Mushroom & Natural History Museum, Meteora

The Meteora Natural History Museum and the Mushroom Museum recently opened in Meteora region’s town of Kalabaka.
These are essentially two museums housed in about 1,100 sq.m.:the Zoological Museum, where over 350 species of birds and mammals are exhibited and the Mushroom Museum with about 250 different species of mushrooms. The collection of animals is of excellent quality, since they come from Europe’s best taxidermists, and many of them are very rare. They completely cover the region’s fauna and not only.
The mushrooms are sculptures, in complete resemblance of colour and size to the natural ones. They are presented in three phases of up-growth in order to understand their life cycle. They have been built one by one by hand by excellent local sculptors.
What makes the museum superb is not only the quality of its exhibits but also the way of their presentation, attributes that make it both unique in Greece and also competitive with similar European ones. Animals and mushrooms are presented in their natural environment (e.g. forest, wetlands, alpine zone, etc.) in dioramas, which constitute a simulation of living and fruition conditions. This results in an extraordinary aesthetic result, which excites both young and elder, and is reflected every day in the museum’s impressions book but also on our Facebook’s page and the largest travel experience website in the world, TripAdvisor. Phrases such as “enchanting image”, “theatrical settings”, “enormous work of art”, “pioneering work”, “unique effort”, “fairy environment” etc. are just some of the impressions that are heard and written daily. It is no coincidence that, despite its short period of operation, it has been the subject of warm appraisals by all the major media in the country, printed and electronic, a fact that testifies to its qualitative and aesthetic competence.
Also what completes the vision of the founders of the Museum is the hosting of painting and sculpture exhibitions, individual or by group, because they believe that nature and the environment are inextricably linked to the cultural heritage and creation.
Finally, it should be mentioned that its operation and information material are based on the scientific knowledge that guarantees the cooperation with the University of Athens, which is its official scientific advisor. Based on the above, it is easy to see why the Museum can satisfy even the most demanding visitor, both in aesthetics and with the information on exhibits.
But the visit does not end here! It continues in the Museum’s café overlooking the rocks of Meteora and is concluded in the retail shop, where one can find unique souvenirs and mostly many wild mushrooms, of exceptional quality and in amazing packages. These mushrooms, with the logo and guarantee of the Museum, are ideal gifts with a product of Greek nature whose taste will remain unforgettable. The mushrooms come from the wider area, which is famous for its quantity, but mainly for its quality.
After all these, one can realize that this is not an ordinary museum, where everything is static. It is a museum of particular dynamic, trying to satisfy the needs of its visitors in various ways.
That’s why every visit to it is a unique experience.