The Municipal School of Kalavrita was built at the dawn of the 20th century and began operating in 1906. It is characteristic example of a four-grade primary school, built with neo-classical architectural elements and specific typology. The school was built in accordance to the very first state programme for the erection of school buildings, created by Dimitrios Kallias, mechanical engineer of the Ministry of Education, which was ratified by law in 1895. Since the beginning of its operation, the school had qualified teachers teaching all the grades and the school was equipped with all the educational means for the tutoring of history, language, technical and practical subjects. During the Second World War the school closed down, but operated only briefly between September and December 1943, the shortest school term this school knew since its opening.

On December 13, 1943, the school was completely burnt down by the Germans.

When the German occupation was over, the school was rebuilt according to its original plan. It reopened in 1955. In 1986, the school was declared a historical monument by the Ministry of Culture and the decision was made for the municipal Museum of the Holocaust to be housed there.

The municipal school of Kalavrita was one of the town’s most spacious public buildings, and during the Second World War, between 1941 and until the end of 1943, the Italians used it as a camp for all the political prisoners they rounded up in the Peloponnese. Around 500 Greek men and women were held here and many of them did not survive the atrocious conditions of the camp. In April 1943, the prisoners were taken to other camps around Greece and the Municipal school was then used by the Italians as a military camp. Following the treaty with the Greeks, on September 9, 1943, the Municipal school was re-opened.

On the night of the 17th of October 1943, Germans, who were captured at the battle of Rogon Kerpinis, were held at the school for 24 hours.

It was also at this school that the Germans rounded up all the inhabitants of Kalavrita and gathered the male population over the age of 14, which they then executed on the hill of Kappi. The women, children and old aged folk were left to burn to death in the school. The enclosed were able to break free.





The Municipal Museum today.



The Museum under its current legal status and name was established in 1986, law A 24908/4.8.1986, and it is housed within the town’s municipal school. The mandate of the museum is to collect, register and display all material relating to the history, the folklore and the traditions of Kalavrita, especially though with respect to the history of the Holocaust of the 13th of December 1943 and the events that took place in the wider area. The restoration of the municipal school was performed in accordance with the plans by Mary Koumandaropoulou and Antonis Manioudakis, civil-engineers and architects with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Directorate of Cultural Buildings and Restoration of Recent Monuments.

The project’s budget was for the amount of 1.167.332, 42 euro and was contracted out to “Alexandros Techniki S.A.”. It was co-financed by the European Union, having been included in the programme “Civilization” of the Community’s Structural Assistance Funding 2000-2006.



The Museum was inaugurated on the 9th of January 2005 by his Excellency the President of the Hellenic Republic Mr. Constantinos Stephanopoulos.