Guided tours

Guided tour of the exhibition “From Homer’s World: Tenos and the Cyclades in the Mycenaean Age”

The Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation organized a special tour for the members of the Hellenic National Committee of ICOM to the exhibition “From Homer’s World. Tenos and the  Cyclades in the Mycenaean era”, on Friday 6 March 2020, at 6.00pm, at the Benaki Museum, 138 Pireos St., Piraeus.

The exhibition showcases the finds from the Mycenaean tholos tomb at Agia Thekla on Tenos, a rare funerary monument in the entire Aegean, which was excavated by Georgios Despinis in 1979. Burial place of members of an “aristocratic” clan, the Agia Thekla tholos tomb is one of only three such Mycenaean tombs known in the Cyclades. The precious objects recovered from it reflect the high cultural level of the period and enhance aspects of the Mycenaean Civilization, which can be rightly considered one of the most splendid civilizations in the history of Europe.

Displayed too are antiquities from other important prehistoric sites in the Aegean, specifically from Naxos, Delos, Mykonos, Paros, Melos, Siphnos, Thera and Kea, thus offering visitors a fuller picture of the nature and importance of Mycenaean Civilization in the Cyclades. The narrative is structured in units that shed light on basic human activities, such as everyday life, worship, war, funerary customs. Selected objects, representative items of pottery, metalwork, the minor arts, figurine-modelling and jewellery-making, reveal facets of the remarkable cultural heritage of the Mycenaeans, who were source of inspiration for the pinnacles of world literature, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The exhibition was co-organized by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades, the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation and the Benaki Museum.

The tour was conducted by Alexandra Tranta, Dr. archaeologist-museologist of PIOP.

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Guided tour of the exhibition “The Great Challenge: 90 years of Marathon Dam”

The Historical Archive of EYDAP organized a special tour for the members of the Hellenic National Committee of ICOM to the exhibition “The Great Challenge: 90 years of the Marathon Dam”, on Friday, February 21, 2020, at 5.30 pm, at Hellenic Cosmos – Foundation of the Hellenic World.

The tour was conducted by the curator of the exhibition, Mrs. Erato Koutsoudaki, architect-museologist.

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Guided tour of the exhibition “People and Factories” Museum of Modern History of Elefsina “Georgios Abatzoglou”

The Administrative Board of the Hellenic Committee of TICCIH is planning a series of events on Industrial Heritage during the 2016-2017 biennium.
In this context, on Sunday, 27 November 2016, it organized a guided tour for the members of the Hellenic National Committee of ICOM at the Museum of Modern History of Elefsina “Georgios Abatzoglou”, in the temporary exhibition “People and Factories”.
We were shown around the exhibition by the architect-museographer Erato Koutsoudaki-Gerolympou and the archaeologist and President of the Steering Committee of the Elefsina Museum, Kalliopi Papaggelis.

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Guided tour “PLEYSIS. Shipbuilding and Navigation of the Greeks from antiquity to modern times ” – Herakleidon Museum

On Saturday, October 8, 2016 at 12 pm, a guided tour for our members is organized at the exhibition “PLEYSIS. Shipbuilding and Navigation of the Greeks from antiquity to modern times” at the Herakleidon Museum.

The history of the Greek Navigation in the Aegean and the Mediterranean, a history of naval voyages, shipbuilding achievements, circulation of ideas and technological developments, through about forty handmade wooden models of Greek ships (0,60 m to 1,50 m), made in a traditional way and with genuine authentic materials, dating from prehistoric antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century.
The aim of the exhibition is to present to visitors, in a comprehensible and understandable way, the history of Greek shipbuilding and navigation, making them part of an imaginary journey through time and highlighting the timeless, close bond between the Greeks and the sea.

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Guided Tour on the Neraida Floating Museum

On Sunday 20 November 2016, a guided tour is organized for our members at the Neraida Floating Museum.

The Fairy Floating Museum is a special museum shell within which two central narratives are housed:
– The history of the ship from her construction in 1939 to the completion of her reconstruction in 2010.
– The business career of its owner, Yannis Latsis, from his birth in 1910 until the mid-1990s, when he retired from the world of business.

The “Neraida” was purchased by Yannis Latsis at the end of 1949 and served the residents and visitors of the islands of the Argosaronikos for about 25 years. After its conversion, the “Neraida” is sailing again in familiar waters, being at the same time a monument of Greek shipping, an impressive example of an old ship’s reconstruction, but also a museum of the owner’s business career.

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Guided tour – Exhibition “Thomas Hope. Drawings of Ottoman Constantinople”

On Saturday 24 September at 12 noon, a guided tour for members and friends of the Hellenic National Committee of ICOM will be organized at the exhibition “Thomas Hope. Drawings of Ottoman Constantinople” at the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art.

Born into a family of banking magnates, Thomas Hope (1769-1831) undertook, during the last quarter of the 18th century, the Grand Tour, the established tour of Greece and Turkey for young men of his class.
The importance of the Thomas Hope collection is not only limited to the aesthetic pleasure it offers to art lovers, but also constitutes a unique treasure trove of visual evidence for scholars of Ottoman culture.

The curators of the exhibition, Fani Maria Tsigakou and Mina Moraitou, will guide the visitors.