Omolio Folk-Agricultural Showroom Marinos Antipas

Address: Omolio local community, Agia, Larissa
Tel.: +30 24943 50100

Free

Omolio is a historical settlement of the Municipality of Agia surrounded by great natural beauty. Located in a central location, 40 km from the capital of the Larissa regional administration, just three kilometers from the Athens-Thessaloniki national road and at a minimum distance from the sea. According to Homer, the city participated in the Amphictyony of Delphi, while the mint of Ancient Omoli was one of the greatest in central Greece. The ruins of this ancient city and citadel still remain close to current Omolio.

Conditions brought the village back  close to major historical events. This is the soil in which Marinos Antipas is buried, one of the most important figures of Greece in the fight to defend civil liberties. When Antipas came to Thessaly, where he took over as caretaker of the property of his uncle, he changed social conditions in the region. Although he was in a position of strength, he deleted agricultural debts, applied Sunday as a day off and set the remuneration of tenant farmers based on 75% of production (instead of 25% as was up to then in force). His murder was the natural consequence in a place dominated by lthe andowners of the time.

Μαρίνος Αντύπας / Marinos Antypas

Nowadays, the local community commemorates him, recognizing his contribution to changing social conditions, both in the region and across the country. It built a modest monument erected in Omolio where events are held every year in memory of the great fighter. At the same time, it gave his name to the small museum built in the village: Omolio Folk-Agricultural Showroom Marino Antipas, housed in the former Community chambers, located in the village square.
Today, the exhibition presents the tools used by the people for whom Antipas fought. Inaugurated on 18 March 2007 to mark the 100th anniversary of his death (murdered in 1907 in Pirgetos). Premechanical agricultural and foraging tools are hosted in the exhibition venue. Visitors can also admire tools of traditional occupations (fishermen, shoemakers, weavers, etc.) and objects from daily life of local people: handicrafts, embroidery and textiles, utilitarian household items (sofras (low tables), pots, pinakoti (bread levening boards)), local costumes, traditional clothing, woodwork items, postcards and engravings, coins, antique furniture, and a local bisiki (cot).

The collection includes artifacts that may be considered historical documents: a local’s military diary, which describes in detail the experience of the war in Asia Minor, but also photographs of social events and the occupations of the inhabitants. The showroom has a conference hall that holds 50-60 people.

Λαογραφικό-Γεωργικό Εκθετήριο Ομολίου Μαρίνος Αντύπας

Places like the Omolio Folk-Agricultural Showroom Marinos Antipas, although exhibiting objects from earlier times, alsoshow that traditional culture is not a static body of evidence that survives only in a museum. Because on the one hand, tools and materials actually bear witness to the immutable characteristics of an era (available resources, raw materials), however, they also reveal the basic principles of human creativity that lead to evolution. The name of the exhibition reminds us, at the same time, that this creativity should always be developed with concepts such as respecting the principles of human law and social justice.