Ηios Sakiz Muzesi

The Chios Mastic Museum of the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation  at Pyrgi village is the outcome of a fruitful cooperation between the Foundation and the Chios Gum Mastic Growers Association. The aim was to showcase this special and unique product, mastic, the cultivation of which was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2014.

Thanks to mastic, Chios enjoyed special status as far as control and taxation were concerned during Genoese and Ottoman rule on the island. It is a fact that the cultivation of skinos, the plant that gives the “tears” producing gum mastic in the villages of southern Chios, is based on practices that have remained unchanged for centuries now.

This Guide aims to serve as a useful tool in the hands of visitors: on the one hand informing about the timelessness of mastic and the toil entailed in its production, and on the other highlighting the role of mastic as a feature of the cultural identity of Chios.

The edition is also available in Greek and Εnglish.