History

The Sacred Town of Messolonghi, has a great historical and cultural background and it is a city of 20,000 people and the centre of the Municipality of Messolonghi with 41,500 residents.

Messolonghi is located in the middle of an amazing lagoon that covers a total area of 150,000 decares.

In this vast lagoon, there are two salt pans that have been active there for hundreds of years, where 65% of Greek salt is produced.

The biggest one is called "the White Salt pan". Its extent is about 12,500 decares and it belongs to the public sector. The smaller one called "Tourlida Salt pan" belongs to the Municipality of Messolonghi.

The Charitable Cultural Organisation 'DIEXODOS' that was established in 1999, based on the idea and relevant survey proposed by Despoina Kaneli-Kordosi, along with Vaggelis Robolas' artistic assistance, organised an exhibition named "Salt: The White Treasure". This exhibition lasted for three months and was visited by more than 7,500 people.

This remarkable event, for both the city and the 'DIEXODOS' Museum was unprecedented since 'DIEXODOS' owned the expertise, knowledge and the necessary exhibition material to initiate such a thematic Museum. That was the reason why the abandoned aged building of the 1930s -along with its surrounding space- was given to the Municipality. The building is located in the middle of the Tourlida's Salt pan, on the coastline of the Ionian Sea and is aimed to host the Salt Museum.

So, without being included in any european or national program, only with the soul and savings of the founder of 'Diexodos' Nikos Kordosi's and his family, the support of the municipality and the love of the partners and friends, he renovated and created the first Salt Museum in the country