The Archaeological Museum of Mystras

The Archaeological Museum of Mystras will give you the chance to get to know better the brilliant Byzantine history of the famous fortified city, through findings of excavations at different time periods.

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The Archaeological Museum of Mystras will give you the chance to get to know better the brilliant Byzantine history of the famous fortified city, through findings of excavations at different time periods. 

The museum was officially founded in 1952, and it is located in the west wing of the courtyard of the church of Saint Demetrius. During its first years, an older exhibition of sculptures was preserved on the ground floor, enriched with objects from the Byzantine era, which were transferred there from the Archaeological Museum of Sparta. In the floor’s hall, small artefacts and mobile images were exhibited. The exhibition was expanded to the semi-open air area and the yards of the metropolitan complex, and their exterior was decorated with sculptures. 

In 2001, the permanent exhibition was reorganised according to the new thematic, museology and museography approach. 

The reorganised exhibition “Byzantium and the West: the experience of the Late-byzantine urban centre of Mystras”, focuses on the relations and connections between the Byzantine state and the West, which shaped the special political and social affairs, the intellectual life and art under the reign of the Palaiologos dynasty. 

Among the most important exhibits are parts of architraves, a marble engraved plate of the 14th century, representing the Ascension of Alexander the Great from the floor of Perivleptos, parts of an architrave from Pantanassa, etc. You will also see rare pieces of a silk garment and plaited hair, found in a grave at the Church of Hagia Sofia, which probably belonged to a lady of Mystras. The exhibits include coins, ceramics, images, miniature sculptures, vessels.  

Tel. 27310 83377.

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