In 1918, the Historical Archive – Museum of Hydra was established in a building located near the Port Authority, on the eastern side of the Port and which was built at the expense of the Hydra shipowner and benefactor Gika N. Kouloura .
The Antonios D. Lignos ,physician and Mayor of Hydra for 40 consecutive years, undertakes with tireless zeal the task of classifying and transcribing the material of the archive of the community of Hydra (1708 – 1865), which he himself had discovered in storage cells of the I. Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Hydra. With these works he laid the foundations for the creation of a Museum and Library on the island.
In 1952 Gikas Koulouras donated the building to the state and since then the Historical Archive – Museum of Hydra has been operating as a Public Service under the Ministry of Health and Science and scientifically supervised by the General Archives of the State.
In 1972 the original building was demolished for construction reasons and the current building was built in its place with the tireless care of the then Most Reverend Metropolitan of Hydra, Spetses and Aegina, Mr Ierotheou.
The new building was inaugurated in July 1996 and houses in its imposing premises the reconstituted archival-museum service, the Library, and operates daily for historical researchers and visitors to the island.
The purpose of the Archives department is to locate, gather, classify, maintain an index and finally publish all kinds of archival material related to Hydra, its local history, tradition and culture.
In this Hydra historical documentation center, archival material from the Public Services of the island as well as archives of Organizations and individuals, which are important sources of historical research for the place and historically highlight the leading role of Hydra, especially in the period of the 18th – 19th centuries, are included in this historical documentation center .
A large section of archival material concerns the record of the community of Hydra (1708 – 1865). There are approximately eighteen thousand primary documents, manuscripts, codices and scriptures that thoroughly outline the pre-revolutionary, revolutionary and post-revolutionary times of Greek history.
Following are educational, administrative, ecclesiastical, collective, etc. files. which start in time from the middle of the 19th century, often reaching the present day.
The Museum space operates on the ground floor and on the first floor.
On the ground floor of the Museum area, relics from the Balkan wars and the First and Second World Wars are exhibited
In the vestibule of the first floor, Hydra costumes, prows and acrostoli from ships of the Battle, great micro-artifacts of the 18th – 19th centuries, weapons of Hydra fighters, beautiful engravings, nautical charts, the Charter of Riga Feraeus, etc. are displayed. The silver urn with the embalmed heart of Andreas Miaoulis is also kept in this space.
In the rooms of the first floor, a wonderful Historical Gallery has been set up with works by great Greek and foreign painters, mainly oil paintings but also watercolors depicting ships of the Battle.
On the walls of the stairwell, which leads to the first floor, there are portraits of Hydra fighters, created by well-known painters, such as Panagiotis Tetsis and Demosthenes Kokkinidis.
The visitor of the museum, moving in the atmosphere of the space, has the possibility to revive within himself, the entire heroic past of Hydra.
It is housed on the ground floor of the building and contains 4,000 volumes of books, mainly old and valuable editions, many of which date from the early 18th century.
Its content is constantly enriched with new publications, mainly historical and archival but also literary, magazines, newspapers, etc.
The Archive-Museum houses 18,000 documents from the beginning of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century, 12,000 book titles, both historical and literary, as well as dozens of surprising exhibits, such as the original Charter of Rigas Feraios.
| GROUND FLOOR | Α' FLOOR | Β' FLOOR |
|---|---|---|
| Information - Tickets | Vestibule - Clothing Exhibits | Lectures - Screenings |
| Administration - Library Administration | Exhibits of guns | Outbuilding |
| Exhibits from Balcan and World Wars | Gallery | Open Grounds |
The Historical Archive-Museum of Hydra is located near the Port Authority, on the eastern side of the port.
Telephone: 22980-54142
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