Rooftile and Brickworks Museum N. & S. Tsalapatas

History
The Rooftile and Brickworks Museum opened its doors to the public in 2007. It is housed in the N. & S. Tsalapatas Rooftile and Brickworks Factory, in Volos. It functions under the responsibility of the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation and will continue to do so for a period of fifty years since its establishment.

The Tsalapatas Rooftile and Brickworks Factory
The N. & S. Tsalapatas Rooftile and Brickworks Factory was founded in 1926. Its total area covered 22,000m2 (236,806ft2, or approximately 5,44 acres) and the installed power of its equipment was 300HP. It was an important productive unit, whose products were known throughout Greece. During the peak of its activity, it employed 250 people.

Up to 1978, when it stopped operating, the fires of the famous Ηοffmann kiln went cold only during the German Occupation (1940-1944), and twice more during the devastating earthquakes of 1954-56 that shook Volos.

The transformation of the factory into a museum
 In 1995, the Municipality of Volos bought the complex in the context of the URBAN Programme. Over the period 1998-2001, the factory's buildings were rehabilitated, with a view to creating a multipurpose cultural venue. In 2004, the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation accepted the undertaking of creating a model Rooftile and Brickworks Museum in the factory's main facilities (5,000m2, or 53,820 ft2). The project was completed in 2006.

Today, the Rooftile and Brickworks Museum constitutes a strong cultural pole of attraction, contributing to:
-The amplification of the local cultural reserve.
-The preservation and promotion of the industrial heritage.
-The development of cultural tourism in the wider region of the Magnesia prefecture.

What is on display?
The N. & S. Tsalapatas Rooftile and Brickworks Factory was one of the largest of its kind. Its workshops and industrial facilities have been restored and today constitute a rare surviving example of an industrial complex in Greece.

In the factory's installations, the production chain has been reconstituted step by step: trolleys, clay silos, grinders, compressors, cutters, dryers, the imposing Hoffmann kiln, as well as end products, bricks and tiles of different kinds. Thus, the Tsalapatas Factory "functions” once again, bringing to life:
-All the production stages of bricks and tiles.
-The daily life of the workmen who were employed at the factory.

Your acquaintance with tile and brick manufacturing becomes more direct thanks to the models and abundant audiovisual material the Museum possesses.

Of interest to children
Young visitors have the opportunity to see animated and scale models, which explain how bricks and tiles are made.
They can enter the Hoffmann kiln, an impressive "oven" that burned 24 hours a day for the firing of bricks and roof tiles, unique of its kind in Greece.
The Museum organizes educational programmes with games and activities, for schools and group visits, such as the programme “Building bricks and tiles”, where the children play with miniatures of the factory's machines.