Historical Archives of Crete

The Historical Archives of Crete is a branch of the General Archives of the State. The basic goal of the Historical Archives of Crete is to supervise, save, collect, classify and directorize the archival material of the prefecture of Chania and the display and utilization of the archives.

The Historical Archives of Crete was established in 1920 with seat in Chania, with decision of the then General Director of Crete. Late Nikolaos Papadakis was its founder and undertook the direction of the Archives in March 1920. A keen collector and a guard of the monuments of the Cretan History, he did not just casually collect archival material but worked hard, with great zeal and selflessness, sometimes without being paid and under adverse conditions, for the collection, clearance, classification and registration of the material. He managed to sensitize the competent authorities, which did not seem to value the archives.

The archival material of the Historical Archives of Crete covers the entire Crete (as indicated by its name) and it is estimated to include about 700.000 very important documents, from 1821 to the present day.