The Foka-Kosmetatou Foundation, based in Argostoli, has developed two spaces open to the public:
The Collections, in the city center,
and
The Kefalonia Botanical Garden, on its outskirts.
Both function as ark for the culture and natural environment of the island, and as learning spaces for the educational programs of the Foundation,
are also the core of its activities.
They receive visitors from May to October:
the Collections Monday to Friday, 10.00-14.00
the Botanical Garden Kefalonia daily except Sunday, 09.00 -14.00.
The ticket is common for both places, E 4.00.
In both cases, there is also an audio tour in Greek and English, which lasts about half an hour.
The Collections are housed in a listed building next to the main square, and present items from the personal collections of the founders, mainly paintings and lithographs, but also coins and banknotes, all directly connected with the history of the Ionian Islands. Among other things, two rare relics are presented – the flags of the Ionian State and British Protection – as well as the complete series of Views in the Ionian Islands by Joseph Cartwright, which depicts with great wealth of information the social life on the islands on the eve of the 1921 Revolution. An important collection of coins and banknotes tells, in a special report, the political and economic life of the place until the end of World War II.
In the courtyard of the building, a report on the catastrophic earthquakes of 1953 and a documentaries complement the tour of a culture that no longer exists.
The Botanical Garden of Kefalonia, unique in the Ionian Islands, was created at the initiative of the Foundation as a place for collecting, promoting and protecting native flora, but also as an open learning space . Starting from an abandoned olive grove, which had rich wild vegetation, dugouts were opened, the wet element with lake and stream was added, the plants were recorded and scientifically certified – the collection of which is constantly enriched with new, rare and endangered species. Today, the Botanical Garden of Kefalonia offers to the children of the island special environmental educational programs, and to its visitors an aesthetic environment of peace and recreation. The small open-air theater, but also the meadow and the lake, host every summer exhibitions or events of music and speech, inextricably linked with nature and culture.
For all our activities, we invite you to visit the renewed website of the Fokas-Kosmetatos Foundation at: www.focas-cosmetatos.gr
And of course visit us at our premises at the first opportunity.
