Pella, Archaeological Museum

The museum of Pella used to be a small building, across the street from the excavations. Recently, however, the collection has been transferred to a spacious new building in a completely different part of the ancient capital of Macedonia. It has two floors, but the upper floor is still empty, waiting for new finds.

There are several large rooms. A long corridor with a large map of the conquests of Alexander leads to a bust of the great conqueror, which is where the museum really opens itself to its visitors. The first room contains no finds (except for two roof tiles), but offers a small model of ancient Pella, together with maps that explain the history of Macedonia. After this, there’s another corridor – here is the statue of Alexander as Pan – and you will reach the main hall. Here you will find the famous mosaics of the lion hunt and the Dionysus seated on a panther. Photography is permitted. However, the friendly guards are anxious to prevent you from taking photos in the other rooms, where you will find many objects from Pella’s daily life.

The site of the excavation has been expanded to the south. The site used to consist of the agora and a couple of houses, but now, you can recognize several blocks of houses and several streets. The fact that the new museum is close to the citadel suggests that there are also plans to finally open it for the public.

I enjoyed my visit to this museum, which was opened only a month ago, but I just don’t understand why we weren’t allowed to take photos in some parts of the museum. The objects are there for study, and because we cannot visit Pella every day, we must be able to take photos. There may be good reasons, but I think that museums that prevent study, must explain this.

This museum was visited in 2000, 2010.

24 pictures related to this museum

Pella, Reconstruction of a door	Pella, Tombstone	Pella, Figurine of a lady	Pella, Herm
Pella, House of the Lion Hunt Mosaic, Mosai of Craterus and Alexander during a lion hunt	Pella, Tombstone of Makartos Delios	Pella, Mould of a cup with scenes from the Trojan War	Pella, Tile with stamp
Pella, Relief of two talking women	Pella, Tombstone of Makartos Delios, ship	Pella, Figurine of Athena Alkidemos	Pella, Figurine of a paidagogos
Giannitsa, Portrait of Alexander the Great	Pella, Helmet	Pella, Statuette of a horseman	Pella, Wall painting
The Pella hoard: 307 Hellenistic coins	Pella, Bronze eagle	Pella, Statue of Alexander the Great as Pan	Pella, Hecate
Pella, Figurine of Eros	Pella, Heracles on a coin	Pella, House of Dionysus, Model	Pella, Arrowheads