New museum highlights evolution of modern Greek history
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni last week inspected the final arrangements at the new Museum of Modern Greek Culture, which is expected to open its doors to the public by the end of the year.
Located in the historic Athens district of Plaka, the new institution takes up the block flanked by Areos, Adrianou, Vrysakiou and Kladou streets, and comprises 18 buildings that represent the last vestiges of a small neighborhood east of the Stoa of Attalos.
They include a two-story Ottoman residence, the townhouse where Britain’s Lord Elgin is rumored to have kept and packed the Parthenon Sculpture before shipping them off to London, a chapel where folk writer Alexandros Papadiamantis once chanted, and other important buildings.
The buildings will be used to showcase everyday objects, crafts and art stretching from the mid-18th century all the way to the 1970s that illustrate the evolution of Greek society after the country’s independence from Ottoman rule.
