Museum of Byzantine Culture

About the museum

The idea of a central Byzantine Museum in Thessaloniki was formulated in 1913 by decree of the Governor-General Stefanos Dragoumis. Political circumstances led to the founding of the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens, to which more than 1,600 objects that Adamantios Adamantiou had collected in Thessaloniki were transferred in 1915.

The museum building is the work of the architect Kyriakos Krokos, who won the Panhellenic competition of 1977. The foundations were laid in 1989 by Melina Mercouri, then Minister of Culture, and the works were completed in October 1993. The museum opened on 11 September 1994 with the exhibition “Byzantine Treasures of Thessaloniki: The Journey of Return”, which marked the return of antiquities from Athens, and in 1999 it became a special regional service.

The collections concern early Christian, Byzantine, medieval and post-Byzantine objects, mainly from Macedonia. In 2005 the museum was awarded the Council of Europe Museum Prize, the first Greek museum to win it.

Highlights

• Eleven rooms of permanent exhibition in chronological order
• Room “From the Elysian Fields to the Christian Paradise” with early Christian tombs
• Room “The Twilight of Byzantium (1204–1453)”
• Doris Papastratos Collection with 232 engravings from the 18th and 19th centuries
• Dimitrios Oikonomopoulos Collection with around 1,460 objects
• Council of Europe Museum Prize 2005

Permanent exhibitions

• Η Πρωτοχριστιανική Εκκλησία – Πόλη και κατοικία – Από τα Ηλύσια Πεδία στον Χριστιανικό Παράδεισο – The first rooms present the early Christian period (4th–7th century), the change of the city and of housing, and the types of graves outside the walls.
• Από την Εικονομαχία έως την άνθηση των δυναστειών – Οι δυναστείες των Βυζαντινών αυτοκρατόρων – Το βυζαντινό κάστρο – Το λυκόφως του Βυζαντίου – Rooms on the Byzantine period from the 8th century to the Fall of 1453, with coin hoards, lead seals, fortified settlements and late Byzantine Thessaloniki.
• Συλλογές Παπαστράτου και Οικονομόπουλου – Βυζάντιο μετά το Βυζάντιο – Ανακαλύπτοντας το παρελθόν – The Doris Papastratos collection with 232 engravings, the Dimitrios Oikonomopoulos collection with around 1,460 objects, icons of the post-Byzantine period and a section on the path of an object from excavation to exhibition.

Founded

1994

Operated by

Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού

Admission & discounts

Free admission: 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September and 28 October.

Prices apply from 1 April. Free admission is also granted, among others, to refugees, journalists, guides, members of ICOM and ICOMOS, large families and single-parent families. Tickets are also available online.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Elevator
• Accessible restroom
• Accessible parking
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description

Two parking spaces for people with disabilities, two ramps, four lifts, four platform lifts, wheelchairs and three accessible toilets. Free audio guides for visitors with visual impairments at the ticket office, audio-visual guides in Greek Sign Language, a Braille leaflet in Greek and English, an external tactile exhibit and a tactile audio tour in Greek, English, German and Russian.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops

Educational programmes and workshops for children and families.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Restaurant
• Museum shop

Café-restaurant and shop with books, replicas of objects, jewellery, gifts and postcards.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Plan your visit