The Museum of Greek Musical Instruments

The Museum of Greek Musical Instruments - Research Center for Ethnomusicology- comprises the collection of about 1.200 Greek popular musical instruments dating from 1750 to the present day, the fruit of half a century of research and study by the musicologist Fivos Anoyanakis. The Museum is housed in the historical Lassanis Mansion which was built in 1842 close to the Roman Agora.

About half of the instruments forming the Anoyanakis collection are on public display. They have been selected on the criterion not only of their aesthetic and decorative value but, in particular, of their ethnological and musicological interest. The remaining instruments are available for research and for traveling exhibitions to be held in schools etc as well as for occasional exhibitions of a special nature.

The permanent exhibition is spread over three floors and divided into four sections, corresponding to the groups and determined by the material used to make sound:

- Membranophones (ground floor): Toumberlekia (pottery drums),
  daoulia (drums), defia (tambourines)
- Aerophones (ground floor): Flogeres - souravlia - mandoures
  (flutes), tsabounes, gaides (bagpipes), zournades (shawms)
- Chordophones (first floor): Tambourades, laghouta (long-necked
  lutes), outia (short-necked lutes), quitars , mandolins,
  dulcimers, etc .
- Idiophones: koudounia (bells), massies (tongs with cymbals),
  simandro (semanterion) etc.

Visitors can not only admire the instruments on display but also listen to recordings of the music produced by each of them. The museum organizes concerts of traditional folk music. The main building houses the displays, the library and administration offices. The Research Centre for Ethnomusicology and the museum’s warehouse, shop and archives are housed in another building nearby (the former stable-block of the Lassanis residence).

Opening hours and admission
1-3, Diogenous Street - Plaka
Syntagma - Acropoli