HISTORY OF THE MUSEUMThe Archaeological Museum of Astros was established in a traditional building of local style known today as the “Karytsiotis School”. Dimitrios Karytsiotis, a wealthy merchant from Trieste who came from Agios Ioannis in Kynouria, founded both the School in his birthplace as well as its annex in modern-day Mesogeion Astros (1805), in the middle of the north side of a farm with an area of almost 5 hectares. The School of Astros quickly evolved into an educational center for the region, especially following the outbreak of the Greek Revolution in 1821. It also operated as a dormitory, as the chimneys and cabinets – all that remains from the small rooms once occupied by schoolchildren – preserved in the walls of the modern courtyard area of the Archaeological Museum attest. In 1823, the Second National Assembly of the Greeks took place in the immediate vicinity of the school. It was here that the country’s new constitution, the “Law of Epidaurus” as well as the “Proclamation of the Second National Assembly” were written. The School at Astros was burned by Ibrahim in 1826. Following its restoration by Prokopios, heir to Dimitrios Karytsiotis, it resumed operations in 1829. Karytsiotis’s entire premises became the property of the Greek government in 1899. The historic building of the School, officially called the “Mouseion of Karytsiotis” when it resumed operations in 1820, was converted into the Archaeological Museum of Kynouria in 1985 at the initiative of Th. Spyropoulos, the then Ephor of Antiquities.