Archaeological Museum of Serres

Prehistoric and Roman finds from the Strymon plain, housed in a sixteenth-century Ottoman covered market

The museum is small but rewarding, with two main galleries. The first holds prehistoric and classical finds from the wider Strymon valley -- terracotta figurines, gold jewellery from a Macedonian tomb at Sidirokastro, and votive stelai. The second concentrates on Roman-era inscriptions, including a remarkable series of honorific decrees that allow scholars to reconstruct the political life of the Roman provincial cities.

The building itself, the Bezesteni, is reason enough for the visit: a cube of dressed stone with six brick-vaulted bays, lit by small clerestory windows. Closed on Tuesdays.

things to do museum
A story
The museum building was originally the Bezesteni, a stone-vaulted covered market built in the late fifteenth century, where Ottoman merchants traded silk, cotton, and silver. After the fire of 1913 destroyed most of the old city it was one of the few public buildings to survive intact, and was converted to a museum after the Second World War.