Saint Maxim the Greek Church was inaugurated in June 2016 in the area Trigono of Arta. This is the first church founded in honor of the saint in his birthplace. It is expensive and imposing work, which has not been completed yet, of great importance for the city, as Saint Maxim is one of the greats of the 16th century with a reputation beyond Greece’s narrow borders. He had an enlightened personality, which marked the spiritual life and orthodox theology. Known as Saint Maxim of Vatopedi, he has been described as a “”reformer of the Russians””, while the Russians themselves call him “”Maksim Grek””, meaning Maxim the Greek.
His contemporary, the Russian professor of philosophy, Mikhail Gromov, wrοte about him: “”as a worthy successor of the important Greek civilization, Saint Maxim rightly became a wise philosopher and famous writer of the Russian land, who contributed the most to the development of our culture.”.
His memory is honored on the 21st of January, while the faithful worship his relics, which are kept in the church.
A few words about the life of Saint Maxim of Vatopedi or Greek: Saint Maxim, the world-famous Michael Trivolis was born in Arta in 1470 AD, where his father, Manuel, from Sparta-Mystras, had settled. His mother was called Irene. Saint Maxim’s parents were of noble origin and highly educated. Russian sources describe them as “”philosophers”” revealing a higher education, while the saint himself describes them as “”genuine believers””.
Little Michael first learned next to his parents and, at a young age, traveled to Corfu, to the scholar Dimitrios Trivolis, his father’s brother. There, he continued his education with the philosopher Ioannis Moschos, who was a student of Georgios Plithonas Gemistos and completed his studies in Italy. He studied at the Greek school in Venice and later at the Universities of Padua, Florence, and Milan, where he had prominent Greek teachers, such as Ianos Laskaris, Laonikos Chalkokondylis, and others.
He became a monk in 1505-6 on Mount Athos and received the name Maxim. The rest of his life will find him in Russia, where he went at the invitation of the Tsar, Vassily Ivanovich, in 1516. His mission was to translate various liturgical and theological books into Slavonic. For 17 months, he was successfully translating the books. However, his stay in the country took a dramatic turn after the defamatory accusations of heresy and magic unleashed against him by Daniel, the abbot of the Volokalamsk Monastery. Maxim was imprisoned for many years and endured shackles, torture, and exile. Finally, in 1551, he was transferred to the Lavra of St. Sergius, where the abbot surrounded him with a lot of love, appreciating his spiritual work. There, he left his last breath on the 21st of January, 1556.
Saint Maximus wrote many apologetic and interpretive works. He was canonized on the 31st of May, 1988.
An Orthodox Theological Institute was established in Athens to honor the saint, encouraging research, recording, preservation, dissemination, promotion and projection of the wealth and reserves of global Orthodox spirituality and culture: “”Saint Maxim the Greek Institute, Research, Preservation and Promotionof Spiritual and Cultural traditions””.

The Municipal Library of Arta is housed in a neoclassical building in the city center on Filellinon Street and was inaugurated on April 22, 2019, by the Municipal Authority. According to the mayor, Mr. Christos Tsirogiannis, the new Library is another temple of culture being added to the other two excellent libraries of SKOUFA and the University.
Apart from its cultural dimension, the operation of the Library also has a social character, as it supports the Arta Nursing Home to which the neoclassical building belongs. The Library houses the cooperating Educational Association of Arta, “”The book’s Friends,”” and contains more than 3500 book titles in Greek and foreign languages. It is a constantly updated lending library that offers books for a vast array of interests and ages. Fotis Vrakas made the first donation of foreign books.
There is the possibility of book presentations and organization of events related to books in the Library facilities.

The Municipal Gallery of Arta “”G. Moralis”” was inaugurated in December 2010 and is housed in the renovated building of the former Fire department on Nik. Plastira Street., no. 13. It has two main spaces, one of which hosts the permanent collection and the other the periodical exhibitions.
The Gallery’s permanent collection includes works mainly by contemporary Greek artists such as Mytaras, Botsoglou, Patraskidis, Psychopedis, Milios, and some foreign artists.
Some of the services of the Gallery are the continuous organization of periodic exhibitions, the enrichment of the existing permanent collection, the guided tours, and the educational programs. Its ultimate goal is the development of art education and its permanent and active presence in the city’s cultural activity.
The periodic exhibitions that have taken place in the Gallery so far have opened the way for the people of Arta to get acquainted with art, facilitating, in general, the continuous approach of culture. Indicatively, we could mention artistic events and influential artists who have exhibited in the Gallery such as Vassilios Stavrou, Apostolos Tsirogiannis & Dimitris Ratsikas, students of Moralis, many artists, graduates of Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA), Eva Mela, President of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece, Theodoros Papagiannis (professor of ASFA) with the exhibition of his sculptures ‘The Procession,’ Kostis Schizakis in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts of Heraklion, Crete, Costas Balafas with a collection of photographs, etc.
The most important exhibition organized at the Municipal Gallery of Arta (December 4, 2021 – February 6, 2022) is the presentation of works by Moralis entitled “”Giannis Moralis. In his hometown””. The exhibition was held under the auspices of the Greek Parliament in collaboration with the Municipality of Arta & the “”Society for the Study, Research and Promotion of Modern Greek Art / Giannis Moralis Laboratory.””

His hometown named the Municipal Art Gallery of Arta after Giannis Moralis to honor the great Greek artist.
Giannis Moralis was born in Arta, in 1916. Expressing his love for painting from an early age, in his student years, he attended the Sunday painting classes at the School of Fine Arts in Athens, where he was admitted, after entrance exams, in 1931. For a decade, Giannis Moralis had been studying various expressions of painting, gradually shaping his personal style, distinct and recognizable today at first glance. He studied painting and engraving in Athens and mural painting and mosaic in Paris under the guidance of important teachers, such as Dimitrios Geraniotis, Konstantinos Parthenis, Umvertos Argyros, Giannis Kefallinos, Charles Guérin, Henri-Marcel Magneka. He returned to Greece with the declaration of World War II to enlist in the army, and since then, he remained in his country, creating unique works of art that enriched the intense artistic activity of the time. He was also a professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts, while one of his most famous works is the engraved composition on the exterior wall of the Hilton Hotel in Athens. Intensively creative, he had a rich and varied artistic production with gradually crystallized personal characteristics. In addition, he was awarded, both in Greece and abroad. His multifaceted interests led him to engage in other arts such as ceramics, illustration, and scenography that connected him to the Greek chorus of the National Theater and the Art Theater of Karolos Koun.
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9:30 to 13:30 & 18:00 to 21:00, Saturday 10:00 to 14:00. Sunday closed.
(Opening hours and days are modified depending on the hosted exhibition)
Tel. Contact: 2681024946
Facebook: Arta Municipal Gallery “”G. Moralis »
E-mail: [email protected].

The Exhibition Center of the Municipality of Arta is the venue of the Panhellenic General Exhibition of Arta. It is located on the peripheral road, northwest of the castle, near the house of Zorba.
The main purpose of the Exhibition Center is the organization and exploitation of the Municipal Trade Fair of Mouchousti, which can be considered the natural continuation of the first trade fair of Mouchousti. After all, from the first trade fair, it maintains its name and opening date every September.
A few words about the history: The word “”muhousti”” (“”mhust”” in the local idiom) means trade fair if it originates from the dialect of Arvanites and animal fair if it originates etymologically from the Arabic word, “”Medhuseua””. Whatever its origin, it named the annual market that took place every September in the area and included a commercial bazaar and an animal market. The location of ​​this old, yearly market, the district of Mouhousti, as mentioned by the metropolitan of Arta Serafeim Xenopoulos, in 1884, in the “”Essay of the Arta & Preveza History””, was located in the southwest of the city, a short distance from the daily market of Romiopazaro.
The trade fair of Arta gathered merchants from various parts of Greece, who arrived at the festival, rented wooden stilts, and exhibited their products. In the 18th century, it even attracted Venetian merchants from the Ionian Islands who came to sell fabrics, paper, glassware, and paints and buy products from the region of Epirus.
The annual market of Mouhousti began to lose its glamor after the liberation of Arta in 1881. The old quarter was left to host only the animal fair in the following years, which gradually disappeared, following the era’s tendencies. The fair was transferred near the castle, approximately at today’s Karaiskaki Square, and it remained there until the 1990s when it was transferred to the Arta Exhibition Center “”Kostas Vagias.””

The Arta Exhibition Center received its current name from the mayor “”Kostas Vagias,”” who passed away on September 3, 2009.
The amphitheater “”Dioni,”” the summer cinema “”Orpheus,”” and the municipal parking lot are located in the surrounding area.
The organization and management of the center have been undertaken since 2009 by the Arta Municipal Societe Anonyme (ADAE OTA), which is active in the field of Development and Provision of Services.
Individual activities of ADAE OTA are:
• Management – Operation of Car Parking Spaces
• Organization and Management of the Exhibition Space of the Municipality of Arta to organize/exploit the Municipal Trade Fair and various other Trade Fairs.
• Management of Funded Programs from the European Union, implemented by the Municipality of Arta and its companies.
• Provision of Technical Consultant Services to Institutions and Companies of the Prefecture for the implementation of Programs co-financed by the European Union.

The Branch Library in the city of Arta of the University of Ioannina was between 1997 to 2018 the Central Library of the former TEI of Epirus. Since 01/10/2018 (and after the merger of the University of Ioannina with the TEI of Epirus), it has been a Branch Library of the Central Library of the University.
The library building (2000 sqm appr.) is located on the Arta campus in Kostaki area. On the ground floor, there are the bookstalls, (where the collection is open access to the public), and the reading room consisting of 120 reading seats. On the 1st floor, there are three rooms: PC lab rooms, seminars’ room, and teleconference room. Library services are available to the members of the academic community and to external users. Library collections support mainly the academic subjects of the Departments of Agriculture, Informatics and Telecommunications, and Music Studies, and the library develops special collections for general interest and literature. The collection consists of 30,000 book volumes, 65 printed journal titles, audio-visual material, theses, electronic material, teaching manuals and reference material (dictionaries, encyclopedias). Library users, through the electronic catalogue, have access to all the material (380,000 items) located in the Central Library (Ioannina), and in the Branch Libraries: Arta, Preveza and Ioannina (Campus B’). The library also provides its users with access to 30,669 electronic journals and 165,000 electronic books. In addition, there are the following open-access repositories/digital libraries: Olympias (postgraduate/doctoral theses) Ipiromnimon, Institutional Repository and Research Repository of the former TEI of Epirus (graduate theses and research papers), Research Laboratory of Modern Greek Philosophy, and Greek Music Archive.
The Branch Library organizes information literacy seminars on topics such as: information retrieval, academic writing, protection against plagiarism, use of open access material, etc. It also collaborates with scientific, educational, and cultural organizations in the development of common actions.

The Municipal Tourist Kiosk is located at the highest point of Arta, at the top of the hill of Peranthi. The view is magnificent and offers an excellent sight of the morphology and topography of the area. The whole city stretches below, while the bay of Amvrakikos Gulf lies to the south and the Arachthos River in between. The eyes watch the course of the river circling the city and directly leaving it to flow into the Amvrakikos Gulf. The panoramic view towards the West offers a wonderful sunset.
Those who want to have a general view of the wider area can take a break at the restaurant “Lofos” which operates at the Tourist Kiosk.