CHANIA - MUSEUMS

The Archaeological Museum of Chania

(30, Chalidon street)
Housed in the building of that once was the catholicon of the Monastery of Aghios Fragkiskos, built in the 16th century. The museum houses a great collection of findings discovered in the wider area and date back from the Neolithic until the Roman era. It offers findings of the Minoan period and inscriptions of Linear A and B. The exhibition comprises of statues dating back to the Classic period as well. There is also an interesting collection of mosaics dating back to the Roman period and the early Post-Christian years and representing Dionysus, Ariadni, the town of Chania, the liberation of Nymph Amymone by Poseidon among others.

The Byzantine Museum of Chania

(82, Theotokopoulou street)
Exhibits excavation findings as well as collections and items donated by private individuals dating back from the Paleochristian years until the Turkish occupation. The exhibits are organized in sections and each section is part of a chronological order and includes mosaics, frescos, images, ceramics and other items. The museum intends to present the historical and artistic course of the Prefecture of Chania during the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine years.

The Maritime Museum of Chania

Housed in the Firka building (1629), which has been renovated, in Topana quarter, Kontourioti coast. Its collection comprises various representative exhibits of the Greek maritime history and tradition, which are classified in sections covering the Copper Era until the present times. Among these, you will see models of ships of all periods, items recovered from the seabed, maritime instruments and navigational accessories, maritime maps, paintings and photographs as well as a shell collection.

The Museum of History

(20, Sfakianaki street)
Founded in 1932, it is housed in a two-story neoclassical building. The Historical Archive comprises 6,500 books as well as a wide range of historical documents, such as the archives of the Turkish administration of Crete and the ones of the Cretan State or the private correspondence of Eleftherios Venizelos. It is probably the second richest collection of archives, the first being that of the State General Archives of Greece.

Private Folklore Museum

(46b, Chalidon street)
The museum is housed in a room of the Municipal library, the entrance of which is located in the precinct of the Catholic Church of Chania. Its collection comprises popular art and tradition exhibits that give visitors the possibility to discover the life of the island during the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as a remarkable collection of laces and embroideries.

The Public Chemical Laboratory of Chania

(34c, Eleftheriou Venizelou street)
Established in 1830, it was the first official laboratory carrying out analyses of food and products in Greece and it was equipped with the finest instruments of that period. The Chemistry Museum, nowadays housed in the building of the General Chemical State Laboratory of Greece because its original facilities where destroyed during the World War II bombings, provides an accurate representation of the Public Chemical Laboratory facilities in the beginning of the century, including working surfaces, glass containers, explanatory tables as well as photographs taken from the manuals of that period.