Ruga Magistra was called the main street crossing the city from North to South, connecting the port to the southern city gate (Porta Maestra, Portone and later Voltone). It coincides to the modern street “of the Martyrs of the 25^th of August”, preserving the original plan and wideness. Along the street the initial urban and administrative center of the Venetian city was developed.

As one entered the city through the impressive southern gate, he first confronted the Piazza dei Signiori, the Square of the Lords, which extended up to the modern Square of the Kallergis Familly, surrounded by the most important public buildings, according to the archetype of the Piazza di San Marco in Venice; i.e. the Palace of the Duke, the ducal church of St. Marc, the Palace of the General Curator (Proveditore Generale), the Palace of the General of the Army (Capitan Grande) and the Club of the Noblemen.

To the West, the central square communicated to a secondary square, which was opened between the Ducal Palace to the North and the Warehouse of the Cereals to the South, after which it was named Piazza delle Biade (Square of the Cereals). Actually it is called Eleutherios Venizelos Square. In its center it is preserved the luxurious fountain constructed by the General Curator Francesco Morosini in 1628.

The most important building of administrative purpose, the Palace of the Duce, which occupied the whole block to the West of the Square of the Lords and to the North of the Square of the Cereals is not preserved.

At the eastern side of the Piazza dei Signiori is still standing the three-aisled basilica dedicated to St. Marc which covered the religious nees of the Duke and the Venetian dignitaries.

In the NE corner of the same square was built between 1626 and 1628 the forth in row building of the Venetian Club (Loggia) and the adjacent Warehouse of the Armory (Armeria), which today, fully reconstructed, hosts the Town Hall of the modern city. To the East of the Armeria was the Palace of the Capitan Grande and in the NW corner of the Ruga Maistra, opposite to the Ducal Palace, was the Palace of the General Curator. To the North of the Armeria was, as it is the case today, the church of St. Titus, which hosted the Latin Archdiocese. To the opposite side of the main street was the small church of St. Rocco.

Along the rest of the Ruga Maistra towards the port were situated the luxurious mansions of the noblemen, the wealthy citizens and the dignitaries. Of them none has survived, but the splendid door frame of the Venetian mansion in the modern Epimenidou str, which in the 19^th c. was inhabited by a physician named Ittar. The doorframe was transferred and embedded in the interior of the basilica of St. Marc.

The main street ended up in front of the gate of the Mole, which led to the NW breakwater, and which probably existed from the middle byzantine period. To the eastern side of the street’s end was later opened the gate that led to the western arsenal compartment.

The function of the Ruga Maistra was considerably altered after the Fall of Candia to the Ottomans in 1669. A series of tiny stores, usually improvised alterations of the former luxurious mansions, minarets in the place of the tower-form belfries and buildings of Ottoman aesthetics formed the picture of the street.

The luxurious Venetian mansions were occupied by the Ottoman dignitaries, as the Admiral Kaplan Mustafa Pasha, the chief of the army Ankebut Ahmed Pasha or the kâhya (commissioner) of Köprülü Fazil Ahmed Pasha, Ibrahim Pasha, to whom the mansions were granted according to the traveller Evliya Celebi.

But even if some of the Venetian mansions of the Ruga Maistra managed to survive with alterations until the early 19^th c., it is extremely doubtful that it was anything left from the devastating impact of the two strong earthquakes, of 1810 and 1856, that ruined almost every large public building of this street. The catastrophy was completed in the 25^th of August of 1898, day of the feast of St. Titus. The bloody events that followed the revolt of the irregular Turkish troops (başıbozuk) during the passing over of the Customs to the Christian citizen of Heraklion Stylianos Alexiou, the massacre of the Christians, the plundering and the conflagration which destroyed all the buildings of this historical street had a decisive impact on the course towards the independancy of the island. The events of the 25^th of August 1898, the general outcry, but perhaps even more the killing of the 18 English guards, forced the Four Great Powers (England, France, Italy and Russia) to recognize the island’s autonomy, which ended the 220 years of Ottoman occupation.

Aiming to extinguish every memory of the Ottoman past, the main street of the city, which was renamed in honor of the Martyrs of the 25^th of August, should give to the visitor coming from the port the impression of a modern city. The fraud scenery, with the luxurious neoclassic mansions constructed on the ashes, was accurately described by the nomination given by the locals; “the street of delusion”.