The Βirth Ηouse in Mournies
The Βirth Ηouse of Eleftherios Venizelos in Mournies was the home where Kyriakos and Styliani, Venizelos’ parents, lived after their marriage. The family was forced to leave Crete in 1866, after the Great Cretan revolution, and to move to Kythira and then later to Syros from which they returned in 1872. Venizelos lives in this house for the first 2 years of his life and after his family returns to Crete spends his teenage summers in Mournies. In 1880, the family moved permanently to the house of Halepa, which Kyriakos built, and today operates as the Residence – Museum of Eleftherios Venizelos. Over the years the house was burnt or torn down, according to the essay by the architect-engineer Paul N. Kakouris, who in 1955 – at the initiative of Venizelos’ son, Sophocles – undertakes its restoration and gives the residence its present form. In 2018, the Municipality of Chania grants the house to the National Research Foundation “Eleftherios K. Venizelos” and after the necessary restoration work, it operates under the care of the Foundation as a Museum.
The exhibition extends across two floors and includes mainly supervisory material. With a modern and particularly attended graphic design, Venizelos’ childhood, and youth until 1910, is presented on the ground floor. Additional supervisory material presents the history of the village of Mournies, and of the house. In the second floor, the rest of the great politician’s life is presented enriched with authentic visual and photographic material from the Foundation’s archive. The house is dominated by the authentic crib of Eleftherios Venizelos, which is preserved to this day and is on display on the ground floor.
The exhibition will soon be supplemented with additional museum material, but also with interactive applications related to the content of the home.
The main sponsors of the Museum’s renovation project are the Region of Crete and the Cooperative of Pharmacists in Chania (syfachanion)
