Folklore Museum of Samothraki

The island's everyday past, in one stone house

The Folklore Museum sits next to the Church of the Assumption in Chora, in a traditional stone house from the 19th century. The building was given to the community in 1952 by a Greek-American, Dimitrios Asdranias, in memory of his wife. Before it became a museum it was the island's first secondary school, and for a while a medical post while the hospital in Chora was being built.

The museum opened in 1985 with help from the Cultural Association of Samothraki, the municipality and many residents, who had been donating objects since the 1970s.

What you see

• Ground floor: farming tools, the gear of shepherds and goat breeders, wool working tools and a loom.
• Upper floor: a family home as it looked around 1900, with the hearth-side kitchen, a low dining table, the tall wooden cupboard called a misandra, an iron bed from 1924 and the icon corner.
• Traditional island dress for men and women, wedding costumes and old photographs of the island.

Visiting

The museum usually opens in the summer season only, in the morning and again in the evening; hours change from year to year. It is a short walk from the castle and the main square, so it fits easily into an evening in Chora.