Overview

 

 

 

 

 

 



Mirtia sits nearby high on a ridge over a extensive landscape of vineyards. It belongs to the wine region of Peza. However, the main reason to visit Mirtia is for the Kazantzakis Museum in the village.

The Museum of Kazantzakis is housed in the mansion where his parents once lived. The collection includes poems, philosophical essays, plays, diaries, novels, first editions, photos, costumes and much more.

Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Heraklion in 1883 and was Crete';s greatest writer. He was educated in Athens and Paris and produced a vast range of works, such as poetry, translations, philosophical essays and last but not least novels, which made him famous around the world. His most celebrated novels were Zorba the Greek (1946), The Last Temptation of Christ and the autobiographical Report to Greco. The Orthodox Church excommunicated him for his energetically expressed doubts about Christianity. He died in Freiburg, West Germany, in 1957 from hepatitis. The epitaph on his grave in Heraklion consists of his own words: ";I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.";