Folklore Museum at Afytos

Located on the Kassandra peninsula of Halkidiki, Afytos is a tiny beach town that has been classified a traditional settlement. It’s roughly 75 miles from Thessaloniki and little over 21 miles from Nea Moudania, Greece.

Local villagers’ artefacts were used by Nikos Paralis and the local Folklore Association in the 1980s to build a folklore museum there. The Aletras family donated a typical listed building from 1889 to host the museum in the centre of the hamlet.

Farm implements (for ploughing, planting, reaping, harvesting) and pottery are part of the folklore collection that includes household items.

The museum will reopen in the summer of 2000 after a three-year renovation.

All or part of Evyenios Spatharis’ collection of Karagiozis shadow-theatre puppets will accompany the folklore collection.

In the summer of 1999, the museum displayed Spatharis’s puppets, which may still be viewed today in one of the museum’s rooms.

In addition, Dimitris Arvanitis’ posters were on display in August 1999.

Special thanks to Prof Vlasis Vlasidis and Macedonian Heritage