The events of the World War II in Crete, specifically the Battle of Crete and the events of the Resistance, have a great reputation globally due to their contribution to the war’s ending. The “storytelling” that follows these events has led to the creation of a vast sum of cultural products, such as movies, poems, songs, novels, and documentaries. As a result, people from all over the world come to Crete every year to witness with their own eyes the sites in which these events have taken place. By 2023, these sites are forming a network of memory and oblivion that has yet to be documented and organized in order to form a cultural route that would enhance the prospects of alternative tourism and at the same time assist the cause of preservation and restoration of all these monumental places and sites of recent Greek history.

The purpose of this research is the investigation and documentation of monumental places and historical sites in Chania Prefecture that are connected to the Second World War, the Battle of Crete, and the Resistance, and then their organization and categorization with the aim of forming a network and accompanying thematic cultural route. The present research is carried out on a pilot basis with Chania Prefecture, as a case study and with the ultimate aim of expanding it throughout Crete.

The research comprises a total of 56 monumental places and historical sites, identified with the participation of Chania Prefecture in the Second World War. These are settlements, battlefields, and places of execution, military facilities (barracks, prisons, etc.), places of memory (cemeteries, etc.), and museum collections. Each point of interest is analyzed in a specific “tab” form, including historical evidence, present state, location, photographs, and bibliography. Additionally, each type of place can form a smaller network and a route based on the typology of the points of interest.

The documentation is followed by the observation of each point in a larger scale in order to evaluate its opportunities of being highlighted along with other points of interest nearby, such as the archaeological sites or landscapes of special natural beauty. This categorization led to the formation of sub-networks with maximum, medium, and minimum access and connection to other points of interest, respectively.

Finally, the research led to the creation of an online map, which can assist the visitor by providing practical details of the route and each point of interest, as well as how to follow the smaller routes that are created based on the sub-networks.