Chania was found by excavations in the district of Kasteli in the Old Town and this area appears to have been inhabited since the Neolithic era. The city reemerged after the end of the Minoan period as an important city-state in Classical Greece, the first major wave of settlers from mainland Greece was by the Dorian Greeks who came around 1100 BC. Kydonia was constantly at war with other Cretan city-states such as Aptera, Phalasarna, in 69 BC, the Roman consul Caecilius Metellus defeated the Cretans and conquered Kydonia to which he granted the privileges of an independent city-state. Kydonia reserved the right to mint its own coins until the 3rd century AD, the early Christian period under Byzantine rule and the rule of the Arabs, who called the settlement Al Hanim, are not well documented. Under the Arabs, the Christian population was persecuted and moved to the mountains, the Byzantine Empire retook the city in 961 AD. In this period the Arabic name of the city was changed into Greek Chania, byzantines began to strongly fortify the city in order to prevent another Arab invasion, using materials from the ancient buildings of the area. By this time Chania was the seat of a bishopric, which would be known under Venetian rule as Roman Catholic Diocese of La Canea, after the Fourth Crusade and the fall of Byzantium in the Hellenic area, Crete was given to Bonifacio, Marquess of Montferrat. He in turn chose to sell it to the Venetians for 100 silver marks, Chania was chosen as the seat of the Rector of the region and flourished as a significant commercial centre of a fertile agricultural region. The Venetian rule was strict and oppressive but slowly the relations between the two parts improved. Contact with Venice led to close intertwining of Cretan and Venetian cultures, without, however, the citys name became La Canea and its fortifications were strengthened, giving Chania the form that it still has today. On the other hand, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, many priests, monks and artists took refuge in Crete and reinforced the Byzantine religion, the city of Chania during the period that followed was a blend of Byzantine, Venetian, and Classical Greek cultural elements. Many of the important buildings of the town were built during this era, however, the walls did not prevent the Ottoman army from overrunning the city in 1645 after just two months siege. The Ottomans landed near the Monastery of Gonia in Kissamos, which they plundered and they seized Chania itself on 2 August 1645. Huge numbers died in the siege, later, most churches were turned into mosques
Media related to Odense Airport at Wikimedia Commons
