Short Guide to the Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki (English language edition)

57 colour illustrations.The Museum of Byzantine Culture is one of the most important museums of Thessaloniki, a city with a powerful Byzantine character and beauty. All aspects of Byzantine and post-Byzantine art and history are represented through the display of original artefacts, mainly from Thessaloniki, the most important city of the Empire after Constantinople, but also from the wider area of Macedonia.The collection numbers more than 46,000 artefacts, heirlooms and artworks dated between the 2nd and the 20th centuries, with over 3000 on permanent display. Wall-paintings, mosaics, icons, marble architectural elements, detached Early Christian tombs with their wall-paintings, liturgical vessels, implements for personal adornment, but also humble everyday artefacts and tools for professionals are represented not only as artworks, but also as testimonies of the culture that created them and of the human society that used them.This short guide is a concise authoritative picture of the permanent exhibition in the Museum, useful for visitors during their visit to the Museum galleries, and as a memento of their visit long afterwards.