On the August 15 public holiday, a major feast day in the Greek Orthodox calendar marking the Dormition of the Theotokos, Athens’ streets might have been a bit empty.
With many restaurants and cafes closed, locals and tourists alike flocked to the museums. Those that braved the heat were treated to almost private tours of a number of musuems that opened their doors on the holiday.
The Byzantine Museum often described as an underappreciated treasure had it’s doors open, where tourists were able to see the current exhibition by outdoor installation by artist Kalliopi Lemos focusing on the human struggle through life.
The Numismatic Museum also bucked the trend and remained open, showcasing one of the greatest collections of coins, ancient and modern, in the world.
The month of August might be one of the quietest in Athens thanks to many locals taking their holidays, but for the museums, the time is perfect to welcome interested tourists with lower crowd numbers.
Great exhibitions on this month include the Museum of Cycladic Art’s “History Zero,” a video by Stefanos Tsivopoulos which represented Greece at the 2013 Venice Biennale to the end of September; the Benaki Museum’s “Notes on Oriental Tobacco,” a fascinating exhibition about the history of the multifaceted commercial product in Greece, running to August 31.
Source: Ekathimerini.