Rethymno Wax Museum

Location: Zoniana
Don't miss: Museums guide (free admission dates and other useful info)

The Wax Museum in Zoniana Rethymno, Crete: Zoniana is a remote village built at an altitude of 650m, on the slopes of Mount Idi, the highest mountain on Crete. Zoniana is located about 45 km away from Rethymnon Town and also 43 km from Heraklion Town, therefore it is found between these two towns. This village would be a nice excursion to go from both towns, not only for its barren, pure landscape but also for the interesting Wax Museum you can find at the center of the village.

The Wax Museum of Zoniana opened in 1998 by Mr. Dionysis Potamianos, a painter and sculptor from Athens. It took him and his wife about 40 years to create these 87 natural size figures that are exhibited in the museum.

In a space of about 1,000 sq.m., the visitor can see all the history of Crete and the most famous Cretan personalities in front of his eyes, like prime minister of Greece Eleftherios Venizelos, writer Nikos Kazantzakis, poet Vincenzo Cornaro, painter Dominikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco) and also many known fighters and scenes of the Cretan Revolution.

Apart from these wax figures, the museum also exhibits a large collection of coins and banknotes from various periods, from the Turkish occupation, the period of the Cretan Autonomy at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, and many drachmas, the official currency of Greece which was abolished in 2002, after it was replaced by euro.