first phase 1986
second phase 1992

third phase 2010

The Open-air Water-power Museum lies about 2 km outside Dimitsana at the spring of Ai-Yianni, in an area with abundant running water and dense vegetation.
A watermill with a fulling tub and miller’s house in the same building, a gunpowder mill and a tannery with the tanner’s house, have all been restored in an area of 1000 m2. The ruins of two tanneries have also been embellished. The museum is devoted to the presentation of basic pre-industrial techniques based on the use of water as the main energy source, used in primary spheres of life (food, clothing, war).
The overall museological exploitation of the space was based on a long-term ethnological and historical investigation and on the restoration of the buildings and pre-industrial machinery housed in them.

Multi-purpose hall (2005-2007)

The study is for a Multi-Purpose Building for the Open-air Water-Power Museum.  The ruins are at present unprotected and exposed to the ravages of time. In order to preserve and enhance them, a study was undertaken for a structure to supplement the ruin and provide the museum with a multi-purpose area with laboratories and storerooms to meet the needs of the  its educational activities.
The main area is a roofed space two storeys high, open on the west side, which serves as the semi-open entrance to the Multi-Purpose Building. An important feature of this area is that it is essentially a vestibule. This is emphasised by three staircases of varying significance at this point. Directly opposite to the entrance is the main wooden staircase leading to the foyer of the building, at the left a narrow stairway made of reinforced concrete, leading to the basement of the storeroom, and at the right, a wide stairway unifying this area with the two on the lower level. On this level visitors may see the restored rooms of the old tannery, where the entire permanent pre-industrial equipment is preserved in excellent condition.