The Archaeological Museum of Serres (Greek: Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Σερρών) is located in the old centre of Serres, a city in Central Macedonia, Greece. It is housed in the city's Ottoman-era bedesten (Μπεζεστένι) a fifteenth-century building in Eleftherias Square.
Building edit
The bedesten is an enclosed and covered market. The Serres bedesten was built by Çandarlı Ibrahim Pasha the Younger around 1493/94.[1]
According to the historian of Ottoman art Semavi Eyice, the Serres bedesten is among the most remarkable specimens of the building type for its excellent construction technique and its striking exterior.[1] It is a rectangular single-storey structure with dimensions 21 by 31 metres (69 ft × 102 ft), divided into six sections by arches, each section topped by a dome, covered by tiles instead of lead.[1][2]
Exhibits edit
The building now functions as an archaeological museum. More specifically, there are prehistoric exhibits from the excavations at Promachonas and Kryoneri, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman exhibits (mainly ceramics, statues, and inscriptions) from Argilos, Vergi, Terpni, Neos Skopos, Gazoros, ancient Tragilos, and Serres. Particularly important are the Early Christian and Byzantine exhibits from the town of Serres, most notably a marble icon of Christ and a twelfth-century mosaic of St Andrew the Apostle, both from the Old Cathedral.[2][3]
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Andrew the Apostle -
Exhibits from Bisaltia region -
Marble icon of Christ -
Statue of a woman
References edit
- ^ a b c Eyice, Semavi (1992). "Bedesten" (PDF). TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. 5 (Balaban – Beşi̇r Ağa) (in Turkish). Istanbul: Turkiye Diyanet Foundation, Centre for Islamic Studies. pp. 302–311 (esp. 308–309). ISBN 978-975-389-432-6.
- ^ a b This article incorporates text from the corresponding article at the Museums of Macedonia website, commissioned by the Macedonian Heritage foundation, written by Vlasis Vlasidis, and published under a CC-BY-SA-3.0 license.
- ^ Vasilis Kostovasilis. "Μπεζεστένι Σερρών". Part of the article "Τα Μπεζεστένια - Οι μεγάλες σκεπαστές αγορές", Ελληνικό Πανόραμα, Issue 30 (2002), pp. 102-131. Serres Central Library. Archived from the original on 2011-11-21. Retrieved 2011-11-05.