The Museum of Byzantine Culture, a short walk from the Archaeological Museum, won the Council of Europe Museum Prize in 2005 and deserves the accolade. It is one of the best museums in Greece, with a collection that spans from the early Christian period through the fall of Constantinople and the post-Byzantine tradition that continued under Ottoman rule.
Eleven permanent galleries are arranged chronologically and thematically, covering burial practices, church architecture, sacred art, and daily life. The mosaic and fresco collection is particularly strong — panels removed from damaged churches around northern Greece, some restored to near-original condition. There is also an entire gallery devoted to Byzantine textiles: embroidered vestments and silk garments that rarely survive in good condition elsewhere. The building itself, by architect Kyriakos Krokos, is a serene series of terraced halls using local stone — it manages to be unmistakably modern without competing with its contents.