HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF CRETE

The Historical Archive of Crete is one of the first archiving services of Greece. It was founded in Chania in 1920, with the initiative of the General Governor of Crete; today it is a public inter-prefecture service, a decentralized department of the General Archives of the State and it is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education.

It includes approximately 1.000.000 historical documents. Great historical collections, as the official correspondence during the Cretan Revolution, many private collections of Rebels and other distinguished individuals, the archives of Cretan Fighters, the archives of the Turkish Administration in Crete, of the Central Translation Office of Crete, of the Cretan Government from German Occupation, are all included in the Archive. Together with the archival material that it possesses, the Historical Archive of Crete has created a historical and folklore department. In the first room of the museum department, personal souvenirs of the ethnarch Eleftherios Venizelos are exposed.

There are rooms dedicated to the Cretan Fights, the Cretan State, the Battle of Crete and the Resistance of the Cretan people. In addition, the folklore department offers the visitor, the opportunity to see a representation of a typical Cretan house (loom, furniture, embroideries, handicrafts, etc.). Aim and mission of the Archive is the meditation, rescue, classification and protection of every kind of archives and heirlooms that concern the History of Crete, as well as to make them available, without restrictions, to researchers, students and visitors.

Address: 20 Ι. Sfakianaki Street
Tel. – Fax: +30 28210 52606
E-Mail: [email protected]