Archaeological Museum of Corfu


The Archaeological Museum was built between 1962 - 1965, on a site that was donated by the Municipality of Corfu, and was inaugurated in 1967. The main purpose of its construction was the exhibition of the huge Gorgon pediment of the Artemis temple, excavated in Paleopolis in the beginning of the 20th century.

 

In 1994 two more halls were added to the museum, where the new acquisitions from the resent excavations of the old town and the Garitsa cemetery were exhibited.

The exhibits came from:

 

  • An old collection of unknown origin.
  • The excavations of the ancient town of Corfu.
  • The excavations of the ancient town of Cassiopi in northern Corfu.
  • The excavations of Thesprotia on the opposite coast of Epirus.

 

The collections are comprised of:

Bronze statures from the Archaic to the Roman era. Funeral offerings from the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic eras, from the cemeteries of Garitsa and Almyros, as well as a rich collection of ancient coins.

Findings from the Prehistoric era and findings from the 7th and 6th century B.C. with the exceptional Menecrates lion, clay pottery and terracotta statuettes from the shrines of Corfu and the impressive Gorgon-Medusa pediment from the great temple of Artemis, made in 585 B.C., excavated in 1911 near the monastery of Aghioi Theodoroi, the oldest, so far, stone-pediment of an ancient Greek temple.

In other halls of the Museum there is another impressive limestone pediment (500 B.C.) from a Dionysos temple at Figaretto, 13 identical terracotta statutes of Artemis, exhibits from the 4th century B.C. to the Roman period, and the marble heads of the poet Menander and historian Thucydides. Finally there are exhibits from Paleopoli and Cassiopi, like: bronze surgical tools, clay oil-lamps and bone-tools of everyday use.

Byzantine Museum (Antivouniotissas)

 

The Byzantine Museum is housed in the Panagia Antivouniotissa church. The church is dedicated to our Lady Virgin Mary Antivouniotissa (Antivouniotissa = opposite the mountains) and is one of the oldest and richest ecclesiastical monuments of the city. It was probably built at the end of the 15th century. It is a single nave, timber-roofed basilica that preserves in tact the particularity of the Corfiot-Septinsular Basilica type church of that era, that is, the existence of an exo-narthex that surrounds the church on three sides. There is an atrium on the eastern side, were a belfry is incorporated.

The church internally is very impressive with high stalls, painted tapestries and a ceiling adorned with gilt coffers framing relief floral decorations. The templum and the floor of the church are made of stone. On the narthex there are gravestones with carved names and coats of arms of noble families, high priests and other prominent members of the Corfiot society.

In 1979 the proprietor families of Alamanos, Mylinopoulos, Rizicari and Scarpa decided to donate the rich in relics and portable icons church to the Greek State under the condition that it mast become a Museum of Christian Art. In 1984, after the necessary renovations, Melina Mercury inaugurated the Church-Museum. In 1994, after the second and last stage of the renovations, the final exhibition of the icons took place.

In the Museum there are about ninety portable icons and soon the Museum will be completed with the exhibition of the archival material of the church. The exhibited icons date from the second half of the 15th century until the 19th century and are indicative of the role that Corfu played in the development of the Greek ecclesiastic iconography, especially after 1664, when many refugees Cretan painters arrived in Corfu either to settle, or on their way to Venice.

The visitor may see the icon of Virgin Hodegetria of Castelani, of the second half of the 15th century, from a Macedonian workshop, as well as the Saints Sergius, Bacchus and Justine, a work for the church of Trimartyros made after the battle of Lepanto (1571) by Michael Damaskinos.

There are also the icons of the Epitaph, by Emmanuel Tzanfournaris, the small icon of the three Archangels, of the first half of the 17th century, by George Cortezas, the icons of Emmanuel Lambardos and Jeremias Palladas, painters that are distinguished for their exceptional technique and their conservative attitude, and finally the Dodecaorton icons of Emmanuel Tzanes, his icon "Noli me tangere", an order by the Justiniani family in 1657, and individual works by the painters Angelos, Andreas Ritzos, Ioannes Moschos, Theodoros Poulakis, Victor, Emmanuel Skordilis, Stefanos Tzankarolas and Constantinos Contarinis.

Museum of Asian Art

 

The Museum was founded in 1927, when the ambassador Gregory Manos donated his collection comprised of some 10,500 works of art, and operated until about 1974 as Sino-Japanese museum. Later the museum was enriched with other collections mainly from mid-Asia and since then operates as Museum of Asian Art. The museum often hosts periodic exhibitions.

In its fifteen rooms the collection of G. Manos (10,500 items) is exhibited, as well as the collections of N. Hadjivassiliou (450 items), Ch. Hiotakis (395 items), the exhibits from the Municipality of Corfu (93 items), and the donations of Petros Almanachos, Iordanes Siniosoglou, Ioannis Kollas and that of the National Archaeological Museum.

The Museum is housed in the Palace of Saint Michael and Saint George, which was built between 1819 and 1824, on plans designed by the architect and colonel of the corps of Royal Engineers Sir George Whitmore. It is a Neo-classical building, of the British Kidlston and Syon House rhythm, and served as the residence of the British High Commissioners, as the headquarters of the High Commission and of the Ionian Senate (government) until the Union with Greece, as the seat of the Ionian Parliament, temporarily, and as a treasury and the headquarters of the Chivalric Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (established in 1818), to which the building owes its name. After the Union (1864) the British offered the Palace to the Greek State and from then on until 1967 the Palace was used as the summer residence for the members of the Greek royal family and for some years housed the archaeological collection of Corfu.

On the ground floor of the Museum the hall of the Ionian Senate can be visited and old furniture, the portraits of the presidents of the Senate and other items have been preserved. On the second floor there is the impressive throne-room, the round ballroom and the dining room where the medals of the Chivalric order are painted on the walls.

Several valuable paintings decorate the walls and on the rest of the rooms the Asiatic collection is exhibited. These works of art include items from China (Chang, Tcheou, Han, Wei, T'ang, Sung, Ming and Ch'ing dynasties), Japan (Samurai suit of armor and weapons, No theater masks, etc) as well as exhibits from India, Pakistan, Korea, Siam, Tibet, Nepal, Cambodia and Thailand.

Of Particular interest is the unique Greek-Buddhistic collection of sculptures from Gadara, Pakistan, dating from the 1st-5th centuries A.D., and bearing evidence of Greek influences owing to the presence of Alexander the Great in the region.


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