MYTILENE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM- OLD BUILDING (Code: )

The old building of the Mytilene Archaeological Museum is near the town harbour and houses finds from the excavations of the XX Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, mainly at Mytilene, of the British School of Archaeology in Athens at Thermi, Antissa and Methymna, and of  the Canadian Institute in Greece at the Castle in Mytilene. It also contains exhibits retrieved throughout the island of Lesbos, and items  handed in or donated by private individuals.The exhibition of antiquities is housed in the rooms of the Achilleas Vournazos family mansion, built at the  beginning of the last century by the architect Vapheiades from Smyrna. The display, which was inaugurated in 1991, seeks to sketch the history  of Lesbos from Prehistoric to Late Roman times through the finds, explanatory panels, photographs and maps, and to elucidate the history of the island and the role it played over the centuries in the Aegean and on the Asia Minor coast.