In Crete’s historical museums, icons, maps, letters and personal belongings show how the island changed over the centuries. In Heraklion, the collections of the Historical Museum of Crete span the early Christian centuries to the present day. Highlights include works by El Greco and material documenting the Battle of Crete, the occupation and the Resistance.

In Chania, the Historical Archive of Crete preserves documents and correspondence from the Cretan uprisings. At the old harbour, the Maritime Museum of Crete explores the island’s seafaring heritage through ship models and navigational instruments. The Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Collection of Chania uses mosaics, frescoes and icons to show how art and worship developed in the region.

At the National Resistance Museum in Therisso, photographs, newspapers and personal belongings of Resistance fighters tell the story of the Cretan Resistance. The Military Museum in Chromonastiri offers a wider view of the island’s military history. Smaller collections in places such as Vorizia, Keramia and Askyfou connect historical events with the communities that lived through them.

At some sites of remembrance, the place itself is part of the story. In Platanias, the underground tunnels built by the German occupying forces house a display of wartime objects. In Heraklion’s Venetian walls, the Makasi Gallery, once used as a detention site during the occupation, now houses a permanent exhibition on the National Resistance.