Naoussa Centre of Industrial Heritage – ERIA Cultural Complex

The city of Naoussa was called the Manchester of the Balkans in the second half of the 19th century as the first city of northern Greece to industrialise. Its cotton spinning and weaving mills sold products across the Ottoman Empire and beyond. The Industrial Heritage Centre is housed in a former woollen factory built in 1907. Under the name ERIA it produced fabric for army uniforms until 1933. The factory was destroyed during the Civil War in 1949 but in 1960 the company VETLANS redeveloped it to make blankets and employed 800 workers. This closed in 1990 and the site was given to the city in 2000. From the original factory the stone walls were reused and the boiler room and the 36-m chimney survive. The exhibition History Threads presents the history of the city's textile industry. Spinning and weaving machines are displayed alongside social material that ensures a focus on people and their stories.