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History of Crete

  Crete has an extensive history that enables us to walk in the paths carved out by all the different civilizations that passed through the island thousands of years ago, to experience them through the museums, the archeological sites, the fortresses, the old cities, even in the customs of this land where they are ingrained up to today with respect to the past.

The recorded history of the island begins in the Neolithic era, approximately 7000 B.C. the Minoan civilization that flourished in Crete was one of the first civilizations in Europe, (approximately 3000 – 1400 B.C., and lasted for about 600 – 700 years. The center of the Minoan civilization was undoubtedly Knossos, 10 km south of the city of Heraklio. After the Minoan civilization the island had suffered countless interventions from foreign invaders. For centuries the shores of the island were the havens for pirates until Rome conquered the entire island in 70 B.C. The student of Apostle Paul, Titus, brought Christianity to Crete in 58 A.D. The island was conquered by the Saracens in the 9th century and was re-conquered by the Byzantine Empire 150 years later. The Byzantine period ended in 1204 with the siege of Constantinople and the beginning of the period of domination by the Venetian and Genoan knights in the Eastern Mediterranean.  Chania, Rethymno and Heraklio became the Venetians’ bases of operations, who built fortification works that are salvaged until today. Heraklio (Chandakas as it was called then) was the last land of modern day Greece to fall under Ottoman rule, in 1669, after a constant siege that had lasted 21 years. During the period of Venetian rule in Crete the island underwent a significant cultural flourishing. Cretan literature was especially developed and very important works to contemporary Hellenic literature were written, such as Erotocritos. The Hellenic Revolution of 1821, which was completed with the signing of the London Treaty in 1830, did not include Crete, which became a field of extremely violent liberation revolutions in the 19th century. Finally in 1897, the fleets of Britain, France, Russia and Italy invaded Crete and brought an end to the Ottoman rule, after the assassination of the British Consul in Chania and the killing of some consular guards by the Turkish authorities.  

The island was declared an independent country with the name “Cretan State” under the rule of Prince George of Greece, and joined the rest of Greece after the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, which had resulted in the expansion of the Greek borders almost to their present-day limits. Crete declared its union with Greece and abolished the representation on 12 October 1908 (on 25 October under the new calendar).

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