This week, I feature the Museum of Greek Popular Musical Instruments / The Fivos Anoyanakis Collection Centre of Ethnomusicology as my #museummonday travel blog post. As this is a bit of a mouthful, I will refer to it as the Music Museum from now on!
Museum of Greek Popular Musical Instruments
This is a museum which seems to go by many names. The plaque outside clearly says the “Museum of Greek Popular Musical Instruments | The Fivos Anoyanakis Collection Centre of Ethnomusicology”. Most of internet-land seems to call it the “Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments”. Some Greeks call it ‘MELMOKE'. I think I will just call it the Music Museum – It's easier!
The Music Museum is located near the Roman Agora in the Plaka area of Athens, and the closest metro stop is at Monastiraki. The full address is
1-3 Diogenous St.
Aeridon Square, Plaka
105 56 Athens
As with most of the museums in Athens, opening times seem to change by the month. At the moment, visiting Tuesday to Sunday between 0.800 and 15.00 seems to be best, with it (possibly) being closed on Mondays. You can always give them a call to check – Tel: +030 210 3254119, +030 210 3254129.
Music Museum Athens
The music museum is housed in an old Athenian mansion dating back to the 1840's, and is spread out over three floors. As you may have gathered from the name(s), this place exhibits a comprehensive range of Greek folk musical instruments. Inside, you can expect to find musical instruments such as lyres, flogheras, gaides, laghouta, bouzoukia, and toubelekia.
The point of the museum is not just to display the instruments though. Next to many of the exhibits are headphones so that you can hear the instruments being played. There is also an exhibit which plays different styles of music from all over Greece.
My favourite part of the music museum, was the bottom floor. Most of the area here was dedicated to bells, which for some reason I found quite fascinating.
Music is an essential part of any culture or society, and this is the perfect place to discover the instruments and folk music of Greece. Music lovers and anyone interested in finding out more about Greek culture should definitely pay a visit! You can get a pretty good overview of everything within a half hour, but I would recommend staying there longer, in order to gain a better appreciation of the instruments and folk music. Special note – I had REAL difficulty trying to get good photos in this place!
I visited the Music Museum, or Museum of Greek Popular Musical Instruments, as part of my mission to visit all the museums in Athens. Each Monday, I will post about another museum in Athens right here at Dave's Travel Pages. You can also follow this on various social media using the hashtag #museummonday.
Τινα Μπαρμπέρη says
Wonderful museum I visited in 2012. I still remember and share information of this museum with passion! I recommend any age to make the visit!
Samuel T. Cummins says
This place is really great.. The collection of the museum of Greek music instruments consists of 1200 ..This wonderful little museum near the Roman Agora. If you don’t know it’s there, you might easily pass by without noticing.