Mistras Archaeological Museum

The Museum of the Archaeological site of Mystras is housed in two-storey building on the west wing of the northern courtyard of the Cathedral ( Cathedral of St. Demetrios Mistra ).

The first informal museum in the eastern wing of the Metropolitan band was founded by Frenchman byzantinologist Gabriel Millet in the late 19th century .There, they exhibited architectural sculptures from the temples of Mystras, while in the early 20th century the collection was enriched with the contribution of the bishop of Sparta Theoklitos Minopoulos.

The Museum of Mystras was officially founded in 1952 by the curator of antiquities mr. Nicholas Drandakis, so the collection was moved to the west wing of the metropolitan assembly. In the hall of the first floor were exhibited small objects, with the majority of them coming from the excavations at the site, as well as icons, while downstairs the earlier exhibition of sculptures enriched with carrying objects of the Byzantine era, that were transferred from the Museum of Sparta. Then the exhibition was extended to the outdoors and courtyards of the metropolitan assembly, continuing a trend that had already been adopted by personalities such as bishop Ananias Lambardis, who decorated sides with sculptures during the construction of the metropolitan assembly in order to highlight them.

In the years since then, the museum’s collection was significantly enhanced. Its collections include: Miniature Sculptures, Ceramics Coins, fragments of wall paintings, icons, fabrics and organic materials.

In the year 2001 the permanent exhibition was reorganized with a new thematic, Museographical and museological approach.

The re-exhibition, titled ” Byzantium and the West: the experience of the urban center of the Late Byzantine Mystras ”, focuses on relations and contacts between the Byzantine Empire and the West, relations that become occasion for interaction and shape the special character of the political and social reality of intellectual life and art of the era of Palaeologus. Mystras, the late Byzantine thriving urban center, is an excellent field for detecting the approach between Byzantium and the Medieval West just before the Renaissance.

The exhibition is organized into three themes:

Political ideology and artistic creation
The approach of Byzantium and the West in matters of daily living, such as outfits
The influences of Western art in artistic creation .

Source:

http://www.exploresparta.gr/tourism/en/archaeological-museum-of-mystras/