Visitors’ facilities at Ancient Messene to be revamped

The Central Archaeological Council has approved a plan to improve the visitor experience at Ancient Messene in the southwest Peloponnese, one of the country’s top archaeological sites.

As part of the plan, access will be improved with ramps, while trees will be added to provide more shade. The new visitors’ shop will overlook the site, while an elevator will provide access to the cafe to physically impaired visitors. 

At the site’s northern entrance, the plan includes moving the visitors’ parking area to a different location and repositioning the ticketing area closer to the new archaeological museum, whose design is still in the works. At the southern entrance, a building of 98 square meters will be built to serve the site’s staff.

The renovation project is slated for completion by the end of 2025.

The Antiquities Ephorate of Messinia conducted salvage excavations in 2023 to identify where the entrances (north and south) will be replanned. The findings made during the dig are thought to date to the Late Classical or Early Hellenistic eras, and, based on the site’s Hippodamian urban layout, possibly belong to a cluster of private homes.

Ancient Messene was excavated by the late archaeologist Petros Themelis, who was committed to making the site environmentally sustainable and open to the public, a vision the new approved plans conform to. Its ancient theater, like that of Epidaurus, is open every summer for theater shows and musical performances, attracting hundreds of visitors.

Responding to the council’s approval of the revamp, Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said in a statement that the ministry’s goal is for all interventions, landscaping and constructions to be “as mild as possible.” [AMNA]