Chalepas Street, the main road outside the walls, now El. Venizelos, starting to the east of Chania, was a well-kept road with blue acacia trees from the gardens of the Georgioupolis Agricultural Society. He ended up in this rich aristocratic suburb and resort of the wealthy Chania residents, Chalepa, which was like a small annex of Europe.

In Chalepa there were luxurious and beautiful buildings, as well as the consulates of the Great Powers. And also the school of San Joseph, where the nuns taught French and good manners to rich girls, and the elegant chapel of St. Mary Magdalene in the blooming gardens.

This was also the residence of the High Commissioner, who, at the beginning of the century, came into conflict with Venizelos and dismissed him as Councillor of Justice in March 1901. After the Therissos Movement of 1905, in which Venizelos, as is well known, took the lead, Prince George was forced to leave Crete one night in 1906 from the coast of Tabakaria.

In an old newspaper it is said: ‘The walk to Chalepa is the best thing. Here new and gardened mansions, with the vast sea as a courtyard. Here, too, the prince’s elegant palace. Closed. Perhaps a gardener might once set foot in the orchard to tend the orange trees and a few flowers. Next door, almost adjacent, is the house of Venizelos. They are sullenly silent towards each other. The moon pours out her pale light from above. From a small hill the same shows the deserted shore, where a ruler with a night-light was driving the dock of his exile… Chalepa, European in all its qualities, European houses, European consulates, European clubs and European villas. Everything one could wish for in an ideal stay is to be found in Chalepan, greenery and beaches. The former predominates all around in the graceful houses. The second manifests itself in the noise of its waves and the lullaby of its flutes. Blessed is the man who lives in Crete and sits in Chalepa…’.