MUNICIPALITY OF VOLOS

It is the first and the only modern City Museum in Greece. Aspires to be a place where life stories of the people of the city along with the material evidence of their activity will be exposed. It seeks to become a museum for the people and by the people of the city, looking forward not only to the composition of the common present, but in creative outlets for the future as well. The new museum exploits modern scientific data and build upon the potential of advanced technology.

All city residents and visitors

Since 22 December 2014

In a historic building, connected with the collective memories of the city of Volos, houses the Museum of the City. Installed in “Palia”, a neighborhood in the city limits of Volos and close to those of Nea Ionia, the new city built after the arrival of refugees from Asia Minor, the building functioned as a place of work of the city's tobacco workers, but also as a temporary camp of refugees on 1922.
 

The new museum, which is the only modern city museum in Greece, opened its doors to the public by hosting the exhibition "Volos - N. Ionia: so close - so far", held on the occasion of completing 90 years of establishing the refugee settlement of Nea Ionia, on 28 December 1924. The main theme of the exhibition is the paths of different people who met and lived together in a common place, giving great weight to oral history as well, beyond the 120 objects, the visitor may have access to 900 minutes of audio testimonials and audiovisual material, where the city's modern history is reflected. People of Volos and Nea Ionia presented through the stories of their lives, they themselves entrusted to the Museum of the City of Volos and are a focal point of the exhibition.

On two floors of the museum, the report begins by presenting the urban area, the landscape which first met refugees arriving in the capital of Magnesia, and urban space that they themselves created after years of work. The remaining sections that make up the museological narrative examines the work of people, indigenous and refugees, the residence that housed their privacy and the neighborhoods where they live with their fellow citizens, the clothing that works as a key to reading the social, economic and occupational diversification of the people of the city. After work, followed by entertainment, leisure management, which offers a different way of understanding the life of the city and its people. Even football highlights the differences, refugees and locals, as they survive in the traditional rivalry between the two major local groups, Niky and Olympiacos. If the first years of discrimination dominate between refugees and locals, between "up" and "down" from the river, the periods of crisis experienced by the city and form a separate part of the storytelling helped to mitigate these contradictions: the Italian-German occupation (1941-1944), earthquakes and floods of 1955-57, the period of industrialization of the 1980s, but also social and economic upheavals of the last years of the 20th century are presented in the museum.

Finally, the ground floor the temporary exhibition "The lithographic Matsangou" presenting posters, models and packages of cigarettes wrapping paper plans "Tobacco Brothers Matsangou" from the rare collection of the Municipal Center of History and Documentation of Volos.

1. University of Thessaly: Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology and Department of Architecture.
2. Association "Friends of the Museum of Volos".

Employees of the Department of Archives, museums, libraries DOEPAP - DIPETHE Volou.

Volos

The visitor learns how the urban space shapes the individual and collective stories of life, the relationship between memory and city and how the collective memory arises through a spatial context. The city is a field for the observation and study of historical change. With innovative approach -that goes beyond simple historical narrative or simple exposure of objects- people of the city are the epicenter of the museum where the relationship between the city and memory is highlighted, as expressed in the oral testimonies (interrelationship museum and people of the city). Due to the fact that the museum has opened recently, there are no measurable effects/results on the public

Through the construction of the museum, the protection of cultural heritage and identity of the city of Volos has been achieved. Moreover, the museum serves as an attraction not only for tourists but also for students - researchers. Due to the fact that the museum has opened recently, there are not measurable results, yet. However, due to the museum, significant material on the modern history of the region has been gathered and many hours of oral evidence on unknown aspects of the history of the city has been recorded (900 minutes presented in the museum).