The Archaeological Museum of Messenia is located in Kalamata

Kalamata

Kalamata is the second-largest city of the Peloponnese in southern Greece. The capital and chief port of the Messenia prefecture, it lies along the Nedon River at the head of the Messenian Gulf...

, the capital of the prefecture of Messenia

Messenia

Messenia is a regional unit in the southwestern part of the Peloponnese region, one of 13 regions into which Greece has been divided by the Kallikratis plan, implemented 1 January 2011...

 in southern Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

.

The museum is built on the site of the city's old market hall. Among else its collection includes the finds which were formerly kept in the Benakeion Archaeological Museum of Kalamata, a remarkable 1742 building of Venetian architecture which collapsed during the 1986 earthquake. The new museum holds antiquities from Messenia from prehistoric and Mycenaean

Mycenaean Greece

Mycenaean Greece was a cultural period of Bronze Age Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns are also important Mycenaean sites...

 times to the Byzantine

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 and Latin eras, divided along the four geographic areas that traditionally made up Messenia: Kalamata, Messene

Messene

Messene , officially Ancient Messene, is a Local Community of the Municipal Unit , Ithomi, of the municipality of Messini within the Regional Unit of Messenia in the Region of Peloponnēsos, one of 7 Regions into which the Hellenic Republic has been divided by the Kallikratis...

, Pylia

Pylos

Pylos , historically known under its Italian name Navarino, is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It was the capital of the former...

 and Triphylia

Triphylia

Triphylia was an area of the ancient Peloponnese. Strabo and Pausanias both describe Triphylia as part of Elis, and it fell at times under the domination of the city of Elis, but Pausanias claims they reckoned themselves Arcadian, not Elean. They fell under the rule of Elis in the 8th century BC,...

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External links

• Official site
• newsrelease 27 July 2007 (in Greek) Το Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Μεσσηνίας θα περιλαμβάνει ουσιαστικά όλα τα ευρήματα που εκτίθενται στο Μπενάκειο της Καλαμάτας και πολλά ακόμη, που έχουν προκύψει από πάμπολες ανασκαφές των τελευταίων χρόνων. Transl: The Archaeological Museum of Messenia will include all the finds which are displayed in the Benakeion (Archaeological Museum) of Kalamata and many more which are the result of numerous excavations of the last years.
• www.messinia-guide.gr on the Benakeion
• Ministry of Culture on the Benakeion
• Ministry of Culture on the Benakeion (in Greek) Από 24 Νοεμβρίου 2008 διακόπτεται η λειτουργία του Μουσείου λόγω μεταφοράς των εκθεμάτων του στο Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Μεσσηνίας. Transl: From 24 November 2008 the functioning of the museum is interrupted due to the transfer of the displays in the Archaeological Museum of Messenia
• newsrelease www.arxaiologia.gr 18 June 2009 (in Greek)