MUSEUM
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Building
The neoclassical listed building that forms the oldest wing of the Historical Museum of Crete was originally the mansion of Andreas Lysimachos Kalokerinos, constructed in 1903 to plans by architect Konstantinos Tsantirakis. The murals with scenes from the Iliad and Odyssey are by Antonios Stefanopoulos, “decorator of the Quellenec House in Athens”.
The site had previously been occupied by the Kalokerinos family home, built in 1870 by architect Lysandros Kaftantzoglou, which was burnt down during the events of 25th August 1898. The victims included Lysimachos A. Kalokerinos and other family members.
In the 1970s the Museum was expanded via a new wing funded by the A. & M. Kalokerinos Foundation, in an undertaking that combined modern and neoclassical architecture. The wing was supplemented in the early 1990s with the addition of a further floor, and completed in May 2004 when the Temporary Exhibition Rooms and Yannis Pertselakis Amphitheatre were set up, with funding from the A. &. M. Kalokerinos Foundation and the Crete Regional Operational Programme.
Indoor exhibition space in the Museum currently stands at 1500m2, divided into 25 areas that cover seventeen centuries of history. The Museum also has a shop and a café.
