Twenty years Museum of Byzantine Culture

Twenty years from the Journey Home

Abstract

The Museum of Byzantine Culture is a state museum, which is part of the Ministry of Culture and Sports. The building, a work of art and historically listed monument, constructed between 1989-1993 and based on the plans of Kyriakos Krokos, joins elements of modernism and of Greek architectural heritage. It has received a special notion by the international committee of the competition Awards 2000 of the Hellenic Institute for Architecture. In 2005, the Museum of Byzantine Culture was awarded the “Museum Prize” of the Council of Europe, given for the first time in its history to a Greek museum. The Museum received this distinction because of its “visitors-friendly” and educational character. The eleven rooms of the permanent exhibition opened gradually to the public from 1997 to the beginning of 2004. 2014 is a landmark, because there have been supplemented twenty years from its first opening to the public. One of our goals is to organize exhibitions with institutions located both in Greece and abroad. We aim at establishing unique events promoting not only scholarly research, but also dissemination of knowledge to the wider public. The Museum’s overall work involves a variety of subjects connected to the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine culture, and the role of Thessaloniki as the most important political, economic, intellectual, and artistic centre after Constantinople in the process of its incorporation in the Modern Greek state.