This museum is home to a colorful collection of ceramics donated by Professor Vasileos Kyriazopolous in 1974. Officially, this museum is an annex of the Folk Art Museum. The collection is housed the Tzistarakis Mosque. With hundreds of pieces on display, the museum shows the range and importance of ceramics in traditional Greek life. You will see terra-cotta water jugs from Aegina, storage jars from Thessaly, and oven dishes from Sifnos.
The mosque itself, also known as the Mosque of the Lower Fountain, was built in 1759 by the Turkish governor, Tzistarakis. He was entrusted with collecting taxes for his own account and transmitting wealth back to the Sultan in Constantinople. The downfall of Tzistarakis came when during the construction of the mosque, his workmen dynamited one of the columns of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The column was melted down into lime and used in the stucco during the mosque’s construction. The destruction of ancient monuments was forbidden, and the governor was exiled as a result.
Greece in Focus 