Citrus Museum

The Citrus Museum in Kampos, Chios, showcases the history of citrus cultivation, featuring exhibits on agricultural traditions, tools, and unique varieties.

Planning your visit

The Kampos district of Chios is a plain of walled citrus estates south of the main town, built by Genoese and Chian landowning families from the fourteenth century — high walls of ochre stone, private orchards behind them, mansions with carved facades, and water drawn by donkey-powered wheels into stone cisterns. Much of it was damaged in the 1881 earthquake and in the 1822 massacre, but the structure survives.

The Citrus Museum occupies one such estate, the Perleas, and covers the cultivation and trade that sustained the region: oranges, lemons, mandarins and bergamot exported across the Mediterranean and to Russia, the grafting and irrigation techniques, the tools, the packing and the shipping.

Tastings are part of the visit — citrus preserves, spoon sweets, liqueurs and juices made from the estate's own fruit — and the walled garden itself is the most attractive part.

Chios is better known for mastic, the resin grown only in its southern villages, and the two together make the island's agricultural story.

Bookable options include tours with citrus tasting and guided visits to the museum and estate. Current availability is shown below.