Archaeological museum of Héraklion

|- |colspan=2 align=" center" bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | |- | bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | local Name ||Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ηρακλείου |- | bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | Country ||Greece |- | bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | City || Héraklion |- | bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | Building ||Museum archéologique
(1951 - 1964) |- | bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | Supervision ||Greek minister of the culture |- | bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | Collections || Greek Antiquities |- |bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | Created in || 1937 |- |bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | Visitors/year ||450.000 |- | bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | Address ||2, rue Xanthoudidou
71202 Héraklion |- | bgcolor=" #FFDEAD" | Internet || Greek minister of the culture |} The archaeological museum of Héraklion was built between 1937 and 1940 on a plan of Patroklis Karadinos (Π. Καραντινού). In the same place was, at the time Venetian, the Catholic church of Santo Francisco , destroyed by a seism in 1856. In the museum the discoveries coming from all Crete are concentrated. The treasures of the Minoan Civilization (the first European civilization) hold a dominating place to with it. The organization of the current exposure had place between 1951-1964 by the éphores NR. Plato (Ν. Πλάτωνα) and St Alexiou (Στ. Αλεξίου). The Muséographie rests on a chronological presentation of the objects. One finds mainly artefacts of central and Eastern Crete there covering a history of more than 5.500 years. Today the museum is almost entirely closed due to work. For five years of the water infiltrations the collections had threatened of the museum. The Greek authorities, benefitting from the recent opening of a new wing, decided to temporarily expose to it the most important objects of the collection, while waiting for that the remainder of the museum reopens. Work should finish until December 31st, 2008, the reopening of the building is not expected that with the current of the year 2009. In terms of exposed objects and visitors per annum, the archaeological museum of Héraklion is the second larger museum of Greece.

The building, of two stages, comprises 22 rooms according to an chronological order.

Ground floor

Room I

The first room is dedicated to the Neolithic period and prépalatiale. In window 1 and 2 are exposed artefacts coming from the palate of Cnossos. In windows 3,4,6,7,9 is presented the development of the ceramics of 2800 av. J. - C. with 1900 av. J. - C.. The collection of black and red vases, comes from the village of Basiliki. In windows 17 and 18 are talks various objects of Mochlos, Archanes and of the caves of Messara.

Room II

Second salts is dedicated to the period protopalatiale (2000 av. J. - C. with 1700 av. J. - C.). The most interesting objects that one finds there are the vases of the style of Kamares coming from Phaistos. In the windows n° 20,21 and 21a, one can also see many idols votive coming from sanctuaries of mountain. In the window n° 25 are exposed shelves representing of the Minoan cities.

Room III

The most interesting part of this dirty is the Disque of Phaistos with its hieroglyphic characters, exposed in the window n° 41.

Room IV

The fourth room comprises objects coming from Timbaki, Cnossos and Malia. They date from the period néopalatiale. Among the parts exposed in this room, four are dissociated:

the statuette representing the goddess with the snakes.
the Rython in the shape of head of bull.
the rython in the shape of head of lioness.
the athlete represented jumping to the top of a bull.

These four objects come from the palate of Cnossos.

Room V

Room VI

Room VII

Room VIII

Room IX

Room X

Room XI

Room XII

Room XIII

Room XIX

Room XX

Objects of the hellenistic and Roman period.

First stage

Room XIV

Room XV and XVI

Room XVII

Room XVIII

Internet sites

Page of the town of Héraklion
Page of the ministry for the culture on the museum of Héraklion

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