Just look at this portrait! You may think it is Russian president Vladimir PUTIN on it, but it is NOT him !
RU: Вы только посмотрите на этот портрет! Если вы думаете, что на нем изображен Владимир Путин, то вы очень ошибаетесь!
It is a Greek general Thanassoulos Valtinos, who lived as long ago as in the 19th century (1802 - 1870) !
RU: На самом деле это портрет греческого генерала, проживавшего еще в 19 веке.
Just look at it!
This surprise was waiting for me in Athens in the Benaki Museum when I was travelling around Greece three years ago.
RU: Этот сюрприз ждал меня в музее Бенаки в Афинах, когда я путешествовала по Греции три года назад.
This is one of the most visited museums in Greece. My friend living in Athens took me there because, as she said, it was her favourite and that it would not disappoint me. We went there on Thursday, and luckily it was the day when the admission to permanent exhibitions was free!
RU: Это один из самых посещаемых музеев в Греции. Повела меня туда моя подруга, которая живет в Афинах. Она пообещала, что мы пойдем в ее любимый музей, и что я не буду разочарована. Мы поехали туда в четверг и, к счастью, это был день, когда вход в музей был бесплатным.
Before going there, I had read a bit about the museum and knew that it was named after Antonis Benakis who donated his priceless collections to the Greek nation in 1931. His three sisters, Alexandra, Penelope and Argine, followed him and their collections were also added.
The Benaki Museum of Greek Culture (or of Greek Civilization by other sources) is housed in a neoclassical-style building, one of the most beautiful buildings in Athens.
RU: Прежде, чем ехать, я немного почитала о музее и знала, что назвали его в честь Антониса Бенакиса, который подарил свои бесценные коллекции греческому народу в 1931 году. Три его сестры последовали ему и добавили также свои коллекции.
Музей греческой цивилизации Бенаки расположен в одном из красивейших зданий Афин, построенном в неоклассическом стиле.
It was not difficult to find it because of its central location near the National Garden and the Hellenic Parliament.
RU: Найти музей было нетрудно, так как расположен он в центре, недалеко от Национального Сада и Парламента.
The museum has unique exhibitions on Greek culture arranged diachronically from prehistory to the 20th century.
Here there are very old Byzantine and post-Byzantine icons as well as altars from orthodox churches.
A number of rooms tell about life of Greek people from ancient times till nowadays.
Now I feel sorry that I did not take more pictures there. The only excuse for me is that it was my pre-HIVE time 😀.
Today I would have taken more pictures of marvelous pieces of clothes related to different periods of the Greek history, not just this one photo:
Luckily, I managed to take some pictures of the room presenting a reconstruction of the grand hall of a home of a wealthy Athenian. The light inside the museum is very specific and bad for taking photos, so it was not an easy task.
I even captured the fantastic ceiling of the room.
The Benaki Museum of Greek Civilization has very good collections of material culture from prehistory to the present time, from Byzantine period to our time, including unique items of pottery, jewellery, sculpture, wood carvings and much more. And paintings, lots of wonderful paintings!
RU: В музее Бенаки собраны великолепные коллекции материальной культуры Греции с древних времен до наших дней, включая византийский период истории, включая уникальные керамические и ювелирные изделия, и многое другое. И, конечно же, картины, картины!
One of the art exhibition halls and was the place where we found that mysterious portrait of Putin's doppelganger 😀 . Funny, is not it? At least I was very impressed.
RU: Именно там, в одной из экспозиций, нас и ждал этот мистический портрет двойника Путина. Не правда ли, забавно?!
When we were leaving the museum, on the first floor we could not resist taking pictures of the hall decorated with pretty fresh flowers.
The poster here was inviting to a mobile exhibition.
There we got the information about four other departments of the Benaki Museum. They also have the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art with unique collection of artefacts, the Studio of Yannis Pappas, the Ghika Gallery and the Toy Museum. All sounded very interesting, but we had to leave them for my next visit of Athens. Probably, there are even more places which are under this most famous museum, but - for the future, for the future!
The photos for this post were taken by me (and by my friend for me) on my telephone Huawei P9. The quality of some pictures is not good because of the special light in some rooms of the museum. I hope you like my post. I would like it to help somebody to know what place is worth visiting while in Athens.
I started learning how to store my memories on the map of 