Recent excavations conducted by the 16th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities have brought to light part of the Archaic walls as well as the Classical fortification of the city, preserved in very good condition. On the low ridge between the two hills of the peninsula stands the Agora, political and commercial center of the city. It is dominated by a long, rectangular portico (classical stoa), an edifice in which the people of Stageira assembled for public debate. A complex of public storerooms and shops is situated to the east of the portico, in front of a paved road.

On the top of the north hill part of a temple dating from the 6th c. B.C. came to light under the byzantine enclosure which was built there about the 10th c. A.D. On the steep north-east side of the hill are the ruins of an archaic sanctuary and a series of storerooms and workshops, mainly of the Early Hellenistic period, built against the inner side of the Late Classical fortification.

The acropolis of Stageira occupies the large plateau on the summit of the south hill. The slopes of the hill are protected by the south section of the fortification through which runs the main water-supply conduit of the city.

Parts of houses have been discovered over the entire area of the ancient city. The steep terrain indicated the creation of stepped terraces on which building blocks or individual houses were erected.

Administrative Information

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Halkidiki and Agion Oros
Olympiada, Τ.Κ. 57014, Olympiada, Prefecture of Chalkidiki (Prefecture of Halkidiki)
Telephone: +302371022060, +302310285163
Fax: +302310251892
Email: efachagor@culture.gr

Tickets: Free access

Access to the Archaeological Site: By car or bus to the community of Olympiada.

Source: http://odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Halkidiki and Agion Oros

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The regular shape (square) of the city was no doubt dictated by the flat plain in which it stands, but it is quite likely that, as has been suggested, both the town-plan and the fortifications of Dion called upon the experience gained by the city-builders of the time from the new cities founded by Alexander and his successors in the lands of Asia.

In the east sector of the archaeological site of Dion has been discovered the villa of Dionysus, which takes its name from the large mosaic depicting the god that covers the floor of the banqueting room. The sanctuaries of the gods, two theatres (one Greek and one Roman) and the stadium have been discovered outside the city walls. Amongst the gods worshipped at Dion, the most important was Olympian Zeus, after whom the city was named (the genitive of “Zeus” being Dios). In the god’s precinct have been found stone stelae bearing inscriptions relating to treaties of alliance, the settlement of border disputes, parts of official decrees, etc. The sanctuary of Demeter, just outside the walls and the gate at the end of the main street of the city, is the earliest Macedonian sanctuary known to date. It had an uninterrupted life from the late 6th c. B.C. to the early 4th c. A.D. To the east of the sanctuary of Demeter has been discovered a sanctuary devoted to the cult of the Egyptian gods Sarapis, Isis and Anubis. There is a small temple of Aphrodite Hypolympidia (Aphrodite worshipped below Mount Olympus) in this same sanctuary.

The Hellenistic theatre of Dion, which lies outside the walls, was built in the reign of Philip V (221-179 B.C.). The Roman theatre, dating from the 2nd c. A.D., has been identified south-east of the Hellenistic structure. The cemetery of Dion extents mainly to the south and east of the city. The funerary monuments date from the 5th c. B.C. to the 5th c. A.D. During Early Christian times the city contracted and the central area was occupied by an Early Christian Basilica dating from the late 4th c. A.D. Dion appears to have been abandoned during the 5th c. A.D. as a result of natural disasters (earthquakes, floods), its inhabitants moving to safer areas in the foothills of Mount Olympus.

Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Pieria
Τ.Κ. 60100, Dion, Pieria (Prefecture of Pieria)
Telephone: +302351053484
Email: efapie@culture.gr

Tickets: Full: €8, Reduced: €4

Access: By road, 17 km south of Katerini

Source: http://odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Pieria

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The hollow of the Theater is based on an embankment, supported by a strong semicircular ascent, the western part of which is kept in good condition.The ascent, built of massive stone blocks, has the same shape as the fortifications, gates and towers of the city, and every 20 meters or so it brought impressive pointed gates with internal staircases, which led to the upper cornice.From there, descending stairwells started, which ended in the orchestra, horizon and the stands of the building. Large stone external staircase in the NW curve of the ascent leads to the upper cornice emphasizing the architectural peculiarities of the building.

In the years of the Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius (1st century AD) the stage and the foreground were completely replaced. New repairs and modifications were made with the financial sponsorship of the powerful Messinian family of Saithida, around the middle of the 2nd c. A.D.

The Roman scene is quite well preserved. The facade was multi-storey (at least three-storey) with doors, arches and niches. White and multicolored marble columns made of marble and granite were used for this purpose.The colonnade of the lower row was crowned by Corinthian capitals, while the upper ones had Ionian and Egyptian capitals. These elements of the Theater of Messene foreshadow the colossal theaters and amphitheaters of Roman times.The ground floor of the tent consists of a central semicircular niche, and two rectangles, right and left. In each niche there were two pedestals for the foundation of a total of six marble statues of benefactors and other persons. Statues were placed in the smaller niches of the upper floors of the stage, while statues of spiritual men and benefactors were erected around the orchestra of the building.

The Ancient Theater of Messene seems to have been abandoned already at the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 4th c. A.D. This is inferred from the use of bricks of the ascent of the hollow in the last construction phase of the Arsinoe Fountain, which dates back to the time of Diocletian (284-305 AD).

Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Messinia

Mauromati-Ithomis, Mauromati (Prefecture of Messinia)
Telephone: +30 27240 51201
Email: efames@culture.gr

Tickets:
Full: €10, Reduced: €5
Archaeological Site and Museum of Ancient Messene

Amenities for the physically challenged:
WC for people with special needs at the archaeological site.

Access:
By road from Athens via Corinth-Tripoli-Kalamata highway, or via Corinth-Patras-Pyrgos-Kyparissia-Meligala highway. A route by car is required from Olympia about an hour.

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Messinia

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Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Lakonia
Τ.Κ. 23100, Sparti (Prefecture of Lakonia)
Telephone: +30 27310 28575
Fax: +30 27310 21516
Email: efalak@culture.gr

Tickets:
Free access

Open:
08:00-20:00

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Lakonia

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The Classical temple was raised on bedrock, on a specially built terrace. Like several other temples in Arcadia, it is orientated east-west instead of the usual north-south, possibly because of local tradition. The building is of local grey limestone, with parts of the roof, the capitals of the cella and the sculptural decoration being of marble. This is the only known temple of antiquity to combine three architectural orders. It is Doric, peripteral, distyle in antis, with pronaos, cella, adyton and opisthodomos. The temple has six columns on the short sides and fifteen on the long sides, instead of the period’s usual ratio of 6:13, which gave it the characteristic elongated shape of Archaic temples. Inside the cella, on either side was a series of five Ionic half-columns engaged in buttresses, which projected from the sidewalls dividing the space into niches. The last pair of half-columns divided the cella diagonally, not at right angles like the others. Between them stood a single column. Its capital, recorded in the drawings of the first modern travellers, is the earliest known example of a Corinthian capital in the history of Greek architecture (fragments of the capital are now in the National Archaeological Museum). According to one theory this column was in fact an aniconic representation of the deity in accordance with the earliest Arcadian traditions, while another theory suggests that the fifth pair of half-columns, which stood on either side of this one, was also Corinthian. The cult statue of Apollo was inside the adyton, which was located behind the Corinthian column. A door on the east wall led to the pteron, on the outside. The two-sloped roof had marble tiles of Corinthian type.

A Doric frieze of undecorated metopes and triglyphs ran along the outer fa?ades. Only the inner metopes of the short sides were decorated: those on the pronaos had depictions of Apollo’s return to Olympus and those on the opisthodomos contained the rapture of the daughters of the Messenian king Leukippos by the Dioskouroi. The pediments may have been undecorated. The temple’s main decorative feature was the marble Ionic frieze supported by the Ionic half-columns of the cella. This frieze was thirty-one metres long and consisted of twenty-three marble slabs, of which twelve depicted battles between Greeks and Amazons and the remaining eleven showed battles between Lapiths and Centaurs. The frieze was unearthed by foreign antiquaries in 1812 and sold to the British Museum in 1815. It may have been the work of Paionios, who also executed the celebrated statue of Nike at Olympia.

Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Ilia
Τ.Κ. 27061, Figaleia (Prefecture of Ilia)
Telephone: +302626022275

Open:
For security reasons the Temple of Apollo Epikourios will remain closed to the public when extreme weather conditions are forecast in the area (wind speeds exceeding 6 Beaufort and wind gusts reaching 70 km/h.) Please contact the ticket office to confirm the operation of the site on the phone +302626022275.

Access:
The area can be reached only by road from Andritsaina, where a road of about 12 km leads to the temple. Another access is from Nea Figalia, and from E.O. Pyrgos-Kalamata, via Dorio. Access is only by private cars and tourist buses. There is no transportation.

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Ilia

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The museum’s collections include sculptures, mosaics, murals, icons, coins, inscriptions, ceramics, manuscripts, handicrafts and glassware. This material comes from excavations in Thessaloniki and other areas of Macedonia, from markets, donations and traditions of antiquities, as well as from the return of the antiquities of Macedonia, which were transferred in 1916, after the liberation of Thessaloniki, to the Byzantine and Christian Museum Athens, where they were kept until the 1990s.The museum has also donated two large private collections, of Dori Papastratou, which consists of Orthodox religious engravings, and of Dimitrios Economopoulos, which includes mainly icons but also ceramics, coins and small works of art. Today, the museum’s collections continue to be enriched with purchases of objects, made by the Ministry of Culture or by donations from individuals and institutions. The museum is housed in one of the most important buildings of modern public architecture in Greece, work of the architect Kyriakos Krokos, while it also includes the monument-logo of Thessaloniki, the White Tower.Its permanent exhibition is developed in eleven rooms, which correspond to an equal number of independent exhibition sections. They all cover different aspects and periods of Byzantine culture and are organized according to modern museological conceptions, so that each object is not treated as an independent work of art, but integrated into a set of objects to illustrate aspects of the society that created it.The first 3 rooms are dedicated to the early Christian era (4th-7th century). The next 3 in the mid-Byzantine (8th-12th), the seventh in the late Byzantine (13th-1453), the 8th and 9th in the collections of Papastratos and Economopoulos respectively, the 10th in the post-Byzantine era (1453-19th century) and the 11th in the process from the discovery of the ancient object to its exhibition in the museum.

The museum has specialized and fully equipped workshops for the preservation of wooden images, ceramics, glass, bone, metal, paper, mural, mosaic, stone and marble. Its warehouses are spacious and functional, shaped according to modern international standards, while there is a special reception area for excavation findings.The storage and laboratory spaces are housed in the basement and on the first level of the building and occupy an area of ​​about 5,000 square meters, almost twice that of the exhibition. The museum also has an amphitheater, space for periodical exhibitions and other activities and a shop.

Administrative Information:

Official Unit:
Museum of Byzantine Culture
2 Stratou Avenue, Τ.Κ. 54013, Thessaloniki (Prefecture of Thessaloniki)
Telephone: +30 2313 306400
Fax: +30 2313 306402
Email: mbp@culture.gr

Tickets:
Full: €8, Reduced: €4

Open:
Monday – Sunday 09.00-16.00

Amenities for the physically challenged:
The Museum is accessible for people with dissabilities.
Moreover, For the blind people and people with limited vision we have a leaflet in Braille script (Greek-English), a special shaped outdoor exhibition with marmor artifacts and a program of audio-haptic guided tour through the Museum’s permanent exhibition titled “Touch and be acquainted with Byzantium” in three languages (English, German, Russian) and in Greek. Moreover we provide a special brochure for the escort. All these are free of charge by the use of entrance ticket.

Access:
With a city bus
From the east towards the centre of the city
Lines 7, 10, 11, 12, 31, 58
Bus stop “Stratigio” – Museum of Byzantine Culture
Line 8
Bus stop Museum of Byzantine Culture
Lines 3, 5, 6, 33, 39, 78
Bus stop City Hall

From the centre of the city towards the Museum
Lines 3, 10, 11, 12, 31, 39
Bus stop “Stratigio” – Museum of Byzantine Culture
Line 3
Bus stop Museum of Byzantine Culture

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Museum of Byzantine Culture

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His exhibition sections also include votive and resolution reliefs, pottery such as vases, figurines and reliefs as well as other small items such as bronze votive figurines and utensils. Some of the sculptures of bronze objects and pottery were transferred from the National Archaeological Museum where they were kept. The inscribed works (votive bases, honorary resolutions, lists of the votive offerings of the goddess Athena, building inscriptions of the Erechtheion) were transferred from the Epigraphic Museum and the coins (“treasures”) from the Numismatic Museum of Athens.Important is the gap in the Acropolis Museum of the original sculptures of the Parthenon, which are in European Museums and University collections (British Museum, Louvre, etc.). The Acropolis Museum and its activities are inextricably linked to the archeological site and the restoration works carried out on the monuments of the rock and the slopes of the Acropolis.

Administrative Information

Official Unit:
Acropolis Museum
15 Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, Τ.Κ. 11742, Athens (Prefecture of Attiki)
Telephone: 210 9000900
Email: info@theacropolismuseum.gr

Tickets:
Full: €5, Reduced: €3

Amenities for the physically challenged:
All public areas of the Museum are wheelchair accessible. Wheelchairs are available free of charge at the Museum entrance.

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Acropolis Museum

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The museum is housed in an imposing neoclassical building of the end of the nineteenth century, which was designed by L. Lange and remodelled by Ernst Ziller. The vast exhibition space – numerous galleries on each floor accounting for a total of 8,000 square metres – house five large permanent collections: The Prehistoric Collection, which includes works of the great civilizations that developped in the Aegean from the sixth millennium BC to 1050 BC (Neolithic, Cycladic, Mycenaean), and finds from the prehistoric settlement at Thera. The Sculptures Collection, which shows the development of ancient Greek sculpture from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC with unique masterpieces. The Vase and Minor Objects Collection, which contains representative works of ancient Greek pottery from the eleventh century BC to the Roman period and includes the Stathatos Collection, a corpus of minor objects of all periods. The Metallurgy Collection, with many fundamental statues, figurines and minor objects. And, finally, the only Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Collection in Greece, with works dating from the pre-dynastic period (5000 BC) to the Roman conquest.

The museum possesses a rich photographic archive and a library with many rare publications, the latter of which is constantly enriched to meet the needs of the research staff. There are also modern conservation laboratories for metal, pottery, stone and organic materials, a cast workshop, a photographic laboratory and a chemistry laboratory. The museum has temporary exhibition spaces, a lecture hall for archaeological lectures and one of the largest shops of the Archaeological Receipts Fund.

The National Archaeological Museum welcomes thousands of visitors each year. Besides displaying its own treasures, it organizes temporary exhibitions and lends artefacts to exhibitions both in Greece and abroad. It also functions as a research center for scientists and scholars from around the world and participates in special educational and other programs. An important feature is the availability of guided visits for people with hearing impediments. The Museum functions as a Special Regional Service of the Ministry of Culture and its five permanent collections are administered autonomously.

Administrative Information

Official Unit:
National Archaeological Museum
44 Patission St., Τ.Κ. 10682, Athens (Prefecture of Attiki)
Telephone: +30 213 214 4800, +30 213 214 4891
Fax: +30 210 8213573, 8230800
Email: eam@culture.gr

Tickets:
Full: €12, Reduced: €6

Amenities for the physically challenged:
Ramps, Lifts, WC

Access:
Metro – Omonia or Victoria Station
Βuses No. Β5, Α7, Α8, Β8, Β12, Γ12, 022, 035, 046, 060, 224, 605, 608, 622
Trolley: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 13, 15, 18, 19

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
National Archaeological Museum

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The museum, located in the town centre, was built between 1937 and 1940 by architect Patroklos Karantinos on a site previously occupied by the Roman Catholic monastery of Saint-Francis which was destroyed by earthquake in 1856. The museum’s antiseismic building is an important example of modernist architecture and was awarded a Bauhaus commendation. The colours and construction materials, such as the veined polychrome marbles, recall certain Minoan wall-paintings which imitate marble revetment. The two-storeyed building has 27 galleries, a gallery for audio-visual displays, extensive modern laboratories, a cloakroom, a cafeteria and a museum shop that sells museum copies, books, postcards and slides.

The Herakleion Archaeological Museum is a Special Regional Service of the Ministry of Culture and its purpose is to acquire, safeguard, conserve, record, study, publish, display and promote Cretan artefacts from the Prehistoric to the Late Roman periods. The museum organizes temporary exhibitions in Greece and abroad, collaborates with scientific and scholarly institutions, and houses a variety of cultural events.

Administrative Information:
Official Unit:
Archaeological Museum of Herakleion
Xanthoudidou 2 Str., Τ.Κ. 71202, Herakleion (Prefecture of Iraklio)
Telephone: 2810 279000, 2810 279002, 2810 279087
Fax: 2810 279001
Email: amh@culture.gr

Tickets:
Full: €12, Reduced: €6
Tickets can be bought either at the museum’s ticket booth with a credit or debit card, or online through the only official website: https://etickets.tap.gr/ Tickets can only be used on the scheduled day and time slot.

Access:
Xanthoudidou 2 Str.

Source: http://odysseus.culture.gr

Archaeological Museum of Herakleion

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Following a long period of extensive renovation and reorganization of both the exhibits and the storage and the administrative sections, the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki reopened its gates to the public in September 2006. During the restoration phase, in conjunction with the extension of the Museum?s premises, the permanent collections were also redesigned and exhibited in a way that would serve the needs of modern visitors.

The Museum’s exhibition proposal comprises of eight units, through which the visitors come in contact with the world of ancient Macedonia, its culture and its people:1. Prehistoric Macedonia, 2. Towards the Birth of Cities, 3. Macedonia form the 7th c. BC until the late antiquity, 4. Thessaloniki, Metropolis of Macedonia, 5. The Gold of Macedon, 6. Field, House, Garden, Grave, 7. Memory in stone, 8. Macedonia: from fragments to pixels

Administrative Information:

Official Unit:
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki
6 M. Andronikou Str., Τ.Κ. 54621, Thessaloniki (Prefecture of Thessaloniki)
Telephone: +30 2313 310201
Fax: +30 2310 861306
Email: amth@culture.gr

Tickets:
Full: €8, Reduced: €4
From November 1st to March 31st the ticket price for the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki is 4 euros for all visitors.

Amenities for the physically challenged:
Entrance for visitors with special needs.

Source: http://odysseus.culture.gr
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki

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