The Komboloi Museum - Worry Beads - Nafplion, Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece

THE KOMBOLOI MUSEUM

In April 1998, Mr and Mrs Evangelinos -a couple who have been collecting and studying the komboloi since 1958- establish the first -and still unique in the world- Komboloi Museum in Nafplion. The couple takes their first lessons on komboloi and learns its secrets in Alexandria, Egypt, where Mr Evangelinos' grandfather lived.

They start their journey on the "roads of komboloi" in 1963, a journey still continuing till today. They collect knowledge along with rare old strings of beads from all over the world- from Hinduists, Buddhists, Muslims, Catholics and Greeks- from the countries where the Greek nation prospered (Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt etc ). Thus, they acquire a unique collection of almost a thousand (1000) strings of beads dated from 1700 to 1950, made of pure amber, mastic-amber, faturan-amber, black(yusuri) and red coral, ivory, bone, horn, ebony, and so on. 

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