The Building

The stone Neoclassical building was constructed in 1899 as the country residence of a businessman named Altinalmazis from Edirne. It was purchased in 1937 by a merchant named Hadzikonstandis Stefanou, who gave it as part of her dowry to his granddaughter Chryssoula Zafiriou or Mangou, who married Grigorios Chryssostomou, a lawyer, MP for Evros prefecture, and Minister for Merchant Shipping in 1948-9.

In January 1951, Sofoklis Venizelos, son of the great Greek statesman Eleftherios Venizelos, stayed in the house. It now belongs to Zafiria Chryssostomou, wife of Nikolaos Papathanassiou.

In 1998, the building was renovated by the family of Polyhronis Giannakidis with a view to its housing the Ethnological Museum of Thrace.

Its new function will make it a centre for Thracian culture, and also a place for research and intellectual creativity, of the visionary kind that promotes reconciliation and takes its inspiration from age-old memory and the splendour of the folk tradition.