ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM

This archaeological museum, founded in 1835, is one of the oldest in Greece. Since 1899, it has been housed in the Ermoupolis Town Hall, a neoclassical building designed by Ernst Ziller, the German architect responsible for some of the finest neoclassical buildings in Greece. Access is via a separate entrance.

The museum's most important collection is on display in Room 2. This is the collection of finds from the colony of Chalandrani, located on a steep hill in the middle of the east coast of Syros, where important sections of the Kastri fortification have been discovered, as well as the remains of residences and workshops for metallurgy and pottery. This settlement is thought to be one of the most important belonging to the so-called Ancient Cycladic civilization, dating from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Most of the finds are in marble, terracotta and metal, and come from tombs discovered during excavations by the Archaeological Society of Athens. Around 600 tombs have been discovered here and a small selection of the finds are on display, the majority having been transferred to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

The museum's collection includes pieces such as the Amfikypellon, a 15 cm cylindrical bowl from the late ^3rd millennium BC, a vase from the second half of the ^3rd millennium BC, a 35 cm marble statuette of a woman from 730 BC, among other objects and sculptures from the early Cycladic and Byzantine periods.