Hania is built on the site of the ancient city of Kydonia. This site was inhabited from Neolithic times and through all phases of the Minoan Period. Kydonia developed into a very important center of the Minoan civilization and it was famous for its pottery workshops. During the Roman period Kydonia was an important city. Kydonia was destroyed in 828 AD by the Saracene pirates. During the Byzantine period Hania ceased to be an important city. When the Venetians came they settled in Kastelli, the hill which commands the harbor, and they fortified it. They built there their cathedral, Santa Maria, as well as a palace, theatre and houses for their nobility. The city flourished as an economical and intellectual center. The fear of a Turkish invasion forced the Venetians to enclose the entire town with a wall and a moat. In 1645 the Turks occupied Hania after a two months siege. In 1850 they transferred the capital of the island there. With the liberation of Crete from the Turks, in 1897, Hania became the capital of the autonomous Cretan State. In 1913, along with the rest of Crete, it was united with the rest of the Greek State. Hania was the birth place of one of the greatest statesman of the new Hellenic Republic, Eleftherios Venizelos. Venizelos' influence on the history of Greece was paramount, from his participation to the talks with the Ottomans that resulted to granting Crete independence in 1897, to the final union of Crete with Greece in 1913.