CENTRE OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE “ERIA”

The building of the Naoussa Centre of Industrial Heritage - ERIA was constructed at the location known as “Kioski”, based on the designs of architect Xenofon Peonidis, in order to house the business of the general partnership Chatzilazaros - Aggelakis & Co., which was founded in 1907–1908.

In 1912, the company was renamed ERIA - Hellenic Weaving Textile Company of Naoussa S.A. and produced khaki wool fabric and blankets, initially for the Ottoman and later for the Greek army. In the late 1960s, the enterprise was acquired by VETLANS NAOUSA S.A., and until the late 1980s it specialized in the production of the world famous “Vetlans Naousa” blankets. In year 2000, Christos Lanaras bought and donated the site to the Municipality of Naoussa. 

The exhibition “Threads of History: The Textile Industry in Naoussa” was completed in 2021 with the purpose of narrating aspects of the city’s textile industry, in an effort to preserve and promote the material evidence and the collective memory of those who worked in Naoussa’s factories. 

The collection on display was assembled from the material remnants of abandoned factories, as well as from donations of archives, machinery, and personal belongings offered by local benefactors. Prompted by the desertion of factories as a result of deindustrialization, the exhibition unfolds the thread of the industrial history of Naoussa, with the human being as the central figure of its museological interpretation.