The exhibition

Museum of the Holy Cross of Apollona - "Great Mystery"

The museum was established in 2025 and its collection of heirlooms includes objects of exceptional quality and artistic value.

The exhibition is titled "Great Mystery" and is based on three pillars, presenting the relics with a narrative approach as works of art, as carriers of stories and legends, and as living components of the folk religious events of the life of Apollon. Thus, the items in the collection are presented through the lens of ecclesiastical arts, the legends and stories that accompany them, as well as the historical context in which they were created or the stories that accompany them unfolded.

The role of narrator in the exhibition is occupied by the objects themselves and through them the inhabitants of Apollona who participated in the processes and events related to them. The relics have, over the centuries, been shrouded with a mysterious veil, through the oral tradition of the region, while they constitute the occasion for practices related to the intangible culture of the region.

The Apollona parish exhibition is a central regional hub of the Network of Christian Museums and Visitable Monuments of the Holy Metropolis of Rhodes.

The main exhibition includes five rooms with independent museological sections.

11st Section

The first section concerns the Apollona cross, an important relic of the collection that contains holy wood inside it, and the religious and popular ritual events associated with it being brought out for worship on specific holidays each year, since the cross is safekept in a crypt the rest of the time. Its presentation in the museum space is done virtually through an interactive display.

22nd Section

The second section deals with the eventful discovery of the site and the excavation of a three-aisled early Christian basilica at the site of "Eftaporti", on a hill northeast of Apollonia.

33rd Section

The third section presents the processional double-sided icon of Panagia Karyonitissa, located within the church of the Holy Cross. The historical course of the icon, its transfer to the church of the Holy Cross, as well as its connection to milestones in the history of Rhodes and the knights, are outlined.

44th Section

In the fourth section, the procession of the icons and the auctioning of the banner of the Resurrection is highlighted through the ritual of the procession and the portable icons of the collection, as well as the written and digital testimonies of the residents of Apollonia.

55th Section

The fifth and final section of the exhibition concerns the world of manuscripts and the adventure of a handwritten codex. In the holy church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of Apollona, a handwritten parchment codex is kept, called the “Codex of Apollona” or “Codex of Artamitis”. It dates back to 1181 and it is the work of the hieromonk Nilos, Abbot of the Artamitis Monastery of Rhodes.