Thessaloniki_EN

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MUSEUMS
religious and everyday life
of local Jews.
• Holocaust. A special
exhibition area depicts the
genocide of the approx. 49,000
members of Thessaloniki’s
Jewish Community, who were
sent off to Auschwitz and
Bergen Belsen concentration
camps to be exterminated.
• Photography exhibits.
The museum hosts interesting
exhibitions, such as the one
titled Thessaloniki, a Metropolis
of the Sephardi Jews by S.
Marks.
MUSEUM OF THE
MACEDONIAN STRUGGLE
The museum exhibits are
on display in seven rooms on
the ground floor, and show the
main aspects of the history
of Macedonia in the 19 th and
early 20 th c. during the struggle
for freedom against the
Ottoman Turks. Greek revolts
of that period in Macedonia are
described in Room A; exhibits
related to the Macedonian
society of the late 19 th c. are
in Room B; a reconstruction
of the office of the Greek
General Consul is in Room C;
the process of recruitment in
the Greek guerilla forces of
those times is on display in
Room D; the role played by the
clergy is depicted in Room E;
the Balkan Wars are described
in Room F; the course of
Macedonian history following
the Balkan Wars is in Room G.
Costumes and authentic relics
from the Balkan Wars Period
(arms, uniforms among other
items), are exhibited in the
1st floor, as is a collection of
miniature vehicles of the Greek
army.
WAR MUSEUM
Exhibits include objects
such as uniforms, arms, maps,
battleship effigies, documents
and military decorations,
which are connected with the
most significant events of the
modern Greek history, from the
1821 War of Independence
until the 1944 liberation from
the German Occupation forces.
In the museum’s courtyard you
will see armoured vehicles,
fighters and torpedoes used by
the Greek Army in the past.
ATATURK MUSEUM
Exhibits occupy two floors:
The 1 st floor includes the
parlour, the living room, the
room of Kemal Ataturk’s
mother and the kitchen. The
room where Kemal was born
is in the 2 nd floor and his
personal items and documents
from school are exhibited in
separate areas. The largest
part of the furniture is
authentic; there are photos on
the walls that refer to various
stages of his life.
FOLKLIFE & ETHNOLOGICAL
MUSEUM OF MACEDONIA
-THRACE
It was founded in 1957
as the Folklife Museum of
Northern Greece and took its
current name in 1993. 20,000
objects from Macedonia and
Thrace are on display there,
mostly covering the period
from 1860 to 1960; there
is a major folk art archive
(photos, maps, sound and
image records and other
items) as well as a special
library. Among the exhibits
you will see folk costumes,
embroidery, woven fabrics,
miniature art and woodcraft,
popular musical instruments,
wooden and copper housewares
and figures of the Shadow
Puppet Theatre.
STATE MUSEUM OF
CONTEMPORARY ART
It was inaugurated in 1997
and its major acquisition is
the Kostakis Collection which
includes pieces representative
of the Russian Avant-Garde
art movement which flourished
in the first three decades of
the 20 th c. It comprises 1,277
works of art (e.g. paintings,
sketches, constructions,
pottery) crafted by well-known
Russian artists such as K.
Malevich, V. Kandinsky, L.
Popova, A. Rodchenko, I. Kliun,
V. Stepanova, N. Udaltsova,
M. Matiushin and others; it is
one of the richest collections
of its kind in the whole world.
The museum owns an
extensive archive material on
the Russian avant-garde and a
remarkable collection of works
of art by contemporary Greek
visual artists (K. Giannakos,
St. Antonakos, G. Vakalo and
others); occasionally it hosts
major temporary exhibitions.
The Thessaloniki Centre
of Contemporary Art (located
in the port area) is a selfsupporting
section of the
Museum and hosts temporary
exhibitions of Greek and
MUSEUMS
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85 86 87
85 & 86.
(left) The
neoclassical
building of
the Museum
for the
Macedonian
Struggle and
(right) one of
its exhibits.
87.
The building
and grounds
of the War
Museum.