Historical Archive of Crete

The Historical Archive of Crete constitutes one of the fisrt arcieving services of Greece. It was founded in Chania in 1920, after the decission of the General Governor of Crete; today is a public inter-prefecture service, a decentralized department of the General Archives of the State and 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It includes approximately 1.000.000 historical documents.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 persons, 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 included in the Archive. Together with the archival material that maintains, the Historical Archive of Crete has created a historical and folklore department. In the first room of the museum department are exposed personal souvenirs of the ethnarch El. Venizelos (the office and his chair, his armchair, his printing press and the stamps of Movement of Therisos, documents and photographs, his pistol, various publications, ect.).

There are rooms dedicated to the Cretan Fights, to the Cretan State, to the Battle of Crete and the Resistance of Cretan people. Also, the folklore department provides to the visitor a representation of Cretan house (loom, furnitures, embroideries, handycrafts, etc.). Aim and mission of the Archive is the meditation, rescue, classification and protection of all nature of archives and heirlooms that concern the History of Crete, which are available, without restrictions, for researchers, students and visitors.