Overview

The museum tells the story of Crete’s naval history and features many battle stories.

Transport & Parking

The Maritime Museum of Crete is located in a distinctive red, 2 storey building on the waterfront on the far western end of Chania's Old Venetian Harbour (see separate review). It's housed within part of Firkas Fortress. The harbour and the surrounding streets are pedestrianised. Although the walkway round the harbour is level the surrounding street slope down to the harbour. There are buses in Chania but they do not go directly to the harbour area. Not sure where the nearest car park is.

Access

The entrance is via a short, quite steep sloping upward path and there is a railing on one side, which could be used as a hand rail, although when I was there a couple of bikes were changed to the railing. The ground floor is step free as wherever there was a change in height there was a ramp. The ground floor tells the early maritime history. The upper floor is only accessible by stairs. There's about 20 - 25 stairs and apart from the bottom 2 - 3 steps, the majority of the steps have a handrail. The upper floor depicts Crete's more recent history, from the early 1900s.

Toilets

There are toilets on the first floor, which are only accessible by stairs. There is no accessible toilet.

Staff

There are staff at the shop counter at the entrance where you buy your tickets but I didn't notice anyone as I went round the museum. The one who served me was friendly.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

The museum tells the story of Crete’s naval history and features many battle stories. It is well laid out and informative, with an impressive collection of model ships, photos, naval uniforms and other artefacts. The captions are in both Greek and English. It’s a traditional type of museum with exhibits generally displayed in glass cases rather than a modern, interactive museum. The museum is located over 2 floors and the rooms are laid out historically. The ground floor, which is step free, depicts Crete's early naval history and there is also a shell room. The ground floor is step free with a couple of rooms being assessable by short ramps. The upper floor depicts Crete's more recent history, from the early 1900s and is only accessible by stairs. It particularly focuses on World War II, Battle of Crete and the Nazi German occupation of Crete and the Greek resistance and includes moving film footage of this period. On the first floor there’s nice views over the harbour and also there are toilets. At the entrance there is a small shop where you buy the tickets, and when I visited in March 2018 the cost was 3 euros. The museum is very interesting, well worth visiting but it is disappointing that the upper floor isn't more accessible.

Photos