Museum of the Macedonian Struggle

I think they can provide more detailed information through much better way. But dolls are looks real and interesting(even we don’t know who they are as information is insufficient in the museum). And atmosphere is little bit scary to children. My daughter(4yrs old) was being scary during the whole time in the museum. The light is deem and sound is scary…! But it was a good museum to show how Macedonian fight to suppression and fasist.

Really interesting historical content. I was struck by the complexity of the Macedonian struggle and how in many respects the long standing issues are not fully resolved. The curator explained a bit to us about eh various viewpoints and I think a visit here is crucial to enjoying a longer stay in Thessaloniki as everything - the people, the food, the city all makes much more sense after the visit.

The Macedonian struggle museum mainly covers the period 1903-1908, when the Greek population of the then ottoman Macedonia fought against Bulgarian forces of the era, who performed atrocities against the Greeks. It is one of Thessaloniki's best historical museum, located very centrally, opposite of the city cathedral, in agias sofias-proxenou koromila street. The building itself is also part of the local history, as it used to be the greek consulate at the beginning of the 20th century. You can see collections of medals, swords, uniforms and weapons of the era, as well as documents and photos. Ticket is just 2€.

A niche museum of vital importance to the Greek nation . Macedonia was part of ancient Greece. Some interesting information about a conflict of great importance to both the Greek and Turkish nations

A nice, little museum very close to the centre of Thessaloniki, with very interesting exhibits, which present clearly the struggle of the Greek people of Macedonia, to unite with Greece. One of the most important parts of the museum can be located on its upper floor, where the story of the Manakia brothers is presented. The Greek pioneers of film-making, who were born in the Ottoman era, have long been claimed to be "North Macedonians". This is nonsense of course, because at their time Monastiri (now Bitola) was overwhelmingly resided by Greeks. The exhibition is also presenting a large selection of photographs, gifted by Leonidas Manakia (only son of the youngest Manakia, Miltos) to the Greek diplomatic mission in Skopje, at the height of the Greek-FYROM diplomatic conflict. The accompanying letter, which clearly state where the Manakia brothers felt they belonged, is also part of the exhibition. This is a place that is certainly worth visiting.

The museum is quite small and feels incomplete. A lot of information is missing and I don’t think it paints the full picture - very cut short. Also it’s very male centered - almost nothing about women during that time besides clothing. Even if there was a woman pictured next to fighters she wasn’t named. If you don’t have previous history knowledge about the Macedonian struggle I wouldn’t suggest going there, as it leaves out quite big chunk of the history which makes the museum practically obsolete… All in all, only go there if you want to see artifacts and ornaments up close.

Compared to 5 other other museums in Thessaloniki and the region that we visited, we felt that this museum at €4 per head offered distinctly less for the its price. I came to understand the broad outlines of the how Macedonia became part of Greece, the same basic process that seems to happen every time that a multiethnic empire is replaced by nationalist nation states, but I didn’t really come to understand the controversies of the time, it didn’t really come to life. Though sometimes it may be better when history isn’t remembered too vividly. The different sides in the conflict, were both Christian, and at least on Greece’s side the church had an awful lot of influence, had some sort of centralized leadership; what prevented them from negotiating a solution that would have prevented the bloodletting? Perhaps it’s a fanciful idea, but in any event I left the museum feeling that I sort of understood what had happened but really not why the chips had fallen as they did.

I found my visit to this museum to be disappointing. Limited exhibits and the building could have been cleaner on the day I visited.