Maritime Museum of Greece, Maritime museum in Piraeus, Greece
The Maritime Museum of Greece is a museum in Piraeus that displays the history of Greek seafaring through objects and documents. The exhibition spaces surround a central area and hold items ranging from shipbuilding tools to personal items belonging to sailors and naval officers.
The idea of a maritime museum was first proposed in 1867 by Gerasimos Zochios, master of the Navy and founder of the Navy Retirement Fund, but it was not taken up. On 7 April 1949, Piraeus citizens and naval and merchant marine officers signed the founding memorandum in Minister Gerasimos Vassiliadis's office, with shipowner George Stringos as first president. In 1959 the museum opened in a neoclassical three-storey building at Zea harbour, and in 1965-1967 provision was made for its permanent building at Freatida during the marina works.
The museum's name honours the "Maritime Museum Society and collection of national relics at sea", the association signed on 7 April 1949 in Piraeus. Its ten halls, arranged in a semicircle, trace Greek seafaring from ancient shipbuilding through the 1821 revolution to the modern navy and merchant marine. The library in the last hall keeps rare books and nautical charts.
The museum sits near Zea Harbor in Piraeus and is reachable by public transport easily. Plan to spend a few hours walking through the halls, and weekday visits tend to be less crowded than weekends.
Outside the building stand sculptures and outdoor exhibits, among them the conning tower of the submarine Papanikolis and anchors recovered from ships that fought at the Battle of Navarino in 1827.
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