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The most complete historical museum of Crete is to be found in Heraklion.
It houses exhibits dating from the Early Christian years up until the 20th century. It was founded by the Society of Cretan Historical Studies in a neoclassical building donated by the Kalokerinos family.
The museum is located on the coastal zone, west of the Venetian harbour. Apart from the neoclassical building in which the older collections are kept, a new wing has been added to it for the coverage of its functional needs.
On the first level of the old building one can see important Early Christian, Byzantine and Venetian sculptures, inscriptions, funerary steles, etc.
The history of the city of Heraklion is displayed in the big hall of the ground floor, in a very interesting way. A large model of the Venetian period city, accompanied by various related objects and exhibits, give visitors a charming and full picture of the history of Heraklion, especially of how it was in the period just before the Turkish invasion in 1669.
Important objects, uniforms and traditional costumes, icons, ecclesiastical vessels and relics from different periods of the history of Crete are exhibited in the rooms of the second level of the museum.
An early painting of Domenicos Theotokopoulos (El Greco) named “View of Mount Sinai”, the only piece of his work to be found in Crete, is exhibited in a specially transformed room.
Wonderful collections of Cretan weaving as well as collections of maps and photographic material are to be found on the third level of the museum. A representation of the Cretan traditional house with full essential equipment (loom, bed, fireplace, hand mill, weavings, etc) is to be found in a specially transformed room.
On the same level there is a hall dedicated to the author Nikos Kazantzakis, which includes some of his manuscripts as well as a lot of his personal objects.
Museum
Background
Σοφοκλή Βενιζέλου 27 / Λυσιμάχου Καλοκαιρινού 7 71202 Ηράκλειο, Κρήτη
April 1st – October 27th
Monday – Sunday: 09:00 – 17:00
Holidays: Closed
October 29th – March 31st
Monday – Friday: 09:00 – 15:30
Saturday: 10:00 – 16:00
Sunday – Holidays: Closed
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