MUSEUMS

The Folklore Museum and Archive

The Folklore Museum and Archive was founded with the Presidential Decree no. 89, issue no. 30/3-12-1977, though the roots of its foundation can be traced back to the period 1964-1969 when the first Chair of Folklore of the Faculty of Philosophy, Dimitrios Loukatos created the first collection.

The Museum belongs to the Sector of Folklore Studies of the Department of History and Archeology of the University of Ioannina and supports teaching and research. At the same time, it also attempts to open up to the local community, carrying out wider educational and cultural actions. The Museum is therefore open to the public and particularly welcomes primary and secondary school students.

The collections of the Folklore Museum are exhibited in an area of ca. 200 sq.m. at the campus of the University, in the Faculty of Philosophy, opposite the amphitheatre Sotiris Dakas.

For facilitating the relevant teaching and research, all material has been inserted since 2003 into a specially designed database.

Website:  http://folklore-museum.uoi.gr
Contact informaton: Fanis Dasoulas (+30 2651005192, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Museum of Casts

The Museum of Casts belongs to the Department of History and Archeology of the University of Ioannina (ΠΔ 89/3.2.1977). It is located on the ground floor of the building of the Faculty of Philosophy, next to the amphitheatre Sotiris Dakas.

The creation of the Teaching Collection at the Museum of Casts intended primarily to mitigate the remote location of the epirote University from the Greek archaeological museums. Therefore, in 1967, the Emeritus Professor of Classical Archaeology Sotirios Dakaris formed the first collection of copies of representative ancient Greek statues of all periods. Lila Maragou, emeritus Professor of Classical Archaeology, succeeded into enriching the collection by purchasing casts by the Greek Ministry of Culture until 2000. New additions are made almost every year since then.

Except for copies of ancient statues, the collections of the museum also include original archaeological objects, made of clay or stone, vases and tools. The Museum of Casts thus functions as a laboratory for the processing and study of archaeological material. These objects are donations, made by the Ephorates of Antiquities of Achaia and Larisa, the Thasos Archaeological Museum, or originate from private collections.

Most of the sculptures in the collection are exact copies of their Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic prototypes, exhibited today in National Archaeological Museum, the New Acropolis Museum and the Kerameikos Museum in Athens, while one statue is a copy from the Louvre Museum in Paris. The Cycladic figurines and the sculptural work of the Mycenaean era are also represented.

The Greek sculpture of the collection is divided chronologically into:

• Archaic sculpture, represented by kouroi and korai (from cemeteries and sanctuaries), as well as grave stelai,
• Bronze statues of the Severe style (Charioteer, Poseidon/Zeus of Artemision),
• Classical sculpture, including the Spearbearer by Polykleitos, the Youth of Marathon, the head of Hermes of Praxitelis, numerous grave stelai (Hegesos, Hairedimos and Lykeas, Dexileos) as well as votive reliefs (the large Eleusinian relief). A plaque from the north side of the Parthenon frieze (horsemen) and a plaque from the thorakion of the Temple of Athena Nike are also included in the collection.
• Hellenistic sculpture represented by Aphrodite of Melos, marble heads of portraits of poets and philosophers (Sappho, Menandros, Demosthenes).

Original objects form the second assemblage of the Museum of Casts. The diversity of their material is of particular importance. Examples of paleolithic stone tools from Epirus date to the prehistoric era: nuclei, fragments, blades and tools made of stone, as well as samples of Mesolithic tools. Sherds of Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery and figurines are also present.

Sherds of clay vases extending from the Mycenaean period to the later Hellenistic era beong to the Museum. Fragments of Archaic Corinthian, Attic black-figured vases, and Hellenistic vases, as well as plain pottery are worth noting. The collection also includes other types of objects, like rooftiles, loomweights, figurines and grinding stones.

The training of the students at the Museum of Casts is absolutely necessary. In the frame of seminars and special courses, students have the opportunity to practice methods of approaching artefacts through exact copies, while being into direct contact with the material of the ancient objects. They are also trained in the classification, cataloguing, study and dating of original archaeological material, while learning archaeological photography and drawing.