⭐ Travel Guide for Island Crete ⛵, Greece❗

Thirathen Musical Museum

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Riga Feraiou 9, Heraklion, 712 01

In the centre of Heraklion, opposite the Cathedral of Saint Minas, lies the Thirathen Museum of Traditional Music, Musical Instruments, Research and Documentation.

The museum was founded in 2012 and was originally based in the village of Krousonas. Since December 2023, it has operated in its new premises, housed in a restored neoclassical building in the historic centre of Heraklion. Its purpose is to introduce visitors to Greek traditional music and familiarise them with the traditional musical instruments of Greece and the wider Mediterranean region.

Its collection includes musical instruments classified according to the international Hornbostel–Sachs system as aerophones, chordophones, membranophones and idiophones, depending on how their sound is produced. The museum also operates as a centre for musicological research and documentation, contributing to the study, preservation and promotion of Greek traditional music.

The visit includes an interactive and digital guided tour, through which the exhibits are presented together with related photographic and audiovisual archival material. The museum also collaborates with educational institutions and organises school visits, music and movement activities, guided tours, screenings, seminars, conferences and other cultural events.

The name “Thirathen” derives from the expression “thirathen paideia”, a term used during the Byzantine period to describe secular classical education.