Candiae urbis a Turca CDDCXXXXVII obsessae delineatio auctore Nicolao Baumanno Legato primario Legioninis Illmi. Principis in Salms et Munitore

Scarce large c.18th birds eye view of Candia (Crete), now Herakleion, showing the Turkish onslaught on the Venetian city during the Cretan War published by Pierre Mortier.

The Cretan War , also known as the War of Candia or the Fifth Ottoman–Venetian War, was a conflict between the Republic of Venice and her allies (chief among them the Knights of Malta, the Papal States and France) against the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary States, because it was largely fought over the island of Crete, Venice’s largest and richest overseas possession. The war lasted from 1645 to 1669 and was fought in Crete, especially in the city of Candia, and in numerous naval engagements and raids around the Aegean Sea, with Dalmatia providing a secondary theater of operations. Although most of Crete was conquered by the Ottomans in the first few years of the war, the fortress of Candia (modern Heraklion), the capital of Crete, resisted successfully.2