Piano Nobile, West Magazines

The floor of the Noble in Knossos Palace

We climb the Minoan staircase with its wide steps and find ourselves in the area of the palace that Evans called the “Piano Nobile” (literally, “noble floor” or main floor).

Today it resembles a large courtyard, but we must imagine it as a separate floor with spacious ceremonial rooms with columns and large windows. The Minoan frescoes “La Parisienne”, “Cup-Bearer” and “Tripartite Shrine” all come from this area.

Map of Knossos Palace

Piano Nobile = No 04

West Magazines = No 04

West Magazines

On our left as we come up the staircase, to the west, we see below us the West Magazines of Knossos. These are 19 oblong storerooms. In their floors we can see depressions: floor vats for holding liquids, which were lined with alabaster to make them watertight.

In each storeroom can be seen two rows of large pithoi, used for storing dry materials such as grain. The capacity of the storerooms was about 80,000 litres and it is believed that they held about 400 pithoi, of which 150 remain today.

Mason Marks & Black Walls

On the walls of the West Magazines were carved the so-called “mason’s marks”. These are symbols including stars, crosses and the labrys, the famous Minoan double axe. The blackened walls are evidence of the great fire that destroyed the last palace in 1350 BC.

Minoan Pithoi

This is one of the 150 Minoan pithoi found in the West Magazines of Knossos. The grey sections are not original, but were added during restoration. Quite a large piece is missing, demonstrating the extensive destruction of the palace.