The historical collection includes coins, weapons- guns, Cretan knives, pistols. Also revolutionary flags, maps of Crete, objects from the Ottomans presence on the island, from the era of Autonomy, the Russian presence in Rethymno until the union with the rest of Greece in 1913. It also includes objects from the 1st World War, the Macedonian Strugle and the Battle of Crete and the German occupation.
Cretans in the liberation struggles of Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly and the islands
With the declaration of Autonomy (1898) the period of Ottoman rule in Crete finally came to an end.
Many Cretan leaders of armed irregulars, deeply- rooted in whose soul was love of the national ideal, formed volunteer corps. They sped to the aid of Macedonian Hellenism in its struggle for freedom (1903- 1908), in which they played a leading role. So admirable was their action that their name is inextricably linked with the defence of Macedonia. Later, they fought with the same enthusiasm and self-sacrifice for the liberation of Epirus, Thessaly and the Islands. They also fought in the Balkan Wars and the Minor Asia campaign.
