Folk Art Museum in Xanthi
7, Antika St.
GR-67100 Xanthi
(Ostmakedonien + Thrakien / Eastern Makedonia + Thrakia)
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Öffnungszeiten/Opening hours
Wednesday - Sunday 9.30-14.30 h
(c)DBVCMSMuc2006
Sammelschwerpunkte/Main collections
Filoproodi Enosi Xanthis (FEX) is a historic cultural association which has been closely connected to the history of the town. It was founded in 1952, it was the first of the kind in Xanthi and ever since its participation in the cultural life has been constant and important. So, in 1965, FEX began the collection of folk material and, in 1974, the Folk Museum of FEX was founded in one of the most beautiful buildings of the town. The Film Club of FEX opened in 1971 and it has been active till now. The Folk Dance Department as well as the Department of the Thracian Literature Studies began their courses in 1989. In addition, Painting and Theatre courses began in 1994 and 1995.
Moreover, during all these years, FEX organized a lot of book and painting exhibitions, speeches and seminars on subjects of history, civilisation, tradition, art and literature.
The building was the residence of Kougioumtzoglou brothers, build by the tobacco merchants Athanasios and Pantelis Kougioumtzoglou on a design brought from abroad in 1860, near the central square of the old town, opposite to the cathedral of Ag. Ioannis and in the center of the Greek Community area. It should be mentioned here that at that time the whole region of Thrace was under turkish occupation, part of the Ottoman Empire, and the town of Xanthi had a multinational population (Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Jews etc.). Greeks, who were the majority, involved mainly in business and tobacco trading with Europe and were among the most prosperous inhabitants of the town.
The house itself is an orthogonal structure, divided in two similar residences, one for each brother with separate entrances. It has two stores and a semi-basement and is covered by a tiled hip roof. The whole building is surrounded by a small garden and at its south-west corner a small structure was later added. On the ground floor, each of the two residences consists of a big central, orthogonal reception room, a hall, with the main entrance of the house in the frond, the staircase to the second floor at the back and the doors of four rooms on the left and right side. The second floor follows the same plan while the basement is large and was used as a storing place. This is a typical Greek house of the 19th century (neoclassic). The frond of the house is decorated with frames around the openings, capitals, pilasters, cornices, parapets, steel balconies etc. reminding of the European origin of its drawings. In the interior, there are impressive wall and ceiling paintings as well as wood works.
In 1965, FEX began the collection of folk material. In 1968, a descendant of the Kougioumtzoglou family bequeathed one of the two residences to the municipality of Xanthi and in 1974, thanks to the great efforts of the FEX members, the Folk Museum was founded and has being hosted in this building ever since. Then, in 1976, FEX managed to acquire the second of the two residences and at the moment, after the restoration of the whole building which has just finished, FEX is trying to find the subsidies for further restoration works, concerning the wall and ceiling paintings, as well as the reorganization of the exhibition.
The collection contains traditional costumes and jewellery of different areas of Greece embroidery, utensils, furniture, books and the archives and correspondence of the Kougioumtzoglou family.
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The Silk Museum of Soufli
73, E.Venizelou Street
GR-68400 Soufli
(Ostmakedonien + Thrakien / Eastern Makedonia + Thrakia)
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Kontakt / Contact:
Fax.: +30-25540 - 23.
Info Telefon: +30-25540 - 23.
Besucher-Email: piop@piraeusbank.gr
http://www.piop.gr...
Träger/Financial provider:
Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation
Öffnungszeiten/Opening hours
Daily: 10.00-16.00 h
Tuesday: closed
1st of January, Good Friday (until 12.00),
Sunday of Easter, 23 of April or Monday of Easter (local Feaste),
1st of May, 15th of August, 25-26th of December: closed.
Sammelschwerpunkte/Main collections
The Silk Museum is housed in the Kourtidis Mansion (1883) and was set up in 1990.
The purpose of the permanent exhibition housed on the ground floor of the Kourtidis Mansion is to show the pre-industrial techniques by which silkworms were bred (sericulture) and silk was woven. It also deals with the socio-economic significance of these activities for Soufli and the surrounding area.
The exhibition is arranged as four units with 46 separete sets of exhibits of two -dimensional documentation and information material (texts, photographs, drawings, maps) and items traditionally associated with sericulture and silk-weaving.
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