:: Ethnological Museum of Thrace

The building

The stone Neoclassical building was constructed in 1899 as the country residence of a businessman named Altinalmazis from Edirne. It was purchased in 1937 by a merchant named Hadzikonstandis Stefanou, who gave it as part of her dowry to his granddaughter Chryssoula Zafiriou or Mangou, who married Grigorios Chryssostomou, a lawyer, MP for Evros prefecture, and Minister for Merchant Shipping in 1948–9.

In January 1951, Sofoklis Venizelos, son of the great Greek statesman Eleftherios Venizelos, stayed in the house. It now belongs to Zafiria Chryssostomou, wife of Nikolaos Papathanassiou.
 
In 1998, the building was renovated by the family of Polyhronis Yannakidis with a view to its housing the Ethnological Museum of Thrace.

Angeliki Yannakidou Ethnological Museum of Thrace

It was my own direct experience of the traditional life of Thrace that prompted me to found the Museum, which a happy conjunction of circumstances enabled me to house in a place where the past is ever present. The neoclassical stone building at 63, Dekatis Tetartis Maiou Street dates to 1899 and has been restored with thoroughly modern materials and amenities, making it the perfect setting for a fully-functioning museological display.

The Angeliki Yannakidou Ethnological Museum of Thrace has been a self-financing project from start to finish and has the legal status of a non-profit-making civil association.

- Ground floor: 161.4 m2
- Basement: 130.5 m2
- Ancillary building: 35 m2
- There is a coffee-shop and sales point in the covered courtyard.

The purpose of the Museum is not simply to preserve folklore with an aesthetically acceptable display of a certain amount of material, but also to study, publicise, and promote Thracian culture.

The aim is to create a place where people can learn about the living culture of Thrace, and to motivate them to re-evaluate the concept of tradition.

Thematic structure   

The exhibition material is organised in such a way as to give visitors a clear picture of traditional life in Thrace, and more specifically in Evros prefecture, from the end of the 17th to the beginning of the 20th century.
    
We have collaborated with specialists and film directors to produce five video films to be shown in the corresponding rooms
1. Head coverings and symbolism
2. Religious life in Thrace
3. Thracian history
4. Crops
5. Places of worship

Visitors may use the database we have compiled from the records of the Agricultural Bank from 1928 and the digitalised maps of northern and eastern Thrace from 1920. The 18,000 known farmers who settled in Evros prefecture in and around 1922 are linked to their places of origin. Our aim is to preserve historical memory and to use multimedia to instill the knowledge contained within it.