The first thing a visitor notices when stepping inside Sparta’s new Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil is what’s outdoors. A huge window frames Taygetus mountain on one side, while others showcase the olive groves behind the museum. “I wanted the building to have a relationship with the countryside,” explains architect Dimitris Diamantopoulos. Abundant natural light and lots of space mark the small but informative museum on the olive’s economic and cultural history in Greece. It is the latest in a network of trade museums run by the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation.
Olives, from A-Z
The museum, which borrows its colour scheme from the olive tree, was built on a municipal property that once housed the Peloponnesian city’s electric company. The old factory’s stone facade has been retained, serving as a reference point for the rest of the design. The outside of the building (which is in walking distance from Sparta’s centre) is modern, without clashing with its residential setting. The 700m2 interior harmoniously blends raw, industrial materials like iron, wood and brick.
The high-ceilinged ground floor level contains the history of the olive in Greece since prehistoric times. It is organized into themes like “The Role of the Olive in the Palatial Economy of the Aegean” and “ Diet ” . Huge, numbered banners contain succinct texts (in Greek and English), maps, photos and sketches. Historical objects are sprinkled along the way, from petrified Santorini olive leaves and replicas of the finds of an ancient shipwreck to early 20th century oil lamps. There are also a few samples of contemporary Greek artists’ olive-inspired art http://www.oliveoilsource.com/art.htm.
While wandering through this first level, the visitor has glimpses of the ground floor. “One sees things from different levels,” explains architect Diamontopoulos. There are also plenty of angles on the olive, by any name. Its Linear B symbol, for instance, is displayed while ancient and modern Greek olive variety names are being compared (the ancient “kolymvades” is pretty close to today’s “kolymbades” or “swimming in oil”).
The exhibit highlights the tree fruit’s sacred role in both ancient Greek religion and Christianity. Hard-working medieval monks who toiled to make oil had a higher purpose to refer to; the word for oil (“elaion”) sounds a lot like that for mercy (“eleos”). “We wanted it to be simple, but not simplistic,” says museum exhibit designer Eleni Kasanika-Stefanou of the content. Her (and predecessor Irene Nakou’s) major task was to distill the essence of the work of 57 academics/experts for visitors. It was designed for guests to spend “either half an hour or three hours and want to return”.
Museum banners avoid flowery language, yet give a “story-like” narrative to the visit. Part of this tale is Homeric. After all, Odysseus’ marriage bedpost was made of olive branches and Cyclop’s eye was poked out with “a staff of green olive wood”. Brief reference to the role of olive oil in Ancient Greek sexuality and hygiene and its use in Byzantine warfare keeps the story spicy.
Olive oil industry
On the landing to the lower level, there is a brief Botany section. Olive harvesters from the region, however, may be most interested in the oil production display located at the basement level. There are a huge, functional 20th-century wooden olive oil press (rescued from a tsipouro factory), a large stone mill, and a screw press. Schoolchildren gravitate towards the button-activated olive oil factory miniature models (water-, steam- and diesel-powered).
Today’s museums, Kasanika-Stefanou explains, have to show an item’s function – not just lock it up in a glass case. This philosophy is apparent in the museum’s soap-making display, which even includes the recipe for olive oil soap: 4 okas oil, 4 okas water, 1 oka potash and salt. (1 oka=1283 grams).
Future plans
Today the visit ends at a small souvenir shop/café with local olive products on display and a small outside garden. In the near future, however, there will be an outdoors exhibit too, including a section on harvesting olives and two functioning olive mill replicas from Prehistoric and Hellenistic times, plus an actual Early Christian period mill. Oil-making demonstrations are also planned. And since the adjacent lot has been acquired by the museum, a conference centre will be built with a roof terrace for visitors. Moreover, in the future there may be tours of orchards and mills/presses starting from the museum, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture.
The museum, which opened unofficially in November 2002 and officially in April 2003, was funded in part by the 2nd Community Support Framework. So far the budget is 1.8 million euros. Among a series of publications in the works (in both English and Greek), drawing from the vast research that went into the museum, is a guide to the “oil routes” of Greece, with locations of contemporary oil presses.
The Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation’s other museums are devoted to silk production ( Soufli ), water-power ( Dimitsana ) and musical instruments ( Thessaloniki ). A marble crafting museum on Tinos island is being planned.
Visiting info
** The Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil (129 Othonos–Amalias St, 23100 Sparti, Tel +30 27310-89315). Entrance fee: 2 euros (1 euro for senior citizens, students). Handicapped accessible.
