Historical and Folklore Museum of Rethymno
As the Historical and Folklore Museum of Rethymno we now call the 17th century Venetian manor in the Old Town of Rethymno on the Vernardou Street.
The Historical and Folklore Museum of Rethymno, which has been characterized as a historical monument and hosts collections of traditional crafts and folk art objects, is housed in a building that was donated by its founders Christoforos Stavroulakis and Fani Vogiatzaki in 1973.
The galleries of the museum occupy five halls and include textiles, embroidery, ceramics, costumes, coins, historical documents, photographs, maps, standards and information about the traditional crops and bread making. The museum’s collections come from donations and purchases and include more than 5,000 items.
On the ground floor of the Historical and Folklore Museum of Rethymno temporary exhibitions, lectures, cultural events and educational programs are held for schools in a fully equipped room with modern audiovisual equipment.
The first room displays fabrics from the 19th and 20th centuries made of flax, cotton, wool and silk and originating from different regions of Crete. In the second room there are embroidered items, while the lace items, with a long lace-making tradition in Crete, are presented categorized by the techniques used. The samples of linen that were part of dowry in 19th and 20th centuries are also displayed in the second hall. The third room contains basketry and pottery objects, as well as their construction tools. Small and large jars are also displayed in this room, divided into sections, such as jars for water, wine and raki, pottery for food, for oil and animal husbandry. Special section includes ceramic items used in beekeeping. In the fourth hall there are exhibits relating to traditional farming and traditional Rethymno bread making, with local tools for cereals’ cultivation and harvesting, for grinding wheat, for kneading and baking the bread. The fifth room presents the traditional professions of the coppersmith, the saddler, the farrier and the knife-maker.
The target of the Historical and Folklore Museum of Rethymno is the maintenance of the folklore Cretan culture and its development in a modern research center.
