Serres Ecclesiastical Museum

About

The Serres Ecclesiastical Museum (Greek: Εκκλησιαστικό Μουσείο Σερρών "Ψυχής Άκος") occupies the second floor of the Diocesan Headquarters in the town of Serres in northern Greece. It displays a collection of sacerdotal objects which come mainly from the local Monastery of St John the Baptist (Timiou Prodromou) and from churches within the Metropolitanate of Serres and Nigrita. The exhibits are grouped in four categories: icons, wood-carvings and fragments of chancel screens, metal artifacts, and orphrey, the largest category being the icons, some of which bear the clear hallmarks of the local artistic tradition.

The collection is very important for the history of the religious and artistic life of Serres, Nigrita, and the wider area, because it ably represents artistic trends in, chiefly, post-Byzantine art. The most important icons are of: the Panagia Hodegetria from the ruined Church of Ano Taxiarhis (14th centuries), Christ the Saviour and the Theotokos Pantanassa from the Church of Agios Georgios Kryoneritis (17th century), Christ the Saviour and the Theotokos Hodegetria from the Church of Agios Antonios in Serres (15th–16th centuries), St Basil (18th century) from the same church...