How Evangelos Marinakis Saved Crete's Nikos Kazantzakis Museum
Written by Will Jones
Tucked among the vineyards and olive groves of Myrtia, a small village some 15 kilometres from Heraklion, Crete, sits a museum that very nearly disappeared.
The Nikos Kazantzakis Museum, dedicated to the author whose words carried Crete's rugged spirit around the world, owes its survival in large part to one man: Greek businessman, philanthropist, and investor Evangelos Marinakis.
A Literary Giant Rooted in Crete
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) remains one of Greece's most celebrated writers as the author of Zorba the Greek, The Last Temptation of Christ and The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel. His works have been translated into more than 50 languages and admired as far afield as China, India and the United States; he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times.Zorba the Greek, later adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates, is widely credited with drawing generations of foreign visitors to Crete.
The museum honouring him was the brainchild of Giorgos Anemoyiannis, a celebrated set and costume designer and distant relative of Kazantzakis's father.
Anemoyiannis restored the family home in Myrtia and filled it with letters, manuscripts, first editions and personal effects, including the author's watch, glasses and the desk from Antibes where he wrote many of his major works.
The museum was inaugurated on 27 June 1983.
Today it safeguards an archive of more than 50,000 items, with 650 exhibits arranged across several themes spanning Kazantzakis's life, literary works, travels and theatrical influences.
A Legacy Nearly Lost
Despite a major EU-funded renovation in 2013, the museum found itself on the brink of collapse.With no funding for salaries and only modest income from ticket sales, its future hung in the balance.
It was at this critical moment that Evangelos Marinakis stepped in, offering what the museum describes as "a generous and permanent sponsorship." Marinakis agreed to clear the museum's debts and committed to supporting the institution financially for the following decade.
For Marinakis, the gesture was deeply personal rather than purely philanthropic. Although born in Piraeus, both his parents hailed from Heraklion, Crete, and his father began his career there — the ancestral home of Kazantzakis and the region that inspired his imagination. Marinakis has recalled first encountering Kazantzakis's books at the age of six or seven, drawn to the volumes he saw his parents reading. His father placed one of the author’s books in his hands.
"Because of my youth I didn't understand much," he admitted, but Kazantzakis’s values and outlook, he says, became imprinted on his subconscious from that early age.
A Decade of Impact
More than ten years on, Marinakis's sponsorship of the museum continues. According to the museum, the ongoing support "has allowed the museum to cover its operating costs, hire an excellent team, and expand its outreach activities" to engage ever-growing audiences with Kazantzakis's world. Director Marilena Milathianaki has described the museum as more than a memorial — "a sanctuary of memory and pilgrimage" — a status that Marinakis's backing has helped to secure for the long term.“With Evangelos Marinakis’s support, the museum can look to the future with optimism,” she said.
That stability has allowed the museum to grow in ambition rather than simply survive. It has digitised thousands of archival items for public access, developed an EU-funded mobile app offering immersive digital experiences, and introduced a mobile "mousiothiki" museum kit now being distributed to Greek and diaspora schools.
It has also undertaken a green transformation, installing solar panels and using recycled materials during renovation work, while expanding accessibility through tactile tours for visually impaired visitors, audio guides, subtitled videos and sign-language programmes.
Internationally, the museum has forged partnerships with institutions including the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in England, the Lu Xun Museum in China, and the Paul Valéry Museum in France, and its "Travelling" festival series has celebrated cultural exchanges with Spain, England, Russia and China.
The China collaboration proved especially significant, resulting in a bronze sculpture depicting Kazantzakis in conversation with the Chinese writer Lu Xun, with one cast standing at the museum's entrance in Myrtia and the other at Lu Xun's museum in Shaoxing.
In recognition of his contribution, one of the museum's central exhibition halls — devoted to Kazantzakis's novels and travels — has been named in honour of Evangelos Marinakis's father, Miltiadis.
A Broader Commitment to Greek Culture
The Kazantzakis Museum is far from an isolated act of generosity.Marinakis also sponsored the Greek National Opera's debut performance at New York's Carnegie Hall, where it staged "Nikos Kazantzakis: An Odyssey in Music.” The concert celebrated not only the author, but Greece's music, creativity, and cultural reach on the world stage.
For Marinakis, such initiatives reflect what he regards as a national and cultural duty to both Piraeus and Crete, and a lifelong commitment to the ideals of freedom, courage and independent thought that run throughout Kazantzakis's work.
Thanks to his sustained support, a museum that once faced closure in a quiet Cretan village now stands as a thriving cultural hub. It ensures that Kazantzakis's restless, borderless spirit continues to reach new generations across the globe.
