| The Archaeological Museum is currently housed in the | | | | The corridors, the staircases, the small rooms and the |
| building of the once-famous School of Commerce, | | | | vast halls, the ladders, the windows, each framing a |
| where the Cretan author Nikos Kazantzakis was a | | | | different vignette, and the terrace with its ramparts, |
| pupil. | | | | form a monument which it is certainly worth getting to |
| The lack of schools under Turkish domination led in | | | | know In addition, the museum now houses the finds |
| 1627 to the setting up of the school which, with the | | | | from the archaeological excavations carried out from |
| passage of time, developed into the School of | | | | the beginning of the 20th century until today, both from |
| Commerce for boys, and to the establishment of the | | | | the Hora and from other parts of the island. |
| Ursuline School for girls. | | | | These finds testify to the presence of civilization on |
| The School of Commerce was run at some periods | | | | Naxos from the 3rd millennium BC (Early Cycladic |
| by the Jesuits and at others by the Lazarists and the | | | | period) to the period of late antiquity, that is, Roman |
| Salesians. The School was considered at its most | | | | times. Examples of Naxiot art can be seen here, but |
| distinguished during its last phase in 1891-1927, under the | | | | we must bear in mind that its finest creations are now |
| Salesians; it had by then completed 300 years of | | | | elsewhere. The museum has some fine geometrical |
| operation. Unfortunately, its rich library, its fine | | | | and classical vessels, blown glassware of the |
| furnishings and its valuable archives were destroyed | | | | Hellenistic and Roman periods, small objects and |
| under the German-Italian occupation. | | | | 'compacts' of ivory and, on the terrace, the 4th-century |
| It is, then, in this building that the Archaeological Museum | | | | mosaic pavement of a house from Aplomata. In the |
| is today housed. The island's Historical Archive is also | | | | centre of the mosaic a Nereid riding a bull emerging |
| housed in a room of the School. | | | | from the sea, whilst there are deer and peacocks in |
| As we go into the Archaeological Museum, what we | | | | the corners. The Naxos Museum is chiefly famous, |
| are entering first and foremost is a complex, cool, | | | | however, for two particularly important collections: the |
| sometimes even chilly, impregnable mediaeval building. | | | | Cycladic and the Mycenean. |