The Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice is Greece’s only research centre outside Greece itself.

The Institute was founded in 1951, following a cultural agreement between Italy and Greece signed in 1948. In 1953 the Greek state donated to it the moveable and immoveable property of the historic Greek Orthodox Confraternity in Venice. The Confraternity had ceded this property to the Greek state, on condition that the state would guarantee its material support.

Housed in the building of the former Flanghinis College, the Institute began to function in 1958, on the completion of major, radical restoration work on the Confraternity’s buildings.
The Institute’s main objectives are to carry out studies in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine history — focussing primarily on the history of Greek territories under Latin domination, on the basis of Italian and in particular Venetian archives — and to publish the relevant historical sources.

Research in archives and libraries is carried out by Greek graduates, who receive a scholarship in order to prepare doctoral theses and other studies on topics in the history, art and literature of the Greek regions under Venetian rule, and also on aspects of the history and activities of the Greek Confraternity in Venice.

The Institute publishes an annual journal, "Thesaurismata", as well as several series of publications: "Library", "Oriens Graecolatinus", "Graecolatinitas Nostra-Fonti", "Conferencesi" andd Doctoral theses (series: Thomas Flanghinis").