Two more incidents in a single Sunday have renewed concerns about abandoned and deteriorating buildings across Crete’s largest city.
Among the Venetian walls, old neighborhoods, apartment blocks and busy streets are buildings abandoned, left unfinished or allowed to deteriorate for years. Some are little more than eyesores. Others are potentially much more serious.
According to Heraklion Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning Nikos Gialitakis, about 300 properties across the municipality currently require measures to address dangerous conditions, ranging from minor interventions to major works. He stressed that owners are responsible for the safety of privately owned buildings.
Over the weekend, two more buildings collapsed. Fortunately, nobody was killed.
Two Incidents Within a Few Hours
On Sunday, September 27, sections of a balcony detached from a building in Agia Triada and fell into the street, damaging a parked motorcycle.
According to the Environmental Association of Agia Triada, the building had already been identified as dangerous. The association says it has documented 110 dangerous properties in the wider Agia Triada area, including the Bodosakeio school building.
The building involved in Sunday’s incident was reportedly abandoned and unfinished, with deterioration to its concrete structure.
Vangelis Grigorakis, president of the Environmental Association of Agia Triada, told NeaKriti that the building had been the subject of previous complaints and was among the properties for which the association had requested urgent intervention.
Another incident occurred in Poros, where part of a projecting structure detached on Argyrokastrou Street.
A Problem Older Than the Latest Falling Debris
Heraklion’s deteriorating buildings have been a recurring issue for years, particularly in older neighborhoods such as Agia Triada.
The Environmental Association says the number of dangerous properties it has identified in the area has continued to grow.
The association is proposing a permanent mechanism involving the Municipality of Heraklion and the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), with engineers responsible for systematically recording and assessing dangerous buildings across the municipality.
The idea is to create a process that runs from identification and technical assessment through planning procedures and, where necessary, enforcement.
Why Identifying a Dangerous Building Isn’t the End of the Story
Gialitakis says the municipality’s Urban Planning Service responds to reports, conducts inspections, identifies owners, and instructs them to appoint private engineers and obtain the necessary permits for repairs.
The difficulty is that the process can become complicated when buildings have multiple owners, unclear ownership arrangements or owners who say they cannot afford the required work.
The deputy mayor acknowledged that financial difficulties can be real, but said they do not remove the owner’s legal obligations to ensure that a building does not pose a danger to the public.
Another problem is that the municipality’s own service is understaffed.
So even when everyone agrees something needs to happen, getting from “this building is dangerous” to “this building has been made safe” can take much longer than anyone standing underneath it would like.
What Happens When Owners Don’t Act?
Grigorakis suggested that the municipality could eventually take responsibility for demolishing buildings considered extremely dangerous when owners fail to comply, then recover the costs and fines from the owners.
That would require the municipality to have money available upfront — essentially a revolving fund that could finance emergency demolitions and then be replenished when costs are recovered.
It is a proposal from the association, not an announced municipal program.
Weather Worsens the Problem
Rain, strong winds and other weather events can accelerate deterioration or cause already-loose elements to detach.
The municipality says this is one reason owners need to deal with dangerous structures before something happens.
That is particularly relevant as Crete moves into its wetter months.
A loose piece of plaster is one thing, a balcony section falling onto a pavement is something else entirely. Neither pedestrians nor tourists generally have the luxury of knowing which building has already been inspected.
This is not simply a local property dispute.
Heraklion is a working city and a major tourist destination. Visitors walk through its older neighborhoods, explore the historic center, visit restaurants and shops, photograph old buildings, and move between archaeological attractions on foot.
Some of the city’s most interesting parts are also among the oldest, which creates a practical tourism issue.
A beautiful old building and a dangerous old building can look remarkably similar from the pavement.
Tourists are unlikely to know which properties have been inspected, which have been declared dangerous or which owners have been instructed to carry out repairs.
That doesn’t mean visitors should walk around Heraklion looking nervously upward.
It does mean that when a city has hundreds of properties requiring safety interventions, building maintenance becomes part of the visitor experience whether anyone puts it in the tourism strategy or not.
Heraklion’s Old Buildings Are Also Part of Its Identity
Heraklion’s older neighborhoods contain architectural, social, and cultural history that contributes to the city’s character. Some buildings may be suitable for restoration, reuse or structural rehabilitation.
But preservation and public safety have to coexist. An old building worth saving still needs to be made safe.
And an abandoned structure that has already begun dropping pieces onto the street cannot be preserved by simply putting a nice description of its history on a tourism website.
Heraklion’s historic buildings are part of what makes the city worth visiting. Keeping them standing — and keeping the streets beneath them safe — should therefore be treated as two parts of the same job.