The Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation (PFF), is undoubtedly the best folklore institution in the country and offers a unique opportunity to its visitors to understand the importance of history in their lives, but also to place of their lives in a historical perspective. The love for costumes and folklore and their study by the great costume designer of the Greek theatre Ioanna Papantoniou incited her to found, in the honour of her father, Vassilis Papantonios, the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation. It is one of the most important museums of Greece with many distinctions, both domestic and international (European Museum of the Year main Award in 1981 - Award of the Academy of Athens, 2013).
Here, the memory of everyday people has found a home; they were the ones who bestowed the Greek civilization to modern, contemporary Greeks through popular tradition. Its 27,000 exhibits give PFF the capacity to organize many and complex exhibitions and to reproduce the aesthetics of past times, as for example the exhibition "The Greek town: Nafplio 1822-1922".
Its many collections of folklore costumes, designer clothes, toys, jewellery, paintings, sketches and engravings is constantly enriched by important grants. PFF's possessions include the complete fashion collections by Yiannis Tseklenis, the Fani Kazes collection of dolls in Greek local costume, the Yiannis Metsis archives and the history archive of Takis Mavros.
The use of modern technology gives PFF the opportunity to appeal to the new generations in familiar ways. Its educational games as "Endyesthai -Let's dress", "I collect, research and exhibit", "The collections: A journey through space and time" and "It's just fashion ‒ it will pass" aim at familiarizing the public with costumes, fashion and styles that prevailed and developed in the 20th century. Here the visitors can try-out local costumes of older times or that belong to other regions through an interactive game that has Nafplio and the broader region of the Peloponnese at its epicentre.
