History

The old Girls’ School has always been an integral part of city life for the residents of Gytheio.

It was built in 1891, when Doctor Vasileios Kalkandis was Mayor of the city, and is allegedly the work of the famous Bavarian naturalized Greek architect and engineer, Ernst Ziller.

The building was originally used as a girls’ school. Then, for several decades, it housed the 2nd Primary School, the High School and the Landowners’ Office of Gytheio. Almost a century later, in May 1982, it was characterized as a Historical Monument by the Ministry of Culture (Official Gazette 426 / B / 07.03.1992). In February 1999, the building was offered by the Municipality of Gytheio to the Ministry of Culture with the prospect to become a museum. Eventually, the building was returned to the Municipality of Gytheio, which undertook to carry out a restoration study. In 2011, when Mr. Peter Andreakos was Mayor of the new and bigger Municipality of Eastern Mani, the building restoration study was updated and the use of the building as a “Centre of Information and Interpretation of Eastern Mani” was suggested.

This project, named “Centre of Information and Interpretation of Eastern Mani”, was part of Thematic Priority 57: “Improvement of tourist services” of Axis 3: “Improving the business environment” of the Operational Programme “Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship” of the years 2007-2013, and received 1.489.050 € as state funding.