The Archaeological Museum of Heraklion is located in the centre of Heraklion, on Xanthoudidou Street, across Eleftherias Square. It was built in the period 1933-1937 by the architect Patroklos Karantinos, on the ruins of the Venetian Monastery of Saint-Francis which was destroyed by earthquake in 1856.

The Museum is one of the largest and most important museums in Greece, and among the most important museums in Europe. It houses representative artifacts from all the periods of Cretan prehistory and history, covering a chronological span of over 5,500 years from the Neolithic period to Roman times. The singularly important Minoan collection contains unique examples of Minoan art, many of them true masterpieces. Actually, it's rightly considered as the museum of Minoan culture par excellence worldwide.