Intellectual Concerns

One hive of significant intellectual activity in the 1930s was the Heraklion Scholars' Club. Numerous cultural events, mostly lectures, were held under its auspices in the function rooms at the Knossos Hotel. At the same time, the Theotocopoulos Club based at the Fytakis Mansion was engaged in similar work.

In 1930, Elli Alexiou, Yiannis Sfakianakis, Aris Chatzidakis, Thaleia Kaliyianni and others formed the "Intellectual Community", a group which organized literary readings and discussions on contemporary trends in literature. Beginning in 1934, Lefteris Alexiou gathered together of a group of artists and art-lovers, such as prose writer Velissarios Freris, poet Michalis Anastassiou, architect Dimitris Kyriakos, Manolis Georgiadis and others, who would meet at Alexiou's "Studio" in what is now Argyraki St.