The building is located at the intersection of Mavili Avenue and Palama Street, opposite the old Railway Station building. It was constructed in 1923 by the tobacco merchants Ioannis, Christos, and Anastasios Papapetrou to function as a tobacco warehouse. It is a four-storey building of imposing dimensions, measuring 67 meters in length and 37 meters in width. The total area of the building is 7,444.34 square meters, while the surrounding area covers 2,648.65 square meters. During the 1930s it is estimated that more than 2,000 workers were employed in the tobacco warehouses, mainly of refugee origin.
During the Occupation, the Papapetrou warehouses were used as quarters for Italian troops, as well as facilities for the detention and interrogation of individuals suspected of participating in the Resistance. In March 1944, the warehouses also briefly held a total of 524 Jews from Preveza and Arta who had been arrested in their cities and were later transferred to Athens and from there to German concentration camps. [1]
The Warehouses related to the main incarceration place in Agrinio, the Hagia Triada Prison, functioning as a “selection” point for those who would later be transferred to the prison, many of them destined for execution. On April 11, 1944, following a large German roundup carried out in retaliation for an ELAS sabotage in Stamna railway station, nearly 3,000 people were transferred to the Warehouses. During the subsequent selection process, the suspects were transferred to Hagia Triada Prison, and approximately 70–75 of them were executed on April 14, 1944. [2]
In 1946 the Papapetrou Tobacco Warehouses resumed operation for two years with limited production, and during the 1950s they were converted into a Gendarmerie training school. During the 1960s and 1970s part of the surrounding land was sold (the area where the small houses had been located), and the warehouses were rented out as storage facilities for the olive cooperative of the Agricultural Bank, as well as for the tobacco warehouses of Ioannidis, the Iliou brothers, and the Panagopoulos brothers, until the final abandonment of the site in the 1980s.
It is one of the few former prison or camp buildings whose museological development is currently planned. In 1992, by decision of the Minister of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works and the Minister of Culture, the building was designated as a preserved monument requiring special state protection (Government Gazette 546/D/2.6.1992). In 2002 it was purchased by the Ministry of Culture through a direct acquisition for archaeological and museum purposes, specifically for the establishment of an Archaeological Museum. [3] In 2016, the Municipal Council of Agrinio approved the “Sustainable Urban Development Strategy of the Municipality of Agrinio”, which was subsequently approved (2017) by the Region of Western Greece. Within this strategy, Action 1.8 — “Utilization and Energy Upgrade of Municipal Buildings” — includes, among other municipal buildings, the restoration and promotion of the preserved building of the former Papapetrou Tobacco Warehouses for the creation of a Local Historical Museum. The rationale of the decision emphasizes that “this building, directly connected with the economic life of the city of Agrinio, is important for the study of architectural history, as it represents an interesting case of the influence of foreign architectural trends in Greece on buildings constructed by Greek entrepreneurs.” However, references to its use as a prison during the war period are absent.[4] Today the former prison spaces attract the interest of the local community through historical walks which highlight their significance.
[1] Yitzchak Kerem, I evreoi tou Agriniou ston Deftero Pagosmio Polemo [The Jews of Agrinio during WWII], in: Konstantina Bada, Thanasis D. Sfikas (Eds.), Katochi-Antistasi-Emfylios. I Aetoloakarnania sti dekaetia 1940-1950 [Occupation-Resistance-Civil War. Aetolia-Akarnania in the 1940s], Athens 2010, σ. 79-88.
[2] https://drw.gr/kapnapothikes-papapetrou/ (last access: 15.9.2025).
[3] Gitsa Pantazi Nastouli, Kapnapothikes Papapetrou [Papapetrou Tobacco Warehouses], Digital Tobacco Museum of Agrinio https://agriniotobaccomuseum.gr/kapnapothikes-papapetrou-sto-agrinio/?cn-reloaded=1 (last access: 15.9.2025).
[4] Agrinio Municiality Archive, Decision Nr. 242/26.9.2016.
