The Venue

In 1983, the Board of Larissa founded the organization 'Municipal Art Gallery of Larissa - G.I. Museum Katsigras', after Larissian virtuoso surgeon G. I. Katsigras announced the donation of 700 paintings from the 19th and 20th century collected by him from 1950 to about 1965. The ground floor includes: a library (250 m2), an auditorium 250 seats (400 m2), cafeteria, foyer (480 m2), art workshops and administration offices. The first floor includes: G.I.Katsigra museum, exhibition space (1000 m2), relaxation areas and outdoor exhibition spaces. 

Core of the Gallery is the Katsigras collection, consisting of 700 original works and 50 more, donated in 1998 by G.I. Katsigras. This collection includes fine examples of 19th century painting (Lytras Iakovidis, Gizis, Duke, Volonakis, Savvides, Vikatos etc.), as well as 20th century painting (Galanis, Gounaropoulos, N. And II. Lytras Maleas, Trantafyllidis, Parthenis, Steris, Regos, Goldasis etc.), oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and engravings stretching as recently as the 1960s.

The Katsigras collection is estimated by experts, the National Gallery ‘s directors, art historians and painters as possibly the best and most important after the National Gallery‘s and Koutlidis collections.

Also exhibited is Larissa‘s Municipal collection, consisting of 210 works of mainly local artists. Since its inception in 1983, the gallery has acquired other 200 paintings, sculptures and engravings, many donated by the artists themselves (B. Katraki, Bost, Sari, Prekas, Asteriadis Tassos and others) and is still acquiring new ones after its Art Commission proposals.

G.I. Katsigras also donated the priceless collectible furnishings of his clinic, previously owned by Heinrich Schliemann and designed by E. Ziller. He also offered his collection of books and art magazines (about 1200 titles), many of which are of scarce, depleted or rare editions.