Vergina - Museum of Aigai
Vergina - Museum of Aigai
The royal capital of the Macedonias
The Polycentric Museum of Aigai is composed of monuments, museum shells, and archeological sites. It is a conception that dynamically unites all the old, but also the new archeological pockets of the ancient city, referring to its urban model with the widest residential distribution in the area. The Palace, the Tomb with the burial block of Philip II, the Necropolis of Temenides, and the Central Building compose the Multicenter Museum.
Visitors make a journey through time, being in the ancient Aigai, the first city and capital of the Macedonians. Where the archeological research brought to light one of the most shocking findings, the city and the Palace of the Goats, built in the years of King Philip II (359-336 BC). Located on an elevated spot on the slope, the huge building - the largest in classical Greece, three times the size of the Parthenon - was visible from all over Macedonia, a landmark of strength and beauty.
The museum includes indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces, patios, amphitheater, multipurpose hall, educational and scientific activities, conservation workshops, archeological warehouses, and a digital museum that will run from the beginnings of Macedonia to the modern references to Megas Alexandros.
Vergina, the modern town built on the site of the ancient Goats, at the foot of Pieria, is located 13 km southwest of Veria and is about 80 km from Thessaloniki. It became world-famous in 1977, when the University Excavation of Aristotle University, under the professor of archeology Manolis Andronikos and his associates, discovered the burial sites of the Macedonian kings.