The Chania-born statesman Eleftherios Venizelos is generally considered the main architect of the modern Greek state. He was born in Mournies in 1864; his father Kyriakos Venizelos was a Cretan revolutionary who had been exiled by Crete’s Ottoman rulers to the island of Syros for 19 years, where Eleftherios joined him at the age of 2. After studying law in Athens he practised in Chania before joining the local parliament’s Liberal party and entering into politics, becoming minister of justice at the age of 35.