General State Archives -Historical Archives Museum of Hydra

Address: Miaouli 454, Hydra180 40
Tel.:2298 052355
Εmail:[email protected]

www.iamy.gr

General Information:

The museum is accessible to people with disabilities and is open daily from 9:00 to 16:00 and, during the summer months, from 19:30 to 21:30.

The Historical Archives – Museum of Hydra was founded in 1918 and was housed in a building built at the expense of the Hydra shipowner and benefactor Gikas N. Koulouras.

Antonios D, Lignos, doctor and Mayor of Hydra, undertook with untiring zeal the work of classification and transcription of the documents of the Archives of the Community of Hydra (1708-1865), which he had identified in a cell of the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, laying at the same time the foundations for the creation of a Museum and Library on the island.

In 1952 Gikas Koulouras donated the building to the State. Since then, the Museum has been operating as a public service under the administrative authority of the Ministry of National Education, Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports and is scientifically supervised by the General Archives of the State.

In 1972, for construction reasons, the original building of the Museum was demolished and the current one was built in its place. In its imposing spaces it houses the fully reorganized Archive-Museum Service and the Library.

The new building was officially inaugurated in July 1996 and since then it has been open on a daily basis for historical researchers and the crowds of visitors to the island.

Director of the Historical Archives Museum of Hydra, is Konstantina Adamopoulou

ARCHIVE

The purpose of the Archives Department is the identification, collection, classification, indexing and finally publication of all kinds of archival material related to Hydra, its local history, tradition and culture.

In this Hydraian historical documentation centre, archival material from Public Services of the island as well as archives of institutions and private individuals, which are important sources of historical research for the place and historically promote the leading role of Hydra, especially in the period of the 18th and 19th century.

Archive

A large section of archival material concerns the Archives of the Community of Hydra (1708-1865).About 18,000 primary documents, manuscripts, codes and registers outline in detail the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods of Greek history.

They are followed by educational, administrative, ecclesiastical, club, private, etc. archives, starting chronologically from the mid-19th century, often up to the present day.

MUSEUM

The museum space of the Historical Archives Museum of Hydra includes relics-exhibits of particular national importance and operates on two levels:

In the lobby of the ground floor are exhibited relics of the Balkan War and the First and Second World War, as well as the uniforms of ambassadors who lived or came from Hydra.

Acropropellers and capstans from ships of the Struggle, the Great Charta of Rigas Feraios, as well as the monumental outer door of the mansion of G.D. Voulgaris are exhibited in the lobby of the first floor.

In the halls of this floor there is an important historical gallery with works of great Greek and foreign painters, mainly portraits of historical persons – oil paintings, but also watercolours with depictions of ships of the Struggle.

In this area, the visitor is also impressed by another special exhibit. It is the silver likeness with the embalmed heart of Admiral Andreas Miaoulis. King Otto ordered it to be removed from the dead body of the fighter on 11 June 1835 and placed on the likeness as a symbol of bravery and patriotism. It bears the inscription “HAIL, THE HEART OF ANDREAS MIAOULIS” and was donated in honour of Hydra, the homeland of Miaoulis. In the area in front of this sacred relic, there is an effigy of the famous cross of Miaoulis. According to the testimonies, the admiral carried this cross with him in all his naval operations and at the crucial moment of the attack he would raise it against the enemy.

The Museum

The Museum’s exhibits also include weapons of Hydra sailors, trombones, pistols, swords, carriages, etc. During the years of the Greek War against the Ottomans, the privilege of buying good weapons was enjoyed mostly by the islanders and of course the Hydra sailors, who, due to their travels, had the opportunity to choose and purchase weapons from abroad, mainly from the ports of Spain, England, France and Italy. The visitor can see the trombones of Georgios Sachtouris, Andreas Pipinos, the silver pistols of Giakoumakis Tombazis, but also the swords of Fighter Panourgias or impressive Turkish weapons – spoils from various victorious naval battles of the Hydra fleet. The area of this floor is also adorned by the recent donation of memorabilia of the late Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis.