The site is more Jewish than hitherto assumed...
The structure of Etz Hayyim is of some interest and more complicated than initially meets the eye. Evidence has been found to indicate that the site is more Jewish than hitherto assumed. Depending on Gerola's assertion that a Venetian church existed in this quarter and the presence of powerful gothic arches, a carved oculus in the main pediment, and the holy water stoup, all datable to the mid 14th century when the Venetians began to build aggressively in Hania, it has been assumed that it is a Christian church converted to Jewish use. This assumption gave rise to several delays considering the manner in which the project was to evolve.

When the roof began to collapse...
After the earthquake of 1995 when the roof began to collapse, its tie beams asserted a powerful pressure on the walls pushing them outward, Several large seams opened up on the northeast corner, on the interior as well as exterior. The pediment lost balance and tilted into the street some 12 cms and the Venetian piers became separated from the walls, It was only after removing all of the plaster on the interior and the removal of the roof that we were able to link evidence together into a more complicated story than we had been given to believe. The roof was a complex affair consisting of an initial layer of planks over the beams. On this had been laid red earth and over this were set heavy stones, most of them broken lintels, door sills and window frames. They bore individually the signs of heavy damage, Over these stones a fill of soil and broken pottery, tiles, and rubble had been laid. It was over this that the sealing of the roof was done with a fine coat of cement. The weight of the ensemble was enormous and the cause of the pressure on the walls eventually near disastrous. The roof beams had been set between the Venetian arches and piers and the walls proper, and under pressure these were being pushed out into the street and courtyard. Once the roof was removed tests were made on the walls and it was found that they were all made in manner consistent with work in Hania of the 17th century, In the centre of the east wall, just behind the stone support of the Ehalwe found evidence of a large entrance door that had lost its lintel and side supports. In two areas we dug deeply in order to find the supports of the piers, which were found some 80 cms, beneath the present floor. Between the latter and the base of the piers was a rubble fill made up of roof tiles, broken fragments of lintels and sills. It was obvious that great changes had taken place to the original 14th century Venetian structure prior to its being acquired by the Jews of Hania in the 17th century. The cause could be easily deduced.

The two Ottoman iron cannon balls...
In early 15th century the Ottomans began seriously to apply themselves to the conquest of Crete. Several expeditions were sent out under Sultan Suleiman led by Khair ad-Din the Kapidan Pasha, a Chiote Greek who had become a Muslim and risen to the post of Chief Admiral of the Ottoman fleet He is also known as Barbarossa. In addition to seizing Palaeohora and the valley of Selinos to the south he heavily bombarded Hania on several occasions, and it was in the course of digging in the rubble of the south courtyard that we found two Ottoman iron cannon balls of a weight used conveniently by corsairs. One was found embedded deep in a pier, the other found in the outer street wall. The ruined and broken character of the piers now became explicable. Undoubtedly the arches and piers are those of a Venetian church but a church that had suffered heavy bombardment and then been left abandoned to the elements without a roof. This would explain its absence on any maps of Hania dating from this period. Sometime after the Ottoman conquest of Hania a century after Barabarossa the site was acquired by the nearby Jewish community and significant changes made. The floor level was filled in with broken rubble from the site, the curtain walls were added encapsulating the Venetian piers and arches, and a low arch was constructed on the west wall to sever the building from the remaining ruins behind it It was in between the place where the newly built outer walls met the older (and severely damaged) piers that the roof beams were inserted and then covered with additional rubble from the site. The weight of the rubble plus the error of inserting the support beams in structurally weak areas resulted in continuous pressure that eventually threatened to bring the -entire structure down.