The Ministry of Culture is upgrading the visitor service infrastructure at the Phaistos archaeological site, with a new publishing house and shop, addition of routes for disabled visitors and the disabled, new signage and information. The project, with a budget of 2,500,000 euros, is financed by the “Crete” Regional Operational Program within the NSRF 2021-2027.

The location of the old “Xenia” hotel, which today belongs to the Municipality of Phaistos, and the subsequent projects were the ones that determined, until today, the access, the organization of the infrastructure and the tour of the Phaistos area. With the preparation of the Unified Management Plan, the necessary gradients for the path of the disabled are ensured, based on the level of the new building infrastructure, in relation to the level of the parking area and the existing viewing platform for the disabled, above the Upper West Courtyard of the Palace. The new complex gathers all the infrastructure, forming a single central space for the service of the visitors and the better functioning of the infrastructure, such as the publishing house, the shop, the sanitary areas, but also the atrium among them.

The Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni stated:

“Our priority is to upgrade the services provided at the archaeological sites, with an emphasis on the accessibility of the disabled and disabled visitors. The Minoan palace of Phaistos is, together with the archaeological site of Knossos, one of the most important cultural sites of Crete, with a large number of visitors. Today, it is up for serial registration, with the six Minoan palaces, for the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Our goal is, through the proposed interventions, to form a modern, functionally and aesthetically, unified, central and better controlled space. I note that in addition to the projects for the protection and promotion of Phaistos, in the context of the National Strategic Plan for dealing with the effects of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage, the management plan for the archaeological site, in terms of its shielding against the climate crisis, is in progress, which prepared by the Ministry of Culture with the scientific collaboration of the National and Kapodistrian University and the National Research Foundation. All the projects that have been launched in the archaeological site of Phaistos are financed by the Operational Program of the Region of Crete of the NSRF 2021-2027, to which I thank».

The project includes:

  1. New positioning of the reception and entrance/exit, and new public service infrastructure (publishing office, shop, WC – all on the ground floor), right next to the existing entrance
  2. Creation of a new outdoor gathering area near the entrance, with steps and a view of the palace
  3. Improvement of the visitor path through two routes, one south for the public, and one north for the disabled to the Upper West Courtyard, with a common return for all the public. 4. Creation of new information and viewing points. These areas fit into the landscape and contribute to the relief of public congestion in the monument, its recreation and information

The palace hill was continuously inhabited from the 4th millennium to the 2nd century. B.C. The Old Palace was built between 1900-1700 BC. at the top of the hill. At the end of the Old Palace period, it covered an area of ​​about 9,000 sq.m. It was destroyed twice by earthquakes and rebuilt. The architectural remains of the three successive building phases are preserved in good condition in the south-western part, where walls are preserved at a height of 6m. where the covered part of the Old Palace is located). After its final destruction (~1700 BC), the New Palace was erected further east and at a higher level, which was inhabited until the middle of the 15th century BC. so it was destroyed. The New Palace was smaller but more monumental than the Old and had all the characteristics of a Minoan palace, such as a rectangular central courtyard, with wings on 4 sides, a large area (~8,000 sq.m.), a courtyard with a processional road, to connect the palace- city, monumental entrance with staircase, luxurious halls, purification tanks, royal apartments, storerooms and workshops, majestic staircases.

The city around it continued to be inhabited, experiencing a particular flourishing in the Geometric (810-700 BC) and Hellenistic (323-67 BC) years. Around 150 BC, the city of Phaistos was permanently destroyed. The excavation of the palace began in 1900 by the Italian archaeologists Federico Halbherr and Luigi Pernier, who discovered in 1908 the disk of Phaistos. In 1909 the excavation of the New Palace was completed, some work followed until 1914 and from 1928 to 1932. After World War II, excavations continued from 1950 to 1971, during which the Old Palace was excavated but and parts of the city of prehistoric and historic times.