The museums of Zakynthos

The Byzantine Museum

The Byzantine Museum of Zakynthos is located on Solomos Square. Proceeding to the right of its entrance, you can go up to the first floor and cross the entire length of the building before descending to the entrance a second time. The museum houses a rich collection of portable icons, a real panorama of ecclesiastical painting from Byzantine times until the 19th century, with approximately one thousand paintings of post-Byzantine, Ionian, and local art. Work by Damaskinos, Tzanes, Kallergis, Doxaras, Koutouzis, and Tsonis is exhibited. Although the older exhibits in the museum are characteristic examples of Byzantine art, the work of Panagiotis Doxaras (1622-1700), who had studied in Venice, is naturalistic and belongs to the Ionian School. The son of Doxaras, Nikolaos, continued the Western tradition, as did Nikolaos Koutouzis (1741-1813), whose work one may see in the museum but also in the church of Agios Dionysios. The museum also houses the iconostasis of the church of Pantokrator, the church of Agios Dimitrios, and the exterior of the church of Agios Andreas from Volimes. Hellenistic and Byzantine sculptures and statues are also housed there.
(Telephone:(+30) 26950 42714)

Solomos Museum

The Solomos Museum, which is located on Agios Markos Square, includes on its ground floor the impressive tombs of Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857) and of the other great poet from Zakynthos, Andreas Kalvos (1792-1869). At the entrance there is a piece of the holly oak, in whose shadow, on Stranis Hill, Solomos was inspired to write the “Hymn to Freedom” that later became the national anthem of Greece, as well as the “Free Besieged” in May of 1823.
(Telephone: (+30) 26950 48982)

Milanio Nautical Museum

The Milanio Nautical Museum is located in Tsilivi (5 km from the town). Through its gallery of paintings, which has received many awards, it is exclusive in Greece in presenting the course of evolution of the Naval History of our Nation, and is first in the world for its research on Greek boats of the middle ages, thus gathering 4000 years of history. Nautical objects belonging to renowned ships, photographic materials, uniforms, and historic treasures complete the unique historical record.
(Telephone: (+30) 26950 42436)

Vertzagio Agricultural Museum

In the village of Pigadakia, belonging to the Community of Alykes, since 1998 the Vertzagio Cultural and Agricultural Museum has been operating. The Museum exhibits the cultural and agricultural history of a traditional Greek village on Zakynthos, with rare items from the entire island, some of which date from the 16th century.
(Telephone: (+30) 26950 84077)

Chelmis Museum of Natural History

The Chelmis Museum of Natural History is located in Agia Marina, a beautiful village at the centre of Zakynthos, with an amazing view of Zakynthos town and of Laganas Bay. It houses noteworthy collections with more than 500 specimens from the natural world, such as birds, fish, shellfish from the seven seas of the world, plants, and animals that have become extinct, stones, and minerals.
(Telephone: (+30) 26950 65040)

Ecclesiastical Museum

On the raised ground floor of the new wing, which was inaugurated on November 12, 2000, the new Museum and Sacristy of the Holy Monastery of Strofades and Agios Dionysios. The Museum, a site of culture and historical memory, consists of icons and other treasures of Christian art, which mainly come from the Monastery of Strofades. (Telephone:
(+30) 26950 48203)

Romas Mansion

A home, a family, a history of four centuries linked to Zakynthos, the Ionian Islands, and Greece. It opened its doors to visitors in order for the elders to remember and for the young to learn the size of the gap left behind by the destructive earthquake of 1953. The visitor will have the opportunity to see firsthand, and not through historical narration, and thus to understand better the last remains of a society and an era that had contributed so much to the formation – at various levels – of modern Hellenism, which unfortunately is no longer present.
(Telephone: (+30) 26950 28381)