MUSEUM KOMPOLOGIOU

In April 1998, the first - and remains unique in the world - the Komboloi Museum by the Evangelinos couple, which has been gathering and studying the rosary since 1958, was founded in Nafplion. In Alexandria, Egypt, where the grandfather of Mr. Evangelinos lived, lessons and learned the "secrets" of the beads. Since 1963 they have begun their long journey through the streets of the Komboloi, which is still going on. They collect knowledge and rarely old humor from all over the world - Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Catholics and Greeks - from the countries that flourished in Hellenism (Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, etc.). Thus they acquired a unique collection, part of which is exhibited in the museum, dating from 1550 to 1950, and are made of pure amber, amber-mastic, amber-festoon, black (yusuri) and red coral, ivory, bone, horn, ebony, etc. The museum exhibits the harpsticks from the historical collection in 4 small halls: In Hall A: Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims In Hall B: Roses of catholic and rosary from monasteries In Rooms C and D: Greek From its foundation until today, the Museum has accommodated more than 150000 visitors. All Greek newspapers (NEA, ELEFTHEROTYPIA, VIMA, KATHIMERINI and others) as well as many Greek magazines (STATUS, EPSILON, GREEK PANORAMA, EV and others) showed great interest with extensive coverage. Foreign newspapers - NATIONAL HERALD in New York or magazines such as NEW YORK TIME MAGAZINE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - were also interested. The same interest was shown by Greek broadcasters such as NET, ANTENNA, ET3 and foreigners such as BBC, LONELY PLANET. The aim and mission of the Museum is to rescue and disseminate the traditional Greek rosary. The Museum is housed in a privately-owned two-storey building in the old town of Nafplion, 25, Staikopoulou St. The exhibition area is located on the upper floor. On the ground floor is the Museum's workshop, which preserves the old kombológia and manufactures faithful copies of the old handmade beads made in workshops in the East. The workshop maintains the old church-heirlooms of the families for free. On the ground floor, it is also the shop of the Museum where the works produced in the workshop are sold. The Museum operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture.