Byzantine Museum of Kastoria
Located at Dexamenis Square, this is one of Greece’s most important thematic icon museums. Its permanent exhibition is not a simple display of masterpieces, but more of a carefully structured explainer of why Kastoria is such a major center of Byzantine and post-Byzantine art. Organized into three sections—Byzantine Kastoria, Post-Byzantine Kastoria, and Post-Byzantine Artistic Workshops—it guides visitors from early portable icons to mature workshop creations. One can admire processional and despotic icons, epistyles, iconostasis doors, a few but significant detached wall paintings, as well as coins and jewelry that shed light on the social context of their time. Most interesting of all? The majority of the icons come from the churches of the historic center themselves—making the museum the ideal starting point for a stroll through the cobblestone alleys and the city’s litany of Byzantine churches.
