Green Light from the Ministry of Culture for Old Electric – Alexis Kalokairinos Coastal Zone Project

• Ministry of Culture approved the environmental study for the Old Electric – Alexis Kalokairinos coast project in Heraklion.
• Scheduled works include the construction of new urban beaches and the defence of historic sea walls.
• City, regional, and archaeological leaders finally broke the approval stalemate.
• Funding is bundled with the restoration of the Neoria warehouse and local square upgrades.
• Bureaucratic delays, especially with the coastal engineering report, took years to untangle.
• Archaeological investigations and repairs to Venetian walls start before beach construction.
• The project will connect the area from Neoria almost to Saint Andrew’s Bastion.

Heraklion’s coast, where crumbling walls meet sunbathers with nowhere to sit, stares down a major facelift. After years of paperwork and inventive Greek handwaving, the Ministry of Culture nodded in approval of the environmental impact plan for the Old Electric – Alexis Kalokairinos project. This 5-million-euro doozy is part of the city’s grand vision: mixing heritage protection with splashy upgrades.

The project combines the preservation of sea wall relics with the construction of two urban beaches at Agia Triada’s end. For once, council meetings look less like endless reruns and more like progress. This was all after a high-stakes meeting at the Central Archaeological Council, with the mayor and his technical team ensuring everyone understood just how overdue it was to dig into some sand.

Heraklion’s Antibiotic for Erosion

The plan covers much more than saving old rocks from salty doom. With the recent nod, this piece of Heraklion’s coastline might finally escape the grip of both waves and endless paperwork. Paired with funding for the iconic Neoria warehouses and a total makeover of the 18 Anglon square, the blueprint looks almost ambitious (or possibly delusional, depending on who’s counting).

For years, the Old Electric – Alexis Kalokairinos anti-erosion talk fizzled at the stage where engineers say, “Someone should do something about this.” The project stalled on a coastal engineering report most people would call “preposterously complicated.” In July 2025, this hurdle finally shrank, just in time to meet dozens of other yeses from approval offices. With the Central Archaeological Council’s official sigh of relief, two main bureaucratic monstrosities finally fell.

When the dust of paperwork settles, archaeologists will step in. Restoration and shoring up of the Venetian sea walls come first—another chunk of the city’s old defences, this time with a 2.3 million euro price tag. All this rolls under Heraklion’s Urban Strategy and the “Crete 2021-2027” program, so prep those sandals and selfie sticks.