Museum of Byzantine Culture (Thessaloniki)
The Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Greece on September 11, 1994. The title of the first exhibition, “Byzantine Treasures of Thessaloniki: The Return Journey,” was not chosen by chance. This exhibition marked the return of Byzantine antiquities that had been housed in Athens museums for eighty years, transported there in 1916. In 1913, the governor of Macedonia, Stefanos Dragoumis, ordered the creation of the “Central Byzantine Museum” based on the Acheiropoietos Church. On December 31, 1915, when the Allied forces entered Thessaloniki, the Byzantine Museum Committee decided to send 1600 exhibits to Athens for preservation.
The idea of establishing the Byzantine Museum in Thessaloniki was revived in 1975. By a decree of the Central Archaeological Council in 1977, a nationwide architectural competition was announced for the construction of the museum, won by the talented architect and artist Kyriakos Krokos. Construction was delayed, and the building was only put into operation in October 1993.
The museum is built on an area of over 15,000 square meters, with a total floor space of 11,500 square meters. Of this, 2,726 square meters are allocated for the permanent exhibition (excluding corridors), and the remaining spaces include storage rooms, laboratories, administrative offices, etc. The museum has a separate wing for temporary exhibitions.
The eleven halls of the museum’s permanent exhibition were gradually opened to the public from 1997 to early 2004. The exhibits are exemplary of Byzantine and post-Byzantine culture, systematically organized thematically and chronologically. The exhibition features 3,190 archaeological objects, relics, and works of art out of more than 46,000 included in the museum’s overall collection, dating from the 2nd to the 20th centuries AD.
Exhibition Halls:
1: Early Christian Church
2: Early Christian City and House
3: From the Elysian Fields to the Christian Paradise
4: From Iconoclasm to the Radiance of the Macedonians and the Komnenian Dynasty
5: Dynasties of Byzantine Emperors
6: Byzantine Fortress
7: Decline of Byzantium (1204-1453)
8: Doris Papastratos Collection
9: Dimitrios Economopoulos Collection
10: Byzantium after Byzantium
11: Unveiling the Past
Opening hours: Daily from 08:00 to 20:00 (closed on Mondays).
T. 2313 306400
http://www.mbp.gr/
