With the trilingual (Greek-English-French) publication of Crete 1898-1899, a 260-page book bursting with hundreds of photographs, a short, but potent slice of Crete's exciting history comes graphically to life.

Published by Crete University Press, and researched and documented by Irini Lydaki, the hefty publication is sub-titled "Photographic Testimonies from the personal album of Prince George," who was the first High Commissioner of the autonomous Cretan State from 1898 until 1906.

Covering the facts of roughly one year, it illustrates the arrival of George in Crete, in December of 1898 in Hania, as well as from his official visits in the big cities and provinces of Crete, impressing the expectations of Christians in Crete for the unification with Greece. Included also are snapshots from the daily life of the High Commissioner in Hania,  then the island's seat of governorship; from his tours in the Cretan countryside, as well as photographs that picture landscapes and monuments.

Prince George (1869-1957), found himself in Crete in unfavourable times for the island, Greece, the Ottoman Empire and Europe. In 1898, after an Ottoman sovereignty of many centuries, Crete was pronounced an autonomous state by the Big Forces. The then 29 year old George was named High Commissioner and commanded to restore the peace and relations of the two religious communities, and to establish the new autonomous arrangement. Cretans considered this arrangement temporary and accepted the new sovereign with the hope that very soon this would achieve their urgent demand, the annexation of Crete to the Greek state. The first years of this type of rule were fruitful: new perimeters were outlined in the sectors of administrations, justice, economy, health, and education; the Cretan church was organized; the first archaeological excavations  took place at the big Minoan centres and particular gravity was given to recording and safeguarding of surviving Byzantine and Venetian monuments. However, then also the first devastating of those monuments took place in the name of instituting urban planning in the big cities.

The authoritarian governing of George, his weakness in reciprocating to the unionist demand of the Cretans, and his continuously increasing dependence to the “Protecting” Forces, the dysfunction of government and the consecutive decline of economy, caused a deep internal crisis in the island.

The crisis of this political system, led to the European decision to replace him, and, once more, the Union was postponed.

Prince George left Crete carrying the memories of a journey that began successfully, but ended in a climate of personal and ideological juxtapositions and intense popular dissatisfaction.

The publication of the personal album of prince George constitutes an important historical testimony that lights up one aspect of the role he played in the then multinational Crete and, mainly, impresses the physiognomy of the island and the patriotic expectations of its Christian residents, who saw the High Commissioner as a symbol of a transient era where they hoped that shortly it would end.