(Tel. 25540 23700)
It was created in 1990 and is housed in the mansion of doctor K. Kourtidis (1870-1944) which was built by local craftsmen in 1883. The purpose of the Silk Museum is to present the pre-industrial techniques of rearing silkworms (sericulture) and processing silk (sericulture) as well as and their socio-economic importance for Soufli and the wider region.
The exhibition consists of four exhibition units and includes a total of 46 exhibition units with two-dimensional documentary and informational material (texts, photographs, drawings, maps) and traditional objects related to sericulture and sericulture. The first exhibition section chronologically presents the history of silk that begins in China, continues with Greco-Roman antiquity and Byzantium, proceeds to the West and reaches the Ottoman period. The second expository section deals with the stages of silkworm rearing from the production of the silk seed to the suffocation ("baking") of the cocoons. The third exhibition section refers to the processing of silk from the cleaning and sorting of the cocoons to the weaving process of the famous Souffle silk weavers. The fourth expository section analyzes the broader socio-economic context of the development of silk, both in Greece and in Europe (19th-20th centuries) with a special emphasis on the rise and fall of the silk industry in Soufli and its contribution to the development of the city. On the premises of the Museum, unique parts of the Souflio costume are also exhibited.
The interest of the visitors is concentrated in the observational material, which consists of all the utensils used by the sericulture in his home, the craftsman who prepared the silk in his workshop and those with which the Soufliotissa housewife created crafts on her loom, the endless variety of silk fabrics. Maps, diagrams and photographs enrich this exhibition and help the visitor to understand the importance of sericulture and its contribution to the development of Soufli.
Editor: Niki Kalopaidis