Historical Museum of Crete

Heraklion, Greece

The Historical Museum of Crete was founded in 1953 and is housed in a neoclassical building of significant architectural merit. The museum’s permanent collections highlight the art and history of Crete from the 4th century AD to modern times. The collections are ordered chronologically and by subject matter, and are combined with visual material and multimedia. They include ceramics, sculptures, coins, jewellery, wall paintings, portable icons, ritual objects, manuscripts, heirlooms, weavings, the reconstructed interior of a Cretan rural home and much more.

The museum’s finest exhibits are two paintings by Doménikos Theotokópoulos, born in Crete: The Baptism of Christ (1567) and View of Mount Sinai (1570–2), the only works by the artist now on Crete. Another outstanding exhibit is a 4×4 metre mock-up of mid-17th century Chandax (Heraklion), at the time when the city reached its peak under Venetian rule. Of particular interest is the Nikos Kazantzakis Collection, featuring the study and library from the author’s home in Antibes, France, personal effects, manuscripts of his works, first editions of books in various languages, etc.

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Details

Founded: 1953
Category: Museums in Greece

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Ken Taylor (5 months ago)
A Brilliant two hours spent, Many floors of interesting information and artefacts. Almost missed the top floor, folk exhibition, Will take visitors there again
Sophie Khalil (6 months ago)
This museum gives you an overall understanding of the history of Crete. I would recommend visiting it early on in your trip, you would have a different look at Crete and all landmarks you pass through.
dio brandaddy69 (6 months ago)
Rating: 4/5 Price: 3/5 Attraction: 4/5 Entertainment: 3/5 Time: 4/5 Type of entertainment: introverted Short: -the price was 6-12, depending on your situation, I was a student so it was 6. It’s reasonable - lots of history, lots of artefacts, lots of paintings, coins and other interesting things, great for lots of diffrent people. Has an outstanding, I mean amazing, a massive model of old historic Heraklion also explains, in depth what each land mark was for, and what happened to it, they showed maps of its development and its influences. However the rest of the museum was just okay, nothing as great as that, mainly coins, uniforms, artwork to show the influences of diffrent cultures on it. However the room of guns and historic Crete living was intresting. - entertainment in the first room was very visually stimulating, with very easy to understand historic writing. However after that it was less stimulating, only because the first room was great. -30 mins-1 hour, depends how much you wanna read and interact. Details: follow the maps because it shows the museum the way it’s intended, I’m not saying this to sound silly and obvious, the museum is not in order naturally you have to take specifics routes.
tubepaiste (6 months ago)
Byzantine to more recent times! A museum featuring the island of Crete’s more modern period. Byzantine to Ottoman to WW2 A small multi level museum with rooms dedicated to specific events, time periods and artifacts. The Byzantine Icons are magnificent and some on display made their way to Crete from Russia. Beautiful pottery, currency (coins and notes), sculptures etc. Particularly impressive is the section featuring the German occupation during WW2 and the allied forces. Understandably,the heroes of the Cretan Resistance movement are given pride of place in the section. Overall, very well curated. Peter Australia
Maja Sellmer (8 months ago)
Interesting museum, provides a good overview of Cretan history. Unfortunately you have to pay extra for the audioguide, which doesn't include a lot of information not written in the exhibition
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