The Archaeological Museum of Polygyros was inaugurated in 1970, on drawings of Dimitris Fatouros and opened in 1971. Since then, regular and rescue excavations have brought to light important and sometimes unique archaeological artifacts, which have required the significant renovation and expansion of the initial building in accordance with modern museological principles. In September 2011 the Museum was closed for the public. The improvements were completed in 2016, as part of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) 2007-2013 Programme and the set-up of the new permanent exhibition is a result of the current NSRF 2017-2020 Programme.

The new exhibition will include the majority of the items from the old exhibition and also new finds from recent excavations, which will organize and complete the presentation of specific thematic unities, promoting the special features of the cultural physiognomy of Chalcidice.



The temporary exhibition ?A collector and an archaeologist from the past in a conversation in future tense. The Archaeological Collection Ioannis Lambropoulos? opened n March 2019.

The private Collection of Lambropoulos was a life-long project of Ioannis Lambropoulos, an antiquarian, lawyer and member of the Greek Parliament from Chalcidice. The collection consists of more than a thousand objects, which, according to the collector, come mainly from the Chalcidice peninsula. The majority of them are dated to the Archaic and Classical periods, including fine examples of Attic, Corinthian and local pottery, important pieces of weaponry and war equipment, impressive golden, silver and bronze jewellery, typical clay figurines and clay busts, and a few artefacts of the Prehistoric and the Byzantine eras. In 1995 his son, Iraklis, donated the Collection to the Ministry of Culture, on the condition that it would be displayed in a separate section of the renovated museum; later, in 2004, that part of the collection was first exhibited in the museum?s galleries.

The concept of the present exhibition is built around the Report, compiled by the archaeologist Charalambos Makaronas. The exhibit features an imagined conversation between Makaronas and the collector, based on real facts

The exhibition is hosted in the temporary exhibitions? room of the museum and includes for the first time archives and handwritten documents as well as drawings, and biographical material.

The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections, dedicated to the woman?s world, war, athletics and symposium in showcases framed by figurative and decorative scenes found on the vases in the display and emphasise its thematic coherence. One showcase presents the most distinctive black- and red-figure vases of the collection, from Attica as well as from local Chalcidian workshops, and another six showcases host objects of typological coherence, such as clay figures, metal vessels, vases from the local pottery workshops of Chalcidice, black- and red-figure lekythoi.

Photorealistic renderings, referring to the future exhibition of the collection in the permanent exhibition and artworks inspired from the collection?s objects as well as from the two main characters complete the exhibition.