A visit to the Tobacco Museum

On December 8, 2010, the junior and senior high school of Pentapolis visited two exciting places. The first was the Tobacco Museum of Pentapolis and the second was the photography exhibition “Kapnomagaza” (Tobacco Factories) by Kamilo Nollas at Pentapoli Serron.
The photo exhibition is a production of the museum of photography of Thessaloniki and diadrasi.org. The exhibition now is presented in Pentapoli Serron and it is held at the new Tobacco Museum of Pentapolis. At the exhibition you can see photos from old tobacco ware-houses at Agrinio, Volos, Kavala, Drama and Xanthi. Part of it is located at the Philarmonic Society of the municipality of Emmanouil Pappas, at a building that was renewed during 2007-2009. This exhibition had previously been presented in Paris, Constantinople, Athens and Thessaloniki.
Afterwards we visited the Tobacco Museum where we were informed how the tobacco started to be cultivated at the end of the 19th century. The stages of tobacco cultivation are:

1.Sowing
2.Transplanting
3.Harvest
4.Santaliasma
5.Pastaliasma

After this procedure, tobacco growers' production was sold to the tobacco merchant and then to tobacco industries where cigarettes are made.

Here in Serres farmers used to plant Basma seeds that produced tobacco with unique aroma and taste. Tobacco was a crops preferred by the local farmers because it was more profitable than corn, wheat etc.

To sum up, both teachers and students were impressed and we recommend you to visit the museum and the exhibition!!

Text by Sotiris K.
Photos by Dora Gk.