This exhibition aims to give the visitor an idea of what a church of the Early Christian period (fourth-seventh centuries AD), and more particularly of the fifth and sixth centuries, looked like. The architectural features of the Early Christian church are presented through texts, drawings and photographs. The standard type of church for this period was the basilica: a rectangular, timber-roofed space, divided in three or more naves by rows of columns and ending in an apse on its east side. Circular ...

This exhibition gives an insight into the public and private lives of people in the Early Christian period (fourth-seventh centuries BC). During this period the cities retained more or less the characteristics they inherited from the Roman period: they were usually surrounded by walls, with the forum and public buildings at their centres. The houses was where domestic activities took place; those of the rich were often ornately decorated.
The exhibits occupy the museum's second room and are ...

This exhibition presents the funerary customs and cemeteries of the Early Christian period (fourth-seventh centuries AD), a period which marks the passage from paganism to Christianity. It accentuates the continuity with the Roman period and its funerary practices, all of which, except for cremation, were accepted by the Christian church. The Elysian Fields of antiquity, the abode of the blessed after death, were replaced by the concept of Christian Paradise, and this change is reflected in the funerary ...

This exhibition presents the art and culture of the Middle Byzantine period (eighth to twelfth centuries AD), a time of great intellectual and artistic achievement for the Byzantine empire, especially during the reign of the Macedonian and Comnene dynasties. The first two centuries of this period, however, were marked by the Iconoclast controversy which led to the prohibition of representational art and its replacement by abstract decoration, dominated by the sign of the cross.
The exhibition, ...

This exhibit deals with the succession of the emperors and with Byzantine imperial dynasties from Heraclius (610-641) to the Palaiologues (1261-1453). The dynasties are presented through a wealth of information panels and original material such as manuscripts, mosaics, minor objects and coins - the medium par excellence for the expression of imperial ideology.
The exhibition, which occupies the museum's fifth room, follows a chronological order by imperial dynasties.

This exhibition deals with the emergence and organization of the Middle Byzantine fortress. The former was the result of a series of events (raids, epidemics and earthquakes) and their consequent economic crises, which brought on the gradual shrinking or abandonment of most Early Christian cities in the seventh and eighth centuries AD.
These fortresses, or fortified settlements, were built at defensible locations to control nearby roads and provide security for their inhabitants and those of ...

This exhibition presents the last period in Byzantine history, which is marked by the fall of Constantinople first to the Franks (1204) and then to the Ottoman Turks (1453). This was a period of civil war, dire fiscal circumstances and gradual shrinking of the empire's territories, but, conversely, one of a great artistic and litterary floruit, especially in the two urban centres of Constantinople and Thessaloniki.
The exhibition, which occupies the museum's seventh room, is organized by subject. ...

The Dori Papastratou collection of Christian Orthodox etchings of the eighteenth to twentieth centuries is particularly rich in quantity and diversity. This type of religious etching, which originated in western Europe, was adopted by the Orthodox Church in the mid-seventeenth century for historical reasons.
The collection comprises one hundred and ninety eight etchings and eight wooden and copper etching plates. Only part of the collection is displayed; the remainder is exhibited intermittently ...

The Demetrios Oikonomopoulos collection comprises mainly icons, but also pottery, coins, ecclesiastical objects and documents, which span the entire Byzantine and Post-Byzantine period.
Demetrios Oikonomopoulos (1907-1986), a chemical engineer, began collecting very early and was primarily interested in works of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine art. His wish was to donate his collection to the city of Thessaloniki, which preserves the vivid remnants of its Byzantine past. This wish was materialized ...