New museums in the block

Two new museums are about to adorn the city of Athens, after the decision of the Hellenic Board of Museums on the foundation of these significant cultural centers. The first museum is the Mansion Tsiller-Loverdos that is located in the center of Athens. This is a Neoclassical building that will host the magnificent Loverdos collection, which belongs today to the Byzantine and Christian Museum. The other museum to open is the Museum of Submarine Archeology, the first one in Greece which will be housed in the building SILO at the port of Piraeus, when the reformation of the port will have finished. The Mansion Tsiller-Loverdos was once the residence of two important people, the German architect Ernest Tsiller, whose name became closely linked to the 19th century Greek architecture as he designed more than 900 buildings all over the country, and Dionysios Loverdos an economist, head of the Hellenic Popular Bank and a collector of art works, including Byzantine icons, valuable manuscripts and small items. Recently, the Board of Museums approved the reconstruction of the mansion which comprises a special exhibit by itself for its architecture and interior decoration with mosaic floors and wooden sculptures. The Museum of Submarine Archeology involves the reformation of Piraeus port. The museum will display material from the exhibits found at the shipwrecks of Greece. Among the exhibits, there will be architectural parts found in the bottom of the sea, sculptures, ship equipment and coins.