Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments "Fivos Anoyanakis"-Centre for Ethnomusicology
The Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments – Fivos Anoyanakis Collection, also known as the Centre for Ethnomusicology, was inaugurated on 6 June 1991.
It is based on a unique collection of around 1,200 Greek folk musical instruments, dating from the 18th century to the present day. The collection is the result of more than forty years of research and study by the musicologist Fivos Anoyanakis, who donated it to the Greek state in 1978.
The museum is housed in the historic Lassanis Mansion, a neoclassical building of 1840 located in Plaka, next to the Roman Agora in Athens. The main building includes the exhibition spaces as well as the reception area, administration offices, secretariat, and the museum library. The former stables of the mansion have been converted into the Research Centre and archives, storage areas, a seminar room, and the museum shop, where books, records, and musical instruments are available. The garden is also used for traditional music concerts and cultural events.
Since 2018, the museum has operated as a special regional service of the Greek Ministry of Culture, making it one of the country’s public museums. Its exhibition is spread across three floors and organised into four main categories, corresponding to the four families of musical instruments identified in ethnomusicology, based on the material that vibrates to produce sound: membranophones, aerophones, chordophones, and idiophones.
The presentation follows organological classification, and each display case is equipped with an audio system that allows visitors to hear musical examples, understand the sound range, playing techniques, and combinations of instruments. The exhibits are also placed in their historical and social context through photographs, slideshows, and videos that present customs and rituals where speech, music, and dance come together.
The museum’s mission is to collect, preserve, study, and exhibit Greek folk musical instruments and related material, to support ethnomusicological research, and to promote Greek traditional and Byzantine music both in Greece and internationally.
