Crete
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1. Firka
Museum/GalleryJust across the narrow channel from the lighthouse, where a chain was connected in times of peril to close the harbor, is the old Turkish prison, which now houses the Maritime Museum of Crete. Exhibits, more riveting than might be expected, trace the island's seafaring history from the time of the Minoans, with a reproduction of an Athenian trireme, amphora from Roman shipwrecks, Ottoman weaponry, and other relics. Look for the photos and mementos from the World War II Battle of Crete, when Allied forces moved across the island and, with the help of Cretans, ousted the German occupiers. Much of the fighting centered on Chania, and great swaths of the city were destroyed during the war. Almost worth the price of admission alone is the opportunity to walk along the Firka's ramparts for bracing views of the city, sea, and mountains.
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2. Heraklion Archaeological Museum
Museum/GalleryStanding in a class of its own, this museum guards practically all of the Minoan treasures uncovered in the legendary excavations of the Palace of Knossos and other monuments of Minoan civilization. These amazing artifacts, many 3,000 years old, were brought to light in 20th-century excavations by famed British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans and are shown off in handsome modern galleries. It's best to visit the museum first thing in the morning, before the tour buses arrive, or in late afternoon, once they pull away. Top treasures include the famous seal stones, many inscribed with Linear B script, discovered and deciphered by Evans around the turn of the 20th century. The most stunning and mysterious seal stone is the so-called Phaistos Disk, found at Phaistos Palace in the south, its purpose unknown. (Linear B script is now recognized as an early form of Greek, but the earlier Linear A script that appears on clay tablets and that of the Phaistos Disk have yet to be deciphered.)Perhaps the most arresting exhibits, though, are the sophisticated frescoes, restored fragments of which were found in Knossos. They depict broad-shouldered, slim-waisted youths, their large eyes fixed with an enigmatic expression on the Prince of the Lilies; ritual processions and scenes from the bullring, with young men and women somersaulting over the back of a charging bull; and groups of court ladies, whose flounced skirts led a French archaeologist to exclaim in surprise, "Des Parisiennes!," a name still applied to this striking fresco.Even before great palaces with frescoes were being built around 1900 BC, the prehistoric Cretans excelled at metalworking and carving stone vases, and they were also skilled at producing pottery, such as the eggshell-thin Kamares ware decorated in delicate abstract designs. Other specialties were miniature work such as the superbly crafted jewelry and the colored seal stones that are carved with lively scenes of people and animals. Though naturalism and an air of informality distinguish much Minoan art from that of contemporary Bronze Age cultures elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean, you can also see a number of heavy rococo set pieces, such as the fruit stand with a toothed rim and the punch bowl with appliquéd flowers.The Minoans' talents at modeling in stone, ivory, and a kind of glass paste known as faience peaked in the later palace period (1700–1450 BC). A famous rhyton, a vase for pouring libations, carved from dark serpentine in the shape of a bull's head, has eyes made of red jasper and clear rock crystal with horns of gilded wood. An ivory acrobat—perhaps a bull-leaper—and two bare-breasted faience goddesses in flounced skirts holding wriggling snakes were among a group of treasures hidden beneath the floor of a storeroom at Knossos. Bull-leaping, whether a religious rite or a favorite sport, inspired some of the most memorable images in Minoan art. Note, also, the three vases, probably originally covered in gold leaf, from Ayia Triada that are carved with scenes of Minoan life thought to be rendered by artists from Knossos: boxing contests, a harvest-home ceremony, and a Minoan official taking delivery of a consignment of hides. The most stunning rhyton of all, from Zakro, is made of rock crystal.
View Tours and ActivitiesXanthoudidou and Hatzidaki, Heraklion, Crete, 71202, Greece28102-24630Sight Details
Rate Includes: €10; combined ticket for museum and Palace of Knossos €16 -
3. Historical Museum of Crete
Museum/GalleryAn imposing mansion houses a varied collection of Early Christian and Byzantine sculptures, Venetian and Ottoman stonework, artifacts of war, and rustic folklife items. The museum provides a wonderful introduction to Cretan culture, and is the only place in Crete to display the work of famed native son El Greco (Domenikos Theotocopoulos), who left the island—then part of the Venetian Republic—for Italy and then Spain around 1567; his Baptism of Christ and View of Mount Sinai and the Monastery of St. Catherine hang amid frescoes, icons, and other Byzantine pieces. Upon entering, look out for the Lion of St. Mark sculpture, with an inscription that says in Latin "I protect the kingdom of Crete." Left of the entrance is a room stuffed with memorabilia from Crete's bloody revolutionary past: weapons, portraits of mustachioed warrior chieftains, and the flag of the short-lived independent Cretan state set up in 1898. The 19th-century banner in front of the staircase sums up the spirit of Cretan rebellion against the Turks: eleftheria o thanatos ("Freedom or Death"). A small section is dedicated to World War II and the German invasion of 1941. Upstairs, look in on a room arranged as the study of Crete's most famous writer, Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957), the author of Zorba the Greek and an epic poem, The Odyssey, a Modern Sequel; he was born in Heraklion and is buried here, just inside the section of the walls known as the Martinengo. The top floor contains a stunning collection of Cretan textiles, including the brilliant scarlet weavings typical of the island's traditional handwork, and another room arranged as a domestic interior of the early 1900s.
Sofokli Venizelou 27, Heraklion, Crete, 71202, Greece28102-83219Sight Details
Rate Includes: €5, Closed Sun. -
4. Samaria Gorge
CanyonSouth of Chania a deep, verdant crevice extends 16 km (10 miles) from near the village of Xyloskalo to the Libyan Sea. The landscape of forest, sheer rock faces, and running streams, inhabited by the elusive and endangered kri-kri (wild goat) is magnificent. The Samaria, protected as a national park, is the most traveled of the dozens of gorges that cut through Crete's mountains and emerge at the sea, but the walk through the canyon, in places only a few feet wide and almost 2,000 feet deep, is thrilling nonetheless. Reckon on five to six hours of downhill walking with a welcome reward of a swim at the end. Buses depart the central bus station in Chania at 7:30 and 8:30 am for Xyloskalo. Boats leave in the afternoon (5:30) from Ayia Roumeli, the mouth of the gorge, where it's an hour-long scenic sail to Hora Sfakion, from where buses return to Chania. Travel agents also arrange day trips to the gorge. Also from Chania, a couple of extremely scenic routes head south across the craggy White Mountains to the isolated Libyan Sea villages of Paleochora, the main resort of the southwest coast, and Souyia, a pleasant collection of whitewashed houses facing a long beach. Much of this section of the coast, including the village of Loutro, is accessible only by boat or by a seaside path.
View Tours and ActivitiesSamaria, Crete, 73005, Greece28-2104–5570Sight Details
Rate Includes: €5 entrance to National Park, Closed Oct. 15–May 1 -
5. Ayia Aikaterina
Religious Building/Site/ShrineNestled in the shadow of the Ayios Minas cathedral is one of Crete's most attractive small churches, named for St. Katherine and built in 1555. The church now houses a museum of icons by Cretan artists, who often traveled to Venice to study with Italian Renaissance painters. Look for six icons by Michael Damaskinos, who worked in both Byzantine and Renaissance styles during the 16th century. Crete's most famous artist, Domenikos Theotocopoulos, better known as El Greco, studied at the monastery school attached to the church in the mid-16th century.
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6. Ayia Triada
Religious Building/Site/ShrineLands at the northeast corner of the Akrotiri Peninsula, which extends into the sea from the east side of Chania, are the holdings of several monasteries, including Ayia Triada (Holy Trinity) or Tzagarolon, as it is also known. The olive groves that surround and finance the monastery yield excellent oils, and the shop is stocked with some of the island's finest. Ayia Triada is a delightful place, where you can visit the flower-filled cloisters and the ornately decorated chapel, which dates from the monastery's founding in 1611. Today, just a handful of monks remain.
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7. Ayios Markos
Religious Building/Site/ShrineThis 13th-century church is named for Venice's patron saint, but, with its modern portico and narrow interior, it bears little resemblance to its grand namesake in Venice. Concerts and recitals are often staged in the afternoons.
Platia Eleftheriou Venizelou, Heraklion, Crete, 71202, GreeceSight Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. -
8. Ayios Minas
Religious Building/Site/ShrineThis huge, lofty cathedral, dating from 1895, can hold up to 8,000 worshippers, but is most lively on November 11, when Heraklion celebrates the feast of Minas, a 4th-century Roman soldier-turned-Christian. Legend has it that on Easter Sunday 1826 a ghostly Minas reappeared on horseback and dispersed a Turkish mob ready to slay the city's Orthodox faithful. Curiously, few of Heraklion's inhabitants are named after Minas, which is unusual for a city's patron saint. The reason is that many years ago babies born out of wedlock were left on the steps of the church, and were named Minas by the clergy who took these children in and cared for them. Thus, the name Minas came to be associated with illegitimacy.
Kyrillou Loukareos, Heraklion, Crete, 71201, Greece -
9. Ayios Titos
Religious Building/Site/ShrineA chapel to the left of the entrance contains St. Tito's skull, set in a silver-and-gilt reliquary. Titus is credited with converting the islanders to Christianity in the 1st century AD on the instructions of St. Paul. Ayios Titos was founded in the 10th century, rebuilt as a mosque under Turkish rule in the 19th century, and rededicated as a church in the 1920s, when the minaret was removed.
Set back from Avgoustou 25, Heraklion, Crete, 71202, Greece -
10. Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Collection of Chania
Museum/GalleryYou'll get some insight into the Venetian occupation and the Christian centuries that preceded it at this small museum housed in the charming 15th-century church of San Salvadore alongside the city walls just behind the Firka. Mosaics, icons, coins, and other artifacts bring to life Cretan civilization as it was after the Roman Empire colonized the island and Christianity took root as early as the 1st century.
Theotokopoulou 78–82, Chania, Crete, 73131, Greece28210-96046Sight Details
Rate Includes: €2, Closed Mon -
11. Cretan House
Museum/GalleryChania's colorful folklife museum is bursting at the seams with farm equipment, tools, household items, wedding garb, and a wealth of other material reflecting the island's traditional heritage.
Chalidron 46, Chania, Crete, 73100, Greece28-2109–0816Sight Details
Rate Includes: €2, Closed Sun -
12. Etz Hayyim Synagogue
Religious Building/Site/ShrineThis ancient landmark is tucked away in what was once the Jewish ghetto, a warren of narrow lanes known as Evraki, just off the harbor south of the Firka. The building was formerly the Venetian church of St. Catherine, became a synagogue under the Ottomans in the 16th century, and was sorely neglected and near collapse by the end of the 20th century. Venetian Gothic arches, a mikveh (ritual bath), tombs of three rabbis, and other architectural features have been beautifully restored and are a stirring memorial to Crete's once sizable Jewish population, obliterated during World War II; many Cretan Jews drowned when a British torpedo sank the ship carrying them toward Auschwitz in 1944.
Parodos Kondylaki, Chania, Crete, 73100, Greece28210-86286Sight Details
Rate Includes: Closed weekends -
13. Folk Museum
Museum/GalleryThis interesting little museum showcases exquisite weavings and embroidered pieces, along with walking sticks, tools, and other artifacts from everyday rural life in Crete.
Kondylaki 2, Ayios Nikolaos, Crete, 72100, Greece28410-25093Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Closed Nov.–Apr. -
14. Gouvernetou
Religious Building/Site/ShrineThis 16th-century, Venetian-era monastery on the north end of the Akrotiri Peninsula is said to be one of the oldest and largest remaining religious communities on Crete. Delightful frescoes cover the wall of the courtyard chapel, while a path leads down the flanks of a seaside ravine past several caves used as hermitages and churches to the remote, 11th-century Katholiko, the monastery of St. John the Hermit, who pursued his solitary life in a nearby cave. Follow the path down to the sea along a riverbank for another mile or so to a secluded cove that is the perfect place for a refreshing dip. The return walk requires a steep uphill climb.
Stavros, Crete, 73100, Greece28430-63319Sight Details
Rate Includes: Closed Wed. and Fri -
15. Janissaries Mosque
Religious Building/Site/ShrineKastelli Hill creates a backdrop to the Janissaries Mosque, the oldest Ottoman building in Crete, built at the water's edge when Turks captured the town in 1645 after a two-month siege. Its back courtyard, once home to a garden of palm trees, and its minaret were both bombed and destroyed during the Nazi occupation. You can enter the building only when the town uses it to host temporary art and trade exhibitions, but the presence of the domed structure at the edge of the shimmering sea lends Chania part of its exotic aura.
Chania, Crete, 73100, Greece -
16. Kastelli Hill
RuinsThe hill where the Venetians first settled rises above the east end of the harbor and it became the quarter of the local nobility. Their palaces, now partially in ruin from neglect and World War II bombings, still line the ridge above the harbor. Kastelli had been occupied much earlier; the Minoan city of Cydonia was sited here.
Chania, Crete, 73100, Greece -
17. Loggia
Notable BuildingA gathering place for the island's Venetian nobility, this open-air arcade, with a meeting hall above, was built in the early 17th century by Francesco Basilicata, an Italian architect. Restored to its original Palladian elegance, it adjoins the old Venetian Armory, now the City Hall.
Avgoustou 25, Heraklion, Crete, 71202, Greece -
18. Monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul
Religious Building/Site/ShrineOne of Heraklion's oldest monuments, dating from the 13th century, has been been rebuilt many times over the years and has done duty as a church, monastery, mosque, and movie theater. St. Peter's is now an exhibition hall and its 15th-century frescoes, the oldest in the city, have been beautifully restored.
Heraklion, Crete, 71202, Greece -
19. Plateia Eleftherias
Plaza/SquareThe city's biggest square is paved in marble and dotted with fountains. The Archaeological Museum is off the north end of the square; at the west side is the beginning of Daidalou, the main thoroughfare, which follows the line of an early fortification wall and is now a pedestrian walkway lined with tavernas, boutiques, jewelers, and souvenir shops.
Heraklion, Crete, 71202, Greece
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