Heraklion Archaeological Museum will not be ready in 2011
Things are apparently moving along at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, but the museum is still not expected to open until at least the spring of 2012.
The Central Archaeological Council has approved the landscaping work, while the latest developments, according to a communication to Heraklion Mayor, Yiannis Kourakis, from the Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, is that the Museum study has finally been approved and contracted. It is expected to be completed inside 4 months, when the auctioning of the work concerning the "placement of the museum exhibits" will go ahead. The 8 million Euro cost has already been approved for this
Further parallel work of the landscaping of the environs, at a cost of 2 million euros, has passed the final study and is in the pipeline.
In November 2006 Heraklion Archaeological Museum, one of the largest museums in Greece and housing a singularly important Minoan collection from the nearby site of Knossos, closed it’s doors to visitors in order to undergo renovations. It was the first time since World War II that the Heraklion Archaeological Museum had closed its doors to the public.
At the time, the Culture Ministry foresaw the museum would be closed for two years. The aim was to expand and modernise this top, cultural museum quickly and inexpensively.
The following summer, in July 2007, a temporary exhibition was established at a nearby building housing some of the museum’s main exhibits while the renovation work was being undertaken.
The two year completion date that was promised by the minister at the time has proved to be extremely optimistic. Delays inevitably followed and the scheduled 2009 re-opening never happened. Neither did 2010 bring progress, and we’ve now learnt that the hopes of many tourist visitors will be dashed once again in 2011, with the earliest expected opening date for the musuem now being the spring of 2012 - five and half years since the museum’s closure!
Note that the temporary exhibition, next door to the museum, remains open and shows some of the main exhibits.
Nea TV
Posts
2 comments:
So glad to find some up-to-date information about the Archaeological Museum. We were able to view some of the amazing items in the temporary exhibit two years ago and are looking forward to coming back to see the entire collection. We had seven days in Heraklion and Chania and enjoyed every minute. What a beautiful island!
Was hoping to visit in May : ( ah well, another excuse to come back in 2012.
Post a Comment