A civilization that goes back to the prehistoric times and has followed a course through Byzantine times needs a large number of museums to accommodate everything that has come to light and has survived the relentless decay of time. Kastoria exhibits its real wealth in five museums and as well as in private collections. The city’s own priceless treasures.
BYZANTINE MUSEUM
“The town alone could write the history of the Byzantine art” according to the Belgian Byzantinologist Henri Gregoire. The town that always had the title of a majestic Byzantine town, in 550 AC was named after Justinian, the emperor that turned it into a powerful fortress, surrounding it with a double wall, parts of which survive till today. Centuries later, in 1018, the king Basil II the Bulgar- Slayer turned into a base for their military operations.
Apart from the walls that were built by the Byzantine emperors, approximately 80 Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches attest the long history of the area. Three-aisled basilicas, single aisled and churches with three conches decorate the place. They are all built using local materials and their colors and shapes vary.
So, the Byzantine Museum of Kastoria has one of the richest collections of Byzantine hagiographies in the world. Among them, eighteen rare icons that are famous for their antiqueness and style are accommodated at the museum. These works are real treasures of the Byzantine art and have been made during the second half of the 12th century and early 13th century. Also there are collections of sculptures, mosaics, carved items as well as ecclesiastical manuscripts, utensils, gospel books etc.
The museum collections, dated from the second half of the 12th century go to the 17th century. They are organized in six sections based on their year of manufacture and the artistic workshop they belong to. Most of these icons have been painted in the local workshops of Macedonia. Evidently there are icons of other Schools as well, such as those of the Cretan School, portable icon paintings, exceptional art samples, that have been created in the Ionian Islands and Venice and brought to Kastoria by merchants.
Among the most important exhibitions is the icon of Prophet Elias, in a strict form, which is a work of a grand artistic center of the 12th century. The icon of Agios Nikolaos was painted in the same century, and he is presented in a silver background and framed by ten scenes of his life. Finally, the icon of Pantocrator of the 14th century that bears the dedication of a monk is also exhibited.
The Byzantine Museum of Kastoria operates since 1989, is accommodated at a new building and lies at the top of the hill of the Byzantine acropolis. Telephone: 2467026781
FOLKLORE MUSEUM
The Folklore Museum of Kastoria could only be accommodated at a traditional manor. This is the Nerantzi – Aivazi Manor, which lies at the traditional neighborhood Doltso of the two, at 12 Kapetan Lazou Street. The building that is named after its last owner was built in the 17th century. The manor came into the ownership of the Municipality of Kastoria in 1960, while from 1975 it accommodates the museum. The musical-philological association “Armonia” has undertaken the role of the museum curator.
The visitor of the manor can see the everyday life utensils and the several living spaces. They can take a tour and get to know the inside of a traditional manor of Kastoria, see the “krevata”, the good room “onda”, the “doxatos”, the daily summer room as well as the traditional fur workshop which is quite similar to the one where the residents used to sow the pieces of fur together, creating small pieces of art. Telephone: 2467028603
DELINANIO MUSEUM
Another rich folklore collection of items is exhibited in Delinanio, which is accommodated at the traditional neighborhood of Doltso. It includes needlework, webs, and household utensils of the past centuries. Tel: 24670 28156
LOCAL DRESS MUSEUM
An important collection of traditional uniforms of the city of Kastoria as well as the surrounding areas is found at the local dress museum, roofed at the Emmanuel Brothers Manor. The men’s and women’s outfits as well as the jewelry that people wore are characteristic of the social layers of the past centuries and one sees the various influences from the European fashion as well as the dressing habits of other areas that they visited due to the fur trade.
The museum is accommodated in a manor, which is a fine sample of the traditional architecture of 1750, and it is operated by members of the musical – philological association “Armonia”. Telephone: 24670 28603
ECOMUSEUM AND RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LAKE SETTLEMENT DISPILIO
This is a unique museum of its kind in Greece and lies 7 kilometers away from Kastoria. It is a museum that takes us centuries back in the past, through extraordinary, prehistoric findings that were brought to the light upon archaeological excavations. During the earlier Neolithic period there was a blooming settlement in the area Dispilio from 5500 BC to 3500 BC.
There is an exact reconstruction of the lake settlement on the bank of the lake with huts that have been built on pile platforms, built using materials that are similar to the authentic ones, in natural size. Tree trunks were used for their frame, branches and rope for the walls and lake mud for the plaster on the walls and the roof that is covered with straws.
Inside the residences of this special settlement, there are everyday use items that were brought to light during the excavations. Play pots, bottles, goblets, fruit bowls and pans as well as tools made of flint or bones, exact replicas of the findings that are exhibited in each hut, in Dispilio.
The creation of the settlement and the museum that operate since 2000, were integrated in the Life project in 1996. Telephone: 2467085406
PETRIFIED FOREST MUSEUM
At the area Nostimo of Kastoria is located the Petrified Forest Museum that accommodates very impressive findings millions of years old. The findings come from the area’s forest, which is one of the 31 petrified forests in the entire world. Its age is estimated 20 million years BC. It was formed after a large volcano explosion. There is also a shark tooth in the forest from the prehistoric sea that used to cover the areas of today’s mountains and valleys.
There are different kinds of rare fossils in the museum as petrified trunks of gymnosperm – angiosperm trees, palm trees, sea fossils, mollusks, brackish ice with Ostrea, ground vertebrate, mastodons and sharks. Also the petrifaction conditions of the various organisms are identified as well as the paleogeographic and paleoclimatic conditions of the said era, which is estimated in the Lower Miocene. Telephone: 2467084588
THE ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF ARGOS ORESTIKON
The archaeological Museum of Kastoria Prefecture operates in a wing of 650 sq.m. surface of the Cultural Center of Argos Orestikon, which was ceded by the Municipality for this purpose.
The exhibition lies on the ground and first floor of the building, in two halls of total surface of 169 sq.m., without light openings. The Kastoria Prefecture covers the central part of ancient Orestida. For this reason, the exhibition at the Archaeological Museum is developed in four interrelating sections a) political and social evolution from the formation of the race of Orestes during the Early Iron Age and the Early Archaic Age (section I), b) the independent Macedonian kingdom of Orestida during the late Archaic and Classic Age (Section II), c) Macedonia from the age of Phillip to the roman conquest (Section III) and d)(first floor) the autonomous region under the Roman Occupation with the special political and religious privileges (Section IV).
Efforts are made for the information means of the exhibition (information area on the corridor that leads to the first floor exhibition, passages in Greek and English, maps, photographs, excavation drawings and revival) to be able to fulfill the needs for information for the visitors of all ages and educational level most importantly the student groups who are the largest public of the museums of the area.
