Address: 2 Leoforos Stratou, Thessaloniki, Greece
Tel: (+30) 2310 838 597
Webpage: www.mbp.gr
Opening hours: Mon 1pm to 7.30pm, Tues-Sun 8am to 7.30pm (summer hours)
Tickets: 4/2 euro (8/4 euro when purchased in combination with ticket to the Archaeological Museum)

The edifice of Thessaloniki’s Museum of Byzantine Culture resembles nothing of the collection it holds inside.

It was erected to the designs of architect Kyriakos Krokos, and opened in 1994. Eleven galleries house the museum’s goods, divided into period and subject, a slightly rising corridor drawing the visitor from one room to the next.

Beginning with the Early Christian/Early Byzantine period (4th to 7th centuries common era), galleries 1, 2 and 3 display the origins of the culture, architecture and arts normally associated with the term “Byzantium”. The first gallery exhibits a variety of ecclesiastical sculptings, from church cornices that recall the later mediaeval cathedrals that peppered Western Europe, to wall and floor mosaics in part or in mostly whole, pulpits, liturgical vessels and so on.

The more interesting, in my opinion, is gallery number two, which addresses daily life inera. Here are floor plans of typical houses, intuited from finds of archaeological digs in modern Thessaloniki, tools, descriptions of period dress and items from the home.

Notable is the hall’s centre, which is a reconstruction of some house’s mosaicked triclinium (sizable reception room) and wall paintings. When one thinks of all the work that would go into creating one of those floorings, and then the effort to reconstruct it…

What struck me the most in this gallery, and almost in the whole museum, were epitaphs on some of the stone shards displayed (5th to 6th century): “Demetrios the store-keeper”, “Petros the postman” and others; none of that “to the most-high goddess Athena” or some other inscription you can’t relate to: this could be you or me.

In gallery 3, named From the Elysian Fields to the Christian Paradise, is dedicated to burial practices and monuments. It was in this period that Christianity began to take hold in Byzantium, bringing with it a new view of death and the afterlife, which is seen here through the tomb styles.

The Middle Byzantine period (8th to 12th centuries) is addressed in galleries 4, 5 and 6. Gallery 4 is devoted to iconoclasm (intentional destruction by a culture of its own religious symbols and/or icons, usually for political or religious reasons), Middle Byzantine architecture, painting, sculpture and pottery, burial customs and the issuing of myrrh. Gallery 5 is wholly a display of coins minted under various emperors, empires or dynasties, from Heraklios (r 610-641) to Konstantin XI Palaiologos (r 1449-1453). Usually, numismatics holds no draw over me, but this was interesting, if only for the imagination process involved with hording, and why some eras’ coins were cupped like rose petals.

Byzantine castles, in gallery 6, I found informative because there was a large map of where one could see their ruins, and it also presented the logic behind choosing a fortress location.

It was in this room that the pottery question began.

All material in the Museum of Byzantine Culture is translated into English, and well at that, paralleling the Greek. When asked, museum staff provided desired information to the best of their knowledge, which might not always be that of an historian’s. But they are kind and do not hover.

Now to my favourite part, the Late Byzantine period (1204 to 1453). Going from the capture of Constantinople in 1204 during the First Crusade to its final defeat in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks, galleries 7, 8 and 9 exhibit Thessaloniki art and private collections donated to the museum.

It is gallery 7 that fascinated me most, due to the ceramics displayed. In the loft area of this hall, pottery from various Thracian (Greek) workshops is explained and exhibited. Strangely, it greatly resembles current Bulgarian pottery from the Veliko Turnovo region. Remember, the wares in this museum to which I refer date from 800 to 1000 years ago.

Items from the Serres atelier in eastern Greek Macedonia (Palaiologan period), with their hemispheric or angular body, the green and yellow sgraffito leave no doubt to the common Thracian culture. I had questioned why Bulgaria would still be producing such a style, 900 years after it flowered. My friend answered: Bulgaria never had a Renaissance.

The private collections of Dori Papastratou (Orthodox religious engravings) and Dimitrios Ekonomopoulos (mostly icons) follow.

And there are still two galleries to go: 10 is religious art after the Fall of Constantinople, and 11 shows the process behind creating an archaeological museum and the institute’s function.

The museum’s reception of the 2005 Council of Europe Museum Prize is well deserved; its flow, engaging collection and calm atmosphere are worth the time.