The Municipal Art Gallery of Messolonghi is located in Markos Botsaris Square, the central square of the city. It is housed in a two-storey building of Neoclassical style, built in 1931, where the Town Hall of the city used to be. Today the Mayor’s office is used only for official events.
On the ground floor there are two rooms, dedicated to Lord Byron. The Museum also hosts a permanent collection of paintings by Greek and foreign painters of the 19th and 20th centuries, inspired by the history of the Sacred Town of Messolonghi, along with personal manuscripts, lithographs and various objects related to the struggle for the freedom of the people of 1821 and the history of the place. The Museum’s collection includes original paintings and copies of scenes to do with the Exodus of Messolonghi, portraits of Philhellenes and Greek chieftains, original engravings of 1837 by Friedel, weapons of 1826, coins and medals, as well as plaster busts of the five prime ministers from Messolonghi, Spyridon Trikoupis, Zafirios-Zenovios Valvis, Dimitrios Valvis, Epaminondas Deligiorgis and Charilaos Trikoupis.
Among the paintings on display, the visitor has the opportunity to admire the French painter Emile de Lasagne’s highly thought-of work “The Mother’s Sacrifice”. Also on display is a copy by Angelos Kassolas of the painting “The Exodus of Messolonghi” by Theodoros Vryzakis, which plays a central role in the procession of the Exodus commemorations. Other important copies of original works related to Messolonghi that the Gallery holds are the paintings “Greece in the ruins of Messolonghi” by Eugene Delacroix, “The Attack of Ibrahim” by G. Pietro Mazzola (copy by Ioannis Kassolas, based on an engraving by Jean-Charles Langlois) and “The arrival of Lord Byron in Messolonghi” by Theodoros Vryzakis (copy by George Kassolas).
Here too are exhibited weapons of the fighters of 1821, ecclesiastical objects from the same period, such as the chalice and the consecration cross of the Metropolitan, Joseph Rogon, a series of post-Byzantine icons and documents from the twinning of Messolonghi with the city of Schefflinsdorf, birthplace of the publisher of the first newspaper in Liberated Greece (Hellenic Chronicles), Johann Jacob Mayer, as well as parts of the printing press from his historic printing house.
Address: Botsaris Square 1, 302 00 Messolonghi
Telephone: 26310 22134
Opening hours:
Winter working hours:
Open Tuesday to Sunday, from 08:30 continuously until 19:00. Every Monday: Closed.
Entrance: No tickets – free
