Argentis Folklore Museum (Korais Library)

The Folklore Museum and Gallery housed in the Koraes Library building derive mainly from the personal collections of Philippos P. Argentes. In 1932, he founded the “Argentes” Society to preserve Chios’s folkloric and historical material (collection of historical relics, costumes, etc.). He decided to extend the Library building to house the Folklore Collection and the Historical and Topographical Paintings of Chios in the same place. All the paintings refer to the island’s history. On the ground floor are busts of the Library’s benefactors Adamantios Koraes and Philippos Argentes, framed coats of arms of Chios’s great families, cases with manuscripts and personal items of A. Koraes and other figures, medals, rocks, fossils, and various books and paintings. On the stair to the upper floor hang historical and topographical paintings, mainly 19th-century engravings and watercolors.