OPENING HOURS From 1 March to 15 October Daily (except Tuesday) 10:00-18:00 From 16 October to 28 February Daily (except Tuesday) 10:00-17:00 Closed: On Tuesdays, 1 January, 18 January (local holiday), Good Friday (until 12:00), Easter Sunday, 1 May, 15 August, 25 and 26 December ADMISSION General: € 4 / Concessions: € 2 Groups It is advisable to contact the Museum in advance, in order to obtain better service. Disabled persons There is no admission fee for disabled persons. Groups should definitely contact the Museum in advance to make the necessary arrangements. Photography, Filming Amateur photography and videotaping is permitted. Those wishing to take photographs or film the exhibits for professional purposes should obtain a special permit from Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation.
73 Eleftheriou Venizelou Street, GR-684 00 Soufli (Thrace) Tel.: +30 25540 23700, Fax: +30 25540 24027 mm@piraeusbank.gr
6 Ang. Geronta Str., GR-105 58 Athens, Tel.: +30 210 3256922 Fax: +30 210 3218145, piop@piraeusbank.gr, www.piop.gr
2018 SILVER MEDAL OF THE ORDER OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS
2012 EU PRIZE FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE EUROPA NOSTRA AWARD
The Museum was funded by the European Union and the Third Community Support Framework, Regional Operational Programme of Eastern Macedonia-Thrace 2000-2006
CYS EN ISO 14001:2015 No. ES.N.14.007
The Silk Museum is located in Soufli, a land identified with silk. It is housed in the Kourtidis Mansion (1883), which is marked by all the typical architectural features of the traditional bourgeois “mansions” in the area. The Mansion, where physician Konstantinos Kourtidis (1870-1944) lived, was donated by his daughter, Maria Kourtidi-Pastra, in order to house a museum dedicated to silk. The Museum has two buildings: the old Kourtidis mansion and the two-storey “koukoulospito” (cocoon house), both around an inner courtyard.
silkworms and the processing of silk. Various exhibition units present the reeling (unwinding of the filament from the cocoon), the dyeing and weaving of silk items as well as daily life in 20th-century Soufli. In the old mansion visitors can see unique traditional costumes of Soufli and their accessories as well as impressive costumes from the Chinese opera, which are part of the collection donated to the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in May 2018.
The Silk Museum is one of the first thematic museums of technical culture in our country. Its exhibition areas develop in both buildings. On the ground floor of the newer building, photographs and archival material highlight the multifarious personality of Konstantinos Kourtidis. In parallel, special films present the history of silk over time. The main exhibition develops on the first floor, focusing on the pre-industrial breeding of
The Silk Museum in Soufli belongs to the Network of Thematic Museums of the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, which is also responsible for its operation. The re-design of the Museum in 2009 was included in the Regional Operational Programme of Eastern MacedoniaThrace 2000-2006 and was funded by the Third Community Support Framework.
Ground floor
First floor
1. The Silk Museum in the Kourtidis Mansion
4. Sericulture
2. Soufli. The town of silk
5. The silk industry. Sorting, Stifling, Reeling
3. The history of silk
6. Dyeing 7. Weaving 8. Scenes from daily life in Soufli 9. Local costumes of Soufli
BUILDING A Ground floor SEATS
2 1
First floor
3
ATRIUM
4
5
11
10
Exhibition area BUILDING Β
Exhibition area BUILDING Β
6
ENTRANCE 9
Ancillary areas
10. Local costumes of Soufli
Tickets
Multipurpose hall
11. The Silk Road
Museum Shop
Children’s Corner
Cafe
Administration offices
8
7
Photographs: PIOP Archives/phot. Nikos Daniilidis, Grigoris Bistinas- Tassoula Koutsi Archives- Grigoris Bistinas Photo Archives. Cover: PIOP Archives/phot. Vassilis Karavasiloglou
Exhibition area BUILDING A