Koraes Library
Chios counts with one of the largest libraries in Greece, the
"Adamantios Koraes" Library. Established in 1792 as a department of the
Great Chian School, today it stores a significant collection of over
130,000 volumes.
Apart from its size, one of the features that makes this library
interesting is the origin of its books. The first ones were donated by
Adamantios Koraes, the founder of the library, and many of his friends
(mostly Greek living abroad). Later, the Argenti family, the major
donator, were responsible of important upgrades and additions during
the late 70s. Many other Chians have donated their personal book
collections to the library, such as the important contributions made by
Ioannis Andreadis, Zorzis and Tarse Dromokaitou, Alex. Pachnos,
Georgios Michalinos, Alex. Votsanis, Leonis Kalvokoresis and Georgios
Theotokas.
Before the Massacre of Chios in 1822, this library was the most
important one of the whole region. Then, after the major earthquake in
1881, it was moved into a new building where it has remained ever
since, and whose second floor was added after 1948 by Philip Argenti.
Today the Adamantios Koraes library reports to the Libraries
Department of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. It also
publishes a comprehensive catalogue and archives of the Library's book
collections, has a lending department, and it has a mobile library van
for the villages of Chios. During the last years, it has been working
on the modernization of its storage and access systems to ensure the
usefulness and efficiency of the Library both with users, visitors and
researchers.
For more information visit:
www.koraeslibrary.gr
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Koraes Museum
The Folklore Museum and Picture Gallery are located in the Koraes
Library building and consist mainly of donations from the collection of
the late Philip P. Argenti. In 1932 he founded the "Argenti Society" to
preserve the historical and folklore material of Chios. In 1937 an
Ethnological Museum was set up in the building of the High School of
Chios and its collection was soon enriched with new donations. He later
added another store to the Library building to house his books, the
historical collection of paintings and prints and the folklore
collection that he had donated, today the Folklore Collection and the
Historic and Topographic Pictures of Chios sections. These new rooms
were inaugurated in 1962 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the
liberation of Chios. After Philip Argenti's death in 1974, his son
Pantdely donated more books, paintings and folklore exhibits. He also
built a new wing and renovated the building to its present form.
The paintings in the hallway, around the staircase and down the
corridor of the second floor are all related to the History of Chios.
In the hallway, there are also some historic and topographic pictures
of Chios that illustrate the island as it has been between the 14th and
the 19th century; some are gravures, others are aquarelles or oil
paintings. At the basement, stand the statues of the donors of the
Library, A. Koraes and Ph. Argenti, the blazons of the great families
of Chios, personal manuscripts of Koraes and other personalities,
medals, fossils, etc. On the second floor are the halls A, B, C, D and
E, the last two gathering the folklore collection.
Hall A
Historic events are mainly represented in the pictures in the
hallway of Hall A. Some of the most interesting are four copper
engravings by the French R. Paton representing the sea fight of the
Russian admiral Orlof against the Turks at Cesme (Izmir) in 1770. The
other pictures are oil paintings and copper engravings representing a
number of sea fights against pirates during the 18th and 19th
centuries. Paintings representing the city of Chios have been put above
the gates that lead to B and D halls. In the corridor's walls hang six
paintings showing the Massacre of Chios in 1822, some oil paintings and
a genuine lithography of Delacroix.
Hall B
The most important works exhibited in Hall B are portraits and
busts. The portraits are of members of some great families of Chios,
and the best ones are those of Jenny Skilitsi (1853), Alexandra
Mavrokordatou - Skilitsi (1872), Amvrosios Argenti (1861), Vierou
Argenti (1861), Joulia Ralli - Argenti (1890), Maria Julia Argenti
(1877) and Panteli Argenti (1879). The busts are marbled busts of
Marouko Argenti and Maria Julia Argenti, the bronzed busts of Ph.
Argenti's children and of Michalis Mavrokordatos, and ivory miniatures
representing other members of the family. Apart from that, there are
also medals, very interesting coins and personal belongings of the
Argenti family. Among these, there are items as a sword, christianizing
laces, miniatures in porcelain frame and a Evangel covered by ivory.
Hall C
Hall C covers the costumes part of the Chian culture. The paintings
exhibited illustrate mainly the dresses of the villagers between the
16th and the 20th century all around the island. While mostly are works
from tourists, the latest ones were created by painters by order and
direction of Ph. Argenti after he had gathered some information about
local people. Besides, three showcases expose the porcelain models of
the dresses illustrated in the above paintings, a unique collection
since the matrixes were destroyed after doing these pieces.
Hall D&E
Halls D and E of the Argenti Collection feature local folk art works
and items regarding the four following subjects: embroidery, textiles,
dresses and woodcuts. The embroidery works are taken from dresses and
house decoration from the beginning of the 20th century. The textile
ones are mainly ribbons from the 30s, also taken from dresses and
decoration. The dresses part is interesting, since Chios produced a
great variety of traditional dresses. Finally, the woodcuts show us
mostly pastoral topics.
For more information visit: www.koraeslibrary.gr
Apart from its size, one of the features that makes this library
interesting is the origin of its books. The first ones were donated by
Adamantios Koraes, the founder of the library, and many of his friends
(mostly Greek living abroad). Later, the Argenti family, the major
donator, were responsible of important upgrades and additions during
the late 70s. Many other Chians have donated their personal book
collections to the library, such as the important contributions made by
Ioannis Andreadis, Zorzis and Tarse Dromokaitou, Alex. Pachnos,
Georgios Michalinos, Alex. Votsanis, Leonis Kalvokoresis and Georgios
Theotokas.
