Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended the opening of the exhibition “Ekatombolis. The world of archaic Crete”, at the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion.

Here is the Prime Minister’s greeting:

“Your Excellency, Mr. Regional Mayor, Mr. Mayors, ladies and gentlemen colleagues in the government and in the Parliament, dear President, friend Maki, ladies and gentlemen,

I will try to be brief because I look forward with great interest to a tour of this original and as it looks extremely innovative exhibition which we will have the opportunity to open shortly. And as I tried to find out a little more about its content, I was even more curious about the subject of this exhibition “Ekatombolis” about Crete in the Archaic times.

Because, indeed, in the consciousness of all of us and certainly also the visitors of the Museum, Crete is primarily identified with the greatness of the Minoan civilization. However, in Crete during the archaic times very important political, social, economic and ideological processes took place.

Indeed, here too, my dear Regional Governor, Crete was at the forefront of these political developments that ultimately led to the greatness of classical Greece, which was built on the concept of the city-state. The first cities with organization, with legislation, with clearer relations between citizens were essentially created here, in Crete. And it is exactly this period that this extremely interesting exhibition, which we will have the opportunity to inaugurate shortly, attempts to trace.

I would say that this process, the gradual process of self-organization of the societies that eventually led to the miracle of classical Athens and the birth of the Athenian Republic, this process acquires an even greater interest in an age when the debates about the durability of democracy they become more and more intense. Here, then, we will have the opportunity to trace the first steps in this extremely complicated path, which eventually led to the miracle of classical Greece.

Allow me a second brief observation about the place we are in, the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, I want to remind you, the second most visited archaeological site-museum together with Knossos in our homeland.

And here we adopted and initiated an important change, which was also aligned with the requirements of the times, I would say, Your Honor, that it was probably overdue: the transformation of the Museum from essentially a service of the Ministry of Culture, to an independent Public Legal Entity of Law, with its Board of Directors, in good cooperation with the Museum’s staff.

This new model of governance I believe has already shown significant examples of writing. And as the Minister also said, this is the way, I want to emphasize it here, in Heraklion, because every time we visit any archaeological site, any museum, we have the repeated protests of some few who are against this course, this however, the governance model is the governance model adopted by all the world’s major museums.

So, I don’t think we can be behind the developments, especially when the Museum of Heraklion and the other four museums that have been converted into Legal Entities under Public Law are the custodians of this unique cultural heritage.

Dear President, then, dear Maki, congratulations on the work that has already been done. Congratulations for the Museum’s extroversion, congratulations for the initiatives to organize periodical exhibitions, because museums today are not only the custodians of their permanent collections, they must par excellence be “melting pots” of developments, interactions, searches and connections with the searches of of present times.

And of course, congratulations for the extroversion you have shown and the cooperation you have already initiated with China. This is the model we want to move towards.

And of course, congratulations to the Minister of Tourism, because indeed the Museum needs a bigger, more modern shop and it will get it now by making use of the building that the President and the Minister of Tourism talked about before, which I hope may we soon have the pleasure of being able to inaugurate it.

So, thank you again for joining us today and thank you for giving me the opportunity to inaugurate this very important exhibition.”

Restoration works of the Holy Metropolitan Church of Agios Minas

Earlier, the Prime Minister attended the signing of the contract for the restoration works of the Holy Metropolitan Church of Agios Minas and the programming contract for the archeological museum of Archanos, in the headquarters of the Region of Crete.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I really think that we are giving you the best gift by signing today a very important conservation intervention for Agios Minas, a subject that you had repeatedly raised with me. I am happy because through the excellent cooperation of the Region and the Ministry of Culture we are today at this happy point, within 2027 we will be able to deliver – then you will give the great gift to the Minister – Agios Minas completely different from what it is today .

And of course I want to pay particular attention to the second program which will be signed today, with the support of the Technical University of Crete, the preparation of a study in order not to build a new building this time, but essentially to make a significant intervention in an existing building, to highlight it, to upgrade it and at the same time to use it as an archaeological museum, to house very important findings from an area that has a particularly great archaeological interest.

I will repeat what I had the opportunity to say in the morning, the government and the Region, in an excellent collaboration, are investing in highlighting the huge cultural stock of our island. With significant resources, with a commitment to the protection and promotion of this unique cultural heritage. Many things have already been done, more will be done.

Personally, I am also looking forward to the registration of the Minoan Palaces in the UNESCO List, which is a case I have personally dealt with. I want to remind you that this gives enormous prestige and enormous visibility, but at the same time it also means obligations on our part, which, as you know, are very strict, but it will clearly be an extremely positive development.

So I’m very happy, I’m not doing anything today, I’m just attending, so I can give you the opportunity to sign and wish you a happy birthday from now on,” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The new archeological museum of Archana will be housed in the old bottling plant of the former Agricultural Cooperative and will act as a visitor attraction, while contributing to the promotion of the cultural wealth and important archaeological finds of the area.

The historic Church of Agios Minas is the seat of the Archbishop of Crete. The works, in addition to the functional restoration, will allow highlighting the special historical and architectural value of the monument.