FOLK
ART MUSEUM
The museum stretches today on a total area of 600
square meters of the more recent three-storied traditional
building with stone walls and a symmetric formation
on the openings of its facets, and on some additional
250 square meters of the newly built basement.
It was built some time between 1800 and 1808 and
belonged to the Arife women or Raze and Safie, Ahmet
Mousli's widow and daugther respectively. Prior
to the liberation it was housing a Turkish elementary
school and later on until 1935 it was hosting the
College of Education of Ioannina. Up to 1938 and
also during the 1940-1944 war, the Pedagogic Academy
was also housed there but in the post-war years
it served as a Boys' High School and a Technical
Training Center for Foremen.
In
1976, the state sold it to the Society for Epirotic
Studies (SES) that remodeled its interior to house
the "Kostas Frontzos" Museum of Epirus'
Folk Art. The quality and the quantity of the collection
of the museum's exhibits is unique for the region
of Epirus and is considered as one of the most significant
and equal in value to other relevant collections.
The SES building has now been completely restored.
