Historical Itinerary

Professor D. Loukatos Foundator of the Folklore Museum

The Folklore Museum and Archive was founded with the Presidential Decree nr. 89, issue nr. 30/3-12-1977. The outset although of its foundation is rooted in the period 1964-1969 during which the first Professor of the Chair of Folklore of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sir Dimitrios Loukatos started to create the first collection of the museum. The ulterior part of the collection basically originated from donations made by his own students corresponding to their Professor's invitation to contribute to the organization of a University Folklore Museum.

The choice of the collected objects and their classification method showed that Professor Dimitrios Loukatos approached with new theoretical and methodological definitions the social and the educational institution of the Museum of Folklore Civilization. By putting into practice the theory and method of ethnography in an era where in other museums the choice of the exhibits was mainly based on esthetic criteria or criteria of value and rarity, the founder of the museum stated as collection and exhibition criteria the functional value of the exhibits, aiming at the conception of a thematic collection and not at the cumulative gathering of a series of disseminate products of human activity

Particular attention was given to objects of the agricultural or cattle-breeding environment and space, objects of daily use related to the pre-industrial production, transformation and consumption sectors.

Notwithstanding the fact that until 1978 the collection counted more or less 400 objects and hardly increased until 1995, it significantly increased from that year on since the University of Ioannina gave away objects coming from the house of the donator Ioannis Tsanakas to the Museum. According to his testament of 1981, Ioannis Tsanakas left the most important part of his legacy: real estate and movable property to the University of Ioannina , providing that the income of this legacy, the "deposits and the interests" would be used by the University to finance studies or post-graduate studies. The creation of s tudy-grants would benefit economically disadvantaged students originating from or remaining in Metsovo and surroundings, as well as students originating from Ioannina and living in its Province. The most significant part of his movable property consisted of house ware, clothes, and furniture, etc. These were donated for the biggest part to the Folklore Museum .

The objects of the collection I. Tsanakas compose a clear image of the daily life of the mountainous space (of Metsovo, where the donator comes from) whereas a significant number of exhibits recall the daily life of a small urban mansion of Ioannina.

Today

In 2005 the collection of the Museum and the Archives consist of about 1400 objects.