The original building of the museum (5,500m²) was built in phases between 1935 and 1955, in order to house the world wide unique collection of archaeological artefacts of the Minoan civilization  that flourished on the island of Creta between the 26^th and 11^th centuries B.C.

The architectural design was by the the prominent architect P.Carantinos. It is regarded, among experts, as a landmark building of the Modern Movement, so there was a tendency for restoring it in its original status while updating it in order to meet the complex demands of a XXI century museum institution.