The Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil opened to the public in the end of 2002.  The project had been included in the Regional Operational Programmes for the Peloponnese and was financed by the Second Community Support Framework.

The museum is located in a building that once housed the Sparta Electric Company, a typical Greek industrial building of the interwar period, which belongs to the Municipality of Sparta and has been conceded to PIOP. Its extremely bad state required a radical renovation: only the northern side was preserved and included in the modern construction, that pertains to industrial buildings and creates visual escapes to the surrounding area, the neighbouring olive grove and Mt Taygetus. The imaginative architectural shell was adapted to the museological requirements of a pioneering museum.
The collection and museological approach are the outcome of close collaboration of specialists from different disciplines. Many of the exhibits have been donated or loaned by inhabitants of the wider area in which the research was conducted.

The Museum of Olive and Greek Olive Oil aims to become a living organism contributing to the sustainable development of the wider area. Maps, information leaflets, as well as the stand with locally produced olive products, direct the visitor to archaeological sites of olive oil production or other olive oil presses open to visitors in Greece. 

A multi-purpose hall is also constructed for the organization of conferences, temporary exhibitions, events etc. The exhibition itself  is also enriched with touch screens, CD-Rom, Video, the Museum’s guide and monographs on relevant topics that could not be presented in detail in the exhibition units.