Traditional Geek Costumes

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The museum houses costumes from a wide variety of locations in mainland Greece and the Greek Islands. As well as clothes there are collections of handmade lace, jewellery (including some from the owner's ancestors), belts, bags and and headscarves. The earliest examples are more than 150 years old but most of the collection dates from the early years of the 20th century.

In addition to the everyday clothing worn by both men and women there are displays of wedding garments and and richly embroidered clothes worn on special occasions.

The costumes come from Corfu, Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace, Thessaly, Central Greece, Attica and various Greek islands. Below you will find an introduction to some of those regions.

Corfu is the largest of the Ionian Islands and is situated off the west coast of Greece where it borders Albania. See map. Over the centuries it was occupied by the Venetians, the French and finally the English; all of them left their mark on Corfiot culture, language, cuisine and architecture.

Epirus is a moutainous region encompassing north-west Greece and part of southern Albania. See map. It was ruled by the Ottoman Turks for around 500 years and has seen many bloody conflicts over the centuries. Its main products are sheep and goats, and is an important area for feta cheese production. This part of the collection includes costumes from Metsovo and the villages of Zagoria.

There are a over 6,000 Greek islands. Only 227 of these islands are inhabited, and only 78 of those have more than 100 inhabitants. The largest Greek island by area is Crete, followed by Euboea, Lesbos and Rhodes. The Greek islands are traditionally grouped into the following groups: The Argo-Saronic Islands in the Saronic gulf near Athens; the Cyclades, a large but dense collection occupying the central part of the Aegean Sea; the North Aegean islands, a loose grouping off the west coast of Turkey; the Dodecanese, another loose collection in the southeast between Crete and Turkey; the Sporades, a small tight group off the coast of Euboea; and the Ionian Islands, located to the west of the Greek mainland in the Ionian Sea. See map.

Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region. See map. Despite its rugged terrain, Macedonia possesses some of the richest farmland in Greece and a wide variety crops are grown, including rice, wheat, beans, olives, cotton, tobacco, fruit and grapes. Food processing and textile weaving constitute the principal manufacturing industries with tourism a major industry along the coast. Macedonia's capital city is Thessaloniki, a major port and industrial centre. The new Egnatia motorway crosses the full distance of Macedonia, linking its main cities. Like most of the rest of Greece, Macedonia was under Ottoman occupation for several centuries and as the result of various wars in the early 20th century there were large movements of population involving Greek, Slavs, Turks and Muslims between Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria.

Thessaly lies in central Greece and borders Macedonia to the north, Epirus to the west, Central Greece to the south and the Aegean Sea to the east. Its largest towns, Trikala and Larissa, sit in a large plain surrounded by a ring of mountains. It is an extremely fertile region and is known as "the breadbasket of Greece". It is a vital agricultural area, particularly for the production of grain, cattle, and sheep.

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