The Museum was created with love, solicitude and a nostalgic mood by the descendants of -second and third generation- refugees. These refugees were violently chased out of their Eastern homelands, abandoned their hearthstones (where they had been thriving for three thousand years) and put down roots at their new home. They brought with them their history, their culture, their nobility and their principles, as well as the seed they planted at their new land, that of mother Greece. Ninety years later, the Association of Asia Minor of Kavala «Memory of Asia Minor», gathered refugees’ heirlooms (graven images, embroideries, items of everyday use, books, documents and photographs) from their homelands, plus several others which were acquired here during the early years of their settlement, and created the «Museum of Greek Refugees» as a minimum tribute to those who were undeservedly fallen, to those who experienced fire and emigration, to those who -with a thousand difficulties- managed to raise the next generations.
Since its opening the museum has been hosting a plethora of people, whether they were individual visitors or hundreds of students from schools in Kavala, the Prefecture and all over the country. In order to sensitise more of our fellow citizens, the activities of the museum were displayed in the Open Care Center for the Elderly and the nursing homes of Kavala, so that no other heirlooms are lost, while -in parallel- honoring the elderly, in their majority, descendants of refugees. Moreover, the thematic exhibition entitled “Dowry, Engagement, Dowry Agreement, Wedding “, which took place in September 2015 at the Municipal Tobacco Warehouse attracted a large number of visitors scoring great success.
The Museum has been operating since November 2018 in its new space granted by the Municipality of Kavala, at Kolokotroni Street no. 2 (next to the “Kamares” aqueduct).
It is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 09:30 to 13:30 and on Sundays from 11:00 to 14:00. Organised visits for schools, clubs and groups of visitors are made only by appointment at 6937457121 and 6945340340
