Mihalis Tsartsidis Folklore and History Museum

About

The Michalis Tsartsidis Folklore and History Museum is a museum in Sidirokastro, Central Macedonia, Greece, 85 km from Thessaloniki and 25 km from Serres. The museum was opened in 1979, and was set up as a private initiative in order to showcase the numerous aspects of the personal collection of Michalis Tsartsidis. The collection is divided into two parts, military and folklore.

The owner of the collection started collecting weapons and military memorabilia in 1941, and it has now grown into a large collection of weapons dating from the Balkan Wars and the First and Second World Wars. Apart from a broad assortment of rifles, revolvers, and pistols, visitors can also see German bombs from World War II, cartridge belts, helmets, knapsacks, photographs of the battle of Rupel Fortress, letters stored by Greek fighters in their rifle barrels, the flag of the headquarters of the Greek Army in the Middle East, German propaganda posters, and a piece of soap made from human fat (a Jewish victim of the Holocaust). A rare piece, in both conception and execution, is a rifle disguised as a walking stick, which was used for secret executions.

The most recent exhibits are Serbian Army helmets with...