Museum marathon

On this tour you will visit five museums in the old town of Chania with relics of all different periods of history. Your tour-guide will make the exhibits come alive and help you form a complete picture of the island’s history, traditions and culture.

Starting from the archaeological museum you will see relics, from different time periods and civilizations, found mainly in the old town and on the outskirts of Chania, covering a chronoligical span of 3.000 years. It contains a very interesting collection of Minoan offerings, inscribed tablets, sarcophagi, gold jewelry, mosaic floors, ancient coins, classical Greek and Roman statues and other relics which give us important information about the ancient civilizations and their way of life.

Just a few meters away lies the folklore museum which houses old items of every day use, such as tools, clothes, kitchen utensils, musical instruments, traditional rugs and embroideries. The museum is an excellent example of what a traditional house looked like and how Cretans lived two to three centuries ago.

Your next stop will be the Byzantine museum. Its collection includes mosaics, ceramics, wall paintings, sculptures, coins and icons dating back from the Byzantine era up to the Ottoman period. The icons and frescoes reflect the artistic movements and trends of the time. You will see a high standard of icon-painting which managed to develop even though Crete was occupied for centuries.

Continuing to the maritime museum you will see models of ships, naval equipment, pictures and paintings representing the naval history of Crete from the prehistoric period up to World War II. You will see the differences between ships of various periods and learn about important Greek battles and the role the island played in each one of them.

Your tour will end up at the Shipyard Moro, which houses the “Minoan Ship”, a reconstruction of a vessel, 17 meters long, dating back to the 15th century BC. It is a realistic version of a prehistoric oared boat and it is housed together with the Greek traditional shipbuilding exhibition.

This tour is available in: English, Greek, French, Italian.