The Folklore & History Museum of Milos is located behind the church of Panaghia Korfiatissa in Plaka.
The museum was established in 1967 by the “Union of the Melians in Athens”, and there you can learn a lot about the life of the Melians after the 17th century (mostly from 1850 to 1930, which was a peak period for Melian society).
A visit to this museum takes you back to another time, as you will see what an urban Melian household of the 19th century was like. The museum is not an exact representation of a particular type of Melian household. Instead, starting from a variety of objects, it presents aspects of the inhabitants’ lives in that period: their dealings inside and outside the house, their influences from other regions, their food and dress preferences, their ways of entertainment, the organization of space and time, and the use of local resources.
This two-story museum consists of a living room with its unique exhibits, the workplace where the loom is found, the kitchen, the bedroom, the cellar (also used for storing rural products), and the top floor, which is a historical record. In all these rooms you can also admire furniture, textiles, needlework, clothing of that period, housewares, decorative objects, everyday objects and old photographs.
The Folklore & History Museum of Milos
Plaka, Milos (Cyclades)
Tel: +30 22870 21292, +30 22870 28121
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Milos is a volcanic island in the Cyclades, and Plaka is its chief town. The island of Milos keeps a small group of museums, and one of them fills an old town house on the slope below the Castle. That house holds the folklore museum of Milos, a place about daily life rather than ancient art.
The building that holds the folklore museum of Milos stands behind the church of Panagia Korfiatissa, in the heart of the village, and it has two floors of rooms. Furniture, textiles, clothing, embroidery and old photographs fill the spaces. A visit here shows how an urban household worked in the years when Melian society was at its height.
Which old house in Plaka holds the folklore museum of Milos?
The folklore museum of Milos stands in Plaka, the chief town of the island, inside a two-storey house behind the church of Panagia Korfiatissa. The building faces the narrow lanes of the village, where cars cannot enter, and it sits below the Castle hill.
Plaka is the capital of Milos, built at a height of 220 metres on a hill that looks over the gulf of Milos. The name comes from the flat ground where houses spread once the Castle no longer held the population. The village is a protected traditional settlement, and it became the seat of the Municipality of Milos in 1835. Narrow cobbled lanes and small shops fill the centre, and cars stay outside, so the folklore museum of Milos is reached on foot.
A union of Melians based in Athens founded the folklore museum of Milos in 1967. The house has two storeys and a group of rooms that follow the shape of an island home: a living room, a work area where a loom stands, a kitchen, a bedroom and a cellar that also stored farm produce. The top floor serves as a historical record. Furniture, textiles, needlework, clothing and housewares stand in all of these spaces.
The museum does not copy one household. It starts from objects of mixed kinds and uses them to show the life of the Melians after the 17th century, mainly between 1850 and 1930, a peak period for Melian society. Dealings inside and outside the house, influences from other regions, food and dress, entertainment, the organisation of space and time, and the use of local resources all come into view in the folklore museum of Milos.
The museum stands close to the metropolitan church of Milos, Panagia Korfiatissa, which was built in 1820 in the Byzantine-Cycladic style and keeps relics and icons. The church and the Castle above it mark the oldest part of Plaka, and the lanes around them are the setting for the museum. The Castle was built by the Venetians, and the medieval town grew on the plateau below it. Both stand on a hill of volcanic rock.
- Setting: The house stands in Plaka, behind the church of Panagia Korfiatissa.
- Floors: Two storeys hold the rooms of the household, from the living room to the top floor.
- Rooms: A living room, a work area with a loom, a kitchen, a bedroom and a cellar fill the house.
- Founding: A union of Melians in Athens opened the collection in 1967.
- Period: The display follows the life of the Melians after the 17th century, mainly from 1850 to 1930.
Plaka keeps two museums inside its lanes, and the folklore museum of Milos is the one that shows a home. The house stands a short walk from the main square, where the Archaeological Museum fills a neoclassical building of 1870. Both stops sit inside a village that bars cars, so the two collections fit one walk on foot, from the square to the church of Panagia Korfiatissa.
What do the rooms of the folklore museum of Milos hold?
The rooms of the folklore museum of Milos hold furniture, textiles, needlework, clothing, housewares, decorative objects, everyday objects and old photographs. A kitchen, a bedroom, a living room, a work area with a loom and a cellar carry the display of island life.
The kitchen shows how a household on the island fed itself in the years when Melian society was at its height, and the folklore museum of Milos keeps that work in view. Vessels and utensils for cooking, serving and keeping food stand beside the housewares of the family. The cellar below it also stored the produce that came in from the fields, so the two rooms worked as a pair. Housewares carry the daily round of meals.
The bedroom and the living room hold the furniture of the house, with textiles and decorative objects placed around it. The living room has exhibits of its own, and old photographs hang in these rooms. The bedroom gives the private side of the household a setting, and the textiles and the needlework in it carry the work of the family. Decorative objects add the taste of the period, and both rooms sit on one floor.
Clothing of the period fills part of the display, and the garments and the household textiles show the dress preferences of the Melians. Embroidery and needlework stand with the woven cloth, and influences that came from other regions show in the patterns. The display treats dress as a record of the household, so the clothing of the family sits beside the textiles that covered its furniture. The care in the stitching answers the care in the weaving of the cloth.
The top floor of the house works as a historical record, and it brings the story of the island close to the objects below. The rooms do not copy one family, and the museum does not claim to show an exact household. Instead, the objects of mixed kinds open a window on the dealings of the Melians inside and outside the house, on their food and their dress, and on the way they organised space and time.
- Kitchen: Housewares and utensils for food fill the room where the household cooked.
- Bedroom: Furniture, textiles and needlework give the private rooms of the house their shape.
- Living room: Exhibits of its own stand in the room that received guests, with old photographs.
- Costumes: Clothing of the period shows the dress preferences of the Melians.
- Embroidery: Needlework and woven cloth carry the patterns that came from other regions.
The rooms of the house answer one question after another, from the food of the family to the clothes on its back. The folklore museum of Milos keeps the setting of a town house, and the objects inside it hold the habits of the 19th century. A walk through the two floors ends at the top, where the record closes the visit.
Which crafts and trades appear in the folklore museum of Milos?
The folklore museum of Milos keeps the crafts and trades in its rooms. Weaving and the loom stand in the work area, while farming, wine and oil, fishing and the tools of work appear through objects, textiles and photographs that record the working life of the Melians.
The work area of the house holds the loom, and weaving stands at the centre of the trades on show. Cotton was one of the main crops of Milos, so the thread came from the fields of the island. Woven cloth, textiles and needlework in the other rooms show what the loom produced, and the patterns in the cloth point to influences from other regions. The loom is the one machine of the house, and it turns a crop into cloth.
Farming shaped the year of a Melian household, and the folklore museum of Milos keeps the marks of it. Grapes, cotton and barley are the main crops of the island, while orange, olive, cypress, tamarisk, juniper and arbutus trees grow across it. The land is dry, so the island has no profusion of vegetation. The cellar of the house stored rural produce, and the objects of the fields sit beside the objects of the kitchen. Olive trees give the oil of the island table.
Grapes and olives give the wine and the oil of the island, and both crops belong to the working life that the rooms present. Fishing holds the other half of that life. Fishermen pulled their boats into shelters cut in the volcanic rock at Klima, Mandrakia and Firopotamos, where the boats stayed safe from winter weather. The first settlers at Phylakopi were fishermen of tuna, so the sea has fed the island for a long span.
The tools in the collection reach back further than the house itself. Obsidian, a glass-like volcanic rock, was a trade good of Milos as early as 15,000 years ago, and it was shaped into sharp stone tools well before farming began. Later the island gave the Melian earth, alum, pumice and sulfur, and Roman-era coastal sites at Agia Kyriaki and Paliochori held spaces for mineral work, storage and pottery. The tools of the household and the tools of the quarry sit in one story of work.
- Weaving: The loom stands in the work area, and cotton from the fields became cloth.
- Farming: Grapes, cotton and barley are the main crops of the island.
- Wine and oil: Grapes and olives give the wine and the oil of the island table.
- Fishing: Rock-cut shelters at Klima, Mandrakia and Firopotamos kept the boats of fishermen.
- Tools: Obsidian tools of 15,000 years ago stand beside the implements of the household.
The crafts and the trades of old Milos meet in one house, from the loom in the work area to the tools that came out of the ground. The folklore museum of Milos gathers them for the years when Melian society was at its height, and it sets them in the rooms where a family used them. The result is a record of work.
What do visitors ask about the folklore museum of Milos?
The folklore museum of Milos answers questions about a town house of Plaka, its rooms, its objects and the trades of the island. The notes below cover the building, the period it presents and the way the rooms are arranged inside the village.
Where does the folklore museum of Milos stand?
The folklore museum of Milos stands in Plaka, in a two-storey house behind the church of Panagia Korfiatissa. The village stands at 220 metres above the gulf, and cars cannot enter its lanes. The house is reached on foot from the main square, where other museums of Milos stand in the same village.
When did the folklore museum of Milos open?
The folklore museum of Milos opened in 1967, when a union of Melians in Athens set up the collection. Its subject is the life of the Melians after the 17th century. The rooms gather objects from households and present the habits of a town house in Plaka rather than a display of ancient finds.
Which years does the folklore museum of Milos present?
The folklore museum of Milos covers the life of the Melians after the 17th century, and the greater part of the display belongs to the years between 1850 and 1930. That span was a peak period for Melian society, when island households kept furniture, textiles and clothing and recorded their families in photographs.
How are the rooms of the folklore museum of Milos arranged?
The folklore museum of Milos fills two storeys of the house. A living room with exhibits of its own comes first, and a work area holds the loom. The kitchen, the bedroom and the cellar follow, and the cellar also kept the produce of the fields. The top floor works as a historical record.
Which objects fill the folklore museum of Milos?
The folklore museum of Milos holds furniture, textiles, needlework, clothing, housewares, decorative objects, everyday objects and old photographs. The objects stand in all the rooms, so a kitchen, a bedroom, a living room and a work area each carry part of the display. Old photographs link the objects to the families of the island.
Does the folklore museum of Milos copy one family home?
No. The folklore museum of Milos is not an exact copy of one type of Melian household. It starts from objects of mixed kinds and uses them to present aspects of daily life: dealings inside and outside the house, influences from other regions, food and dress, entertainment, and the organisation of space and time.
Which trades appear in the folklore museum of Milos?
The folklore museum of Milos shows weaving at the loom, farming on the dry ground of the island, the fishing that fed the coast and the tools that went with each trade. Grapes, cotton and barley are the main crops of Milos, and the cellar of the house kept the produce of the fields.