Archaeological Museum of Samothrace

The Archaeological Museum of Samothrace is located in Paleopoli, 6.5 km from the port of Kamariotissa  and right next to the archaeological site of the Great Sanctuary  of the island. Among the exhibits, visitors can see a cast of the famous Nike of Samothrace  – the original statue is exhibited in the Louvre, in Paris.
The excavations of the American School of Archaeology are those that provided most of the exhibits for the Archaeological Museum of Samothrace – Americans are also the ones who built it in 1939, according to the design of the architect Stuart M. Shaw, who has engineered the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Many of the findings that are hosted in the four halls of the museum are a result of accidental discoveries made by local residents.
In the first hall of the Archaeological Museum of Samothrace visitors see representations of the main buildings of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods: the Altar, the Hall of Offerings, Tholos of Arsinoe with elaborate decorations of bulls and daisies, as well as a marble column with the inscription forbidding the entrance for the uninitiated – written in two languages.
In the second hall are exposed parts of the frieze of the Propylo (monumental gateway), with relief decorated with representations of dancers, probably Muses, the bust of Tiresias and a headless body statue that is thought to be Persephone.
An elaborate brooch in the form of a lion is among the metal exhibits of the third hall of the Archaeological Museum of Samothrace, which also hosts sculptures and ceramics from the Sanctuary and the ancient city.
The fourth room is dedicated to jewelry and coins found in Samothrace, mainly in the necropolis of the island. The hall is dominated by the cast of Nike of Samothrace, full-size, giving the visitors the opportunity to calculate and imagine the grandeur of the original statue in its original location.
Just outside the Archaeological Museum of Samothrace, a paved path leads to the archaeological site of Paleopolis.