Hellenic Motor Museum

Athens (GR)

Automobiles dominated my interests ever since I can remember myself. My father’s cars, were the first getaway to my passion for driving, not always with his approval. In 1977, when my first child was born, I decided that I had completed the first cycle of my participation in competitions, so I turned to the collection of old cars.

The main criteria for selecting car models were my childhood dreams. Indeed, the first cars of the collection, were a Maserati Mistral, a Rolls Royce Wraith, two Jaguars E-type, two Lancia Appia Zagato, two Austin Healey 3.000 and three Dinos (one of them a Ferrari); all of them were those that had left me speechless when I had first seen them, some only in pictures.

With the number of cars increasing gradually and with difficulty because of the “poor” then Greek market, in the early 90’s I had reached the 25 cars and started to think that I might be going over the top. I was thinking that they were too many, just for the entertainment, while with the limited free time that I had, I was in danger of becoming a slave to the collection, rather than actually enjoying it. The proposal of purchasing an entire collection which numbered 20 cars, gave a solution to this dilemma.

With a present total build surface of 30,000 m2, 50% of which being parking spaces, supporting areas; the main aisle exceeds 3,000 square meters and apart from the exhibition space for 111 vehicles, it includes an auditorium with modern showroom at the foyer, a special designed room for education program for children in road safety and for young people in racing driving and memorabilia store. Please note, that 72 exhibits of wheels are located all over the spiral ramp, from the ground floor to the fourth floor, showing thus the motor history, accessible without even paying for ticket.

Thirty four years after starting creating the collection and having succeeded the first goal, which was opening the Museum, I was gazing at the exhibits from the highest floor, just after Joanna “left”. I was thinking how fragile life is and in the end, what is important in life and what is not. Was this effort all those years worth it? The enthusiastic comments of the Press, social media and the visitors’ encouraging comments though, made all my doubts fade away. The second collection is already intensively being prepared, featuring exclusively racing cars, which will replace all the current exhibited cars.

Theodore N. Charagionis (1948-2023)
Founder of Hellenic Motor Museum

https://www.hellenicmotormuseum.gr/en/