Phaistos occupies a ridge overlooking Crete’s broad Messara plain and Mount Ida. The palace is second in scale among the island’s known Minoan complexes and is celebrated for its clear architectural composition. Courts, monumental stairways, storage rooms, workshops and residential suites developed through successive palace phases rather than one construction event.
An Old Palace arose around 1900 BCE and was damaged by earthquakes. The New Palace built above and beside it flourished during the second millennium BCE before destruction around 1450 BCE. Italian archaeologists began systematic excavation in 1900, deliberately leaving much masonry less reconstructed than at Knossos.