Heraklion Archaeological Museum

A collection

The museum began in 1883 as a simple collection of antiquities

The museum began in 1883 as a simple collection of antiquities, about the time the Minoan civilization was beginning to be rediscovered. A dedicated building was constructed from 1904 to 1912 at the instigation of two Cretan archaeologists, Iosif Hatzidakis and Stefanos Xanthoudidis.

Earthquakes

Three earthquakes nearly brought the first building down

After three destructive earthquakes in 1926, 1930 and 1935, the museum nearly collapsed. Its director, Spyridon Marinatos, argued for a new building. It has withstood both natural disasters and the bombing that accompanied the German invasion in 1941.

The building

The antiseismic building was awarded a Bauhaus commendation

It was built between 1937 and 1940 by the architect Patroklos Karantinos, on a site that had held a Roman Catholic monastery. Light comes from skylights above and along the top of the walls, and the veined polychrome marbles recall Minoan wall-paintings.

The finds

The collection covers over 5,500 years, from Neolithic to Roman times

The museum holds the great majority of the finds from the Minoan palace at Knossos and other Minoan sites in Crete. It houses artifacts from all periods of Cretan prehistory and history, from the Neolithic period to Roman times.

5,500years of Cretan prehistory and history on show

Rooms

Rooms hold the Phaistos Disc, snake goddess figures and a bull's head rhyton

Room III holds the Phaistos Disc. Room IV has the bull's head rhyton from Knossos and snake goddess figurines. Room VII has the Harvester Vase, and the Hall of the Frescoes, Room XIV, holds the Hagia Triada sarcophagus.