What Is The Archaeological Museum Of Dion?

The Archaeological Museum of Dion is situated in Dion, a village in the Pieria prefecture regional unit of Central Macedonia, Greece. Dion is approximately 440 kilometres from Athens and 85 kilometres from Thessaloniki.

The museum was founded in 1983 mainly to display excavations unearthed in the area from a fortified city that once stood in its place from the 6^th century BC to the 5^th century AD. Some of the artifacts of the museum were also discovered in Olympus, the archaeological site of ancient Levitra and the wider Pieria regional unit.

All the artifacts and finds are witnesses of the history of Pieria.

History

Georgios Sotiriadis, rector of the University of Thessaloniki, began with the first excavations from 1928 to 1931. Thirty years later the work was resumed by Georgios Bakalakis.

From 1973, under the direction of Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, larger areas of the city were excavated, and works continue today under the direction of the University of Thessaloniki.

The museum opened in 1983 in a newly constructed two-storey building. It displays finds mainly from the Dion area, but also from Olympus and the wider area of Pieria.

The Dion Archaeological Museum contains many items from when the Romans lived in the area, including statues, architectural members, votive and grave monuments, coins, and many other objects found in the necropolis and the sanctuaries and baths of the ancient city on site.

One of the more important items is the water organ, the Statue of Dionysus, Isis and Aphrodite Hypolympia and the Asclepios Daughter.

Interest For Today

On the ground floor, visitors can view several important statues like that of Dionysus, the daughters of Asclepios and other statuary from the ancient baths.

Visitors will find the devotional statues of Isis and Aphrodite Hypolympia, composed with other ritual statues from the Sanctuary of Isis, and the heads of Demetrios, from the sanctuary of the same name. A statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and love, can be seen from her altar.

The museum also contains several exhibits from the necropolis, including further ritual offerings found in Macedonian tombs and a wide collection of wooden figurines. Display cases contain architectural members and other objects from Early Christian basilicas, and a large collection of coins.

The coins include a gold stator of Philip II, portraying the head of Apollo and a racing chariot with two horses, as well as a silver tetradrachm of Alexander the Great and a head of Heracles and the Zeus Olympias.

A special coin category is the so-called ghost coins that consist of gold leaf and were put into the mouths of the dead to pay the ferryman Charon. According to Greek mythology this brought the dead across a river into the realm of Hades. The pieces found in Dion and its surroundings date back to the 4^th and 3^rd centuries BC.

The basement of the museum is devoted to objects excavated at the Dion archaeological site that gives some insight to the day-to-day life of the people of ancient Dion. It also includes more statues and devotional artefacts from all over Pieria.

The museum has a wide selection of vases and jugs, ancient keys and locks and stone processing tools such as hammers and chisels. Several remarkable mosaics were also discovered in a complex known as the Dionysus House. One is known as the Mosaic of Dionysus. A fully preserved marble table supported by a lion statue is exhibited from the Leda House.

One special feature, given its own room on the upper floor, is the hydraulis or water organ, which is the first organ of its kind found in Greece and the oldest found to date anywhere in the world. It relates to the instruments mentioned by Heron of Alexandria and Vitruvius.

The organ pipes are arranged in two rows and consist of 24 additional and 16 narrower pipes. They were decorated with silver rings. The body of the organ was decorated with silver stripes and multi-coloured, rectangular glass ornaments.

On a stone slab there are also the remains fragments of an alliance agreement between the Macedonian king Philip V and the citizens of Lysimacheia in Thrace dating around 200 BC.

Other stone writing plaques include a letter of King Antigonus Gonatas to Agasikles dating from the 3^rd century BC; a letter from King Philips V to the magistrate of Dion from the year 180 BC; and a letter of king Philip V (206-205 BC) to the citizens of the Thessalian cities Pherrai and Demetrias.

A small cinema in the museum shows a multilingual video about the history of the excavations at Dion. Professor Pantermalis gives information on the past, present and the future of the ancient site at Dion.

Hours of Busines

• Winter: From 1 November to 31 March from 8:30 – 15:30.
• From 1 December closed on Tuesdays. Last entrance to the museum at 15:15.

Holidays

• 1 January: Closed
• 6 January: 08:00 – 15:00
• Shrove Monday: 08:00 – 15:00
• 25 March: Closed
• Good Friday: 12:00 – 17:00
• Holy Saturday: 08:30 – 16:00
• 1 May: Closed
• Easter Sunday: Closed
• Easter Monday: 08:00 – 15:00
• Holy Spirit Day: 08:00 – 15:00
• 15 August: 08:00 – 15:00
• 28 October: 08:00 – 15:00
• 25 December: Closed
• 26 December: Closed

Tickets

• Full: €8, Reduced: €4
• The reduced price of individual tickets is valid for all guests from 1 November to 31 March of each year.

Free admission days

• 6 March (in memory of Melina Mercouri)
• 18 April (International Monuments Day)
• 18 May (International Museums Day)
• The last weekend of September annually (European Heritage Days)
• 28 October
• Every first Sunday from 1 November to 31 March

Contact information

• Address: Τ.Κ. 60100, Dion (Prefecture of Pieria)
• Coordinates: 40°10′13.8″ N,22°29′13.92″ E
• Telephone number: 2351053206
• Fax: 2351045057
• Email: efapie@culture.gr

The museum does have wheelchair access for the disabled. It also has a special room for educational games and guided tours for junior-school children, as well as a film room.

How To Get There?

Dion is a village and municipal unit in the municipality of Dion-Olympus in the Pieria regional unit, Greece. It is located at the foot of Mount Olympus about 17 kilometres south from the capital city of Katerini. It can be reached by car or bus and various guided tours are on offer.