It is the first time a modern Greek inhabited place has been included in the World Cultural Landscape Heritage list. Until recently, the Greek listings concerned monuments of antiquity and Byzantium.

UNESCO recogniσed Zagori as an example of a traditional stone-built settlement, representing the common heritage of Byzantine and Ottoman municipal architecture of the wider Balkan region.

It concerns 20 villages in Central Zagori, Tymphi and Papigo. ‘It is an invitation and obligation of our country to preserve and protect this heritage intact,’ noted Culture Minister Lina Mendoni.

Source: ekathimerini.com

This edition will be a very special one, especially dedicated to the commemorative year of hymnographers and psaltes. For this festive reason we have invited some of the most important performers and researchers of the Psaltic Art to Iasi. The event is organised by the Byzantion Cultural Association, the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași, the Metropolitanate of Moldavia and Bucovina and the City Hall of Iași, in partnership with the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuților.

This year, too, the renowned performer Panagiotis Neochoritis, Archon Protopsaltes of the Great Church of Christ (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople), will be present in Iasi, who will give intensive courses in the interpretation of the Psaltic Art, working at an advanced level with a select group of students who have extensive experience of chanting in the analogion. This year’s topic, The Koinonikon – analysis, technical performance and interpretation will be enriched with a new topic, Lenten Idiomela of Jakobos Protopsaltis. These two courses represent a high point in terms of complexity, following up on the series of topics covered in previous years by the renowned Master.

Following the tradition of previous editions, the event combines practical lectures with theoretical presentations, so that students will benefit from interdisciplinary lectures, debates and discussions in Greek and Romanian, with consecutive oral translation.

This year’s edition brings back the well-known researcher Prof. Dr. Georgios Konstantinou, conductor of the Greek Byzantine Choir (Athens) founded by Master Lykourgos Angelopoulos (†2014). Prof. Konstantinou, perhaps the most representative researcher of intermediate notation and one of the greatest theorists in the field, comes to Iasi with a particularly complex and appealing topic: Byzantine Music in its entirety. The interdependent relationship between the written and the oral tradition.

Prof. Maria Alexandru (Aristotelis University of Thessaloniki) will give a series of practical, interactive presentations on the life and work of the Holy Hymnographer Kasia, the most famous Byzantine composer. In addition to the students present, the vocal-instrumental ensemble Floralia (Iasi), the children’s psaltic choir Mini Byzantion (Iasi) and the academic choir Byzantion (Iasi) will participate in these presentations.

Practical courses on vocal technique could not be absent from our program. This year’s special guest is Marilyn Accaoui Leignel (Lebanon) who introduces us to the mysteries of Arabic psaltic chanting through the female voice. As a completely new aspect, we will have the opportunity to listen to the Lebanese singer performing chants in Romanian.

Singing technique in Byzantine music remains an area to which the organizers pay special attention, inviting this year, alongside Marilyn Accaoui Leignel, Ms Mihaela Grăjdeanu, soprano at the Romanian National Opera in Iasi.

The researcher Evangelia Spirakou (Thessaloniki) will give a particularly interesting presentation on The Offikia and performance practices of the Byzantine chorus. Also, in the year dedicated to the commemoration of psalters and hymnographers, we thought to explore the theme of the female presence in psalmody throughout the ages and to invite the distinguished researcher to speak about Women and professional chanting in Byzantium.

The event will include the Vigil service in honour of the miracle-working Icon of the Theotokos “Prodromitsa” (Tuesday, July 11, 4.00 pm in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iasi), a presentation by Assoc. Prof. Irina Zamfira Bucescu-Dănilă, about Onufrie Bratu, a leading representative of the art of calligraphy in the Holy Mountain, with musical examples given by the Floralia ensemble coordinated by her, which will also perform a concert with pieces composed by Dimitrie Cantemir. The Masterclass will end with the Psaltic Music Concert “He who wants to learn music…”, which will take place on Friday, July 14, at 7.30 pm in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iasi.

Whoever is interested and seek to register, they may click here: https://byzantion.ro/en/registration-form/

Source:  byzantion.ro

Photo submissions are accepted until July 8, in the following categories: Places, Reportage, People, and Details. Participants are welcome to submit up to six photographs per category.

Attention: Only photographs depicting places of worship belonging to mutually recognised canonical Eastern Orthodox Churches will be accepted for upload/competition. Photos that are likely to present, create or develop tensions will be automatically rejected, warn the organizers. Also, the project does not concern Holy Mount Athos.

The contest will be judged by an international panel of experts – among them, Aurelian Iftimiu, Patriarchal adviser to Patriarch Daniel of Romania and the head of the Basilica News Agency of the Romanian Patriarchate.

The competition is open to all professional and amateur photographers from around the world. Participation in the competition is free. Organisers reserve the right to extend the duration of the competition.

The project “Colours of Orthodoxy” has been carried out for 12 years and each year is dedicated to a different country: up to now, Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Georgia, Poland, Russia, Romania, Serbia and the Holy Land.

11 albums were published and many exhibitions were presented in 16 countries around the world.

Photo credit: Greece.OrthPhoto.net

Source: Basilica.ro

“On June 20, 2023 the Acropolis Museum completes 14 years of operation and this year is the first that we will not have with us on its birthday the late lamented Prof. Dimitris Pandermalis, who served as president of the board of the Organisation for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum from 2000 until 2019 and also president of the Acropolis Museum board from 2009 until 2022,” the museum said in an announcement, adding that Pandermalis had also been instrumental in highlighting the archaeological site at Dion, becoming attached to the area and its people.

The Dion orchestra was chosen as a tribute to Pandermalis and his love for the region, which was so important to him as an archaeologist and as a person. The performance will take place in the grounds outside the museum at 21:00, with Nikos Patris as conductor, Alexis Kostalas presenting and with the participation of Vasilis Lekkas, Gerasimos Andreatos, Zoi Papadopoulou and Babis Velissarios. Admission is free of charge.

On the day of the anniversary, the museum and museum restaurant will operate from 9:00 in the morning until midnight, with normal admission fees.

The Athens College High School Drama Club proudly presents: «Κοινός Λόγος» («Koinόs Lόgos») by Ellie Papadimitriou directed by Aggeliki Girginoudi on July 1 & 2, 2023 at 7pm.

It is an enthralling play that shows fragments of the peaceful life in Asia Minor before the Catastrophe, the tragic images of war, expulsion, and immigration of Asia Minor Greeks and their final settlement on Greek soil.

It is in their words, songs, and dances where we discover the inner thoughts and feelings of the refugees of the time; and where we also find the refugees of today.

For more information please visit goarch.com

The application is offered free of charge to the Greek and global public, on mobile phones and tablets.

With the use of cutting-edge technologies and by exploiting the potential of artificial intelligence, in a 5G network environment, the most important monuments of our cultural heritage are given back the form they had in their heyday in the 5th century BC, along with a wealth of historical information.

The application recreates, before the eyes of the viewers, the scientifically documented virtual digital representations of the Parthenon, the mosque of Artemis Brauron and the Chalkotheque (not preserved today), as well as the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the monuments of the southern slope of the Holy Rock, as seen from the Acropolis Museum.

It also presents specific emblematic exhibits from the third floor of the Museum, where the Parthenon sculptures are exhibited.

The Vatican has termed the return an ecumenical “donation” to the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece, not necessarily a state-to-state transfer. But it nevertheless puts pressure on the British Museum to conclude a deal with Greece over the fate of its much bigger collection of Parthenon sculptures.

The head of the Vatican city-state, Cardinal Fernando Vergez, planned to sign an agreement Tuesday to implement the “donation” during a private Vatican Museums ceremony with Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni and a representative of the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece, the Vatican said.

The fragments are expected to arrive in Athens later this month, with a March 24 ceremony planned to receive them.

The British Museums has refused decades of appeals from Greece to return its much larger collection of Parthenon sculptures, which have been a centerpiece of the museum since 1816.

Earlier this month, however, the chair of the British Museum said the U.K. and Greece were working on a deal that would see his institution’s Parthenon Marbles displayed in both London and Athens.

The 5th century B.C. sculptures are mostly remnants of a 160-meter-long (520-foot) frieze that ran around the outer walls of the Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis, dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom.

Much of the frieze and the temple’s other sculptural decoration were lost in a 17th-century bombardment, and about half the remaining works were removed in the early 19th century by a British diplomat, Lord Elgin.

The ministry responded to foreign news reports in the last two days that asserted the Greek government and the Museum are close to reaching an agreement that would bring the Sculptures to Greece on loan and in exchange for other objects borrowed from Greek museums.

The ministry’s full statement follows:

“Since the beginning of its tenure, the government has acted with seriousness, responsibility, sensitivity, and effectiveness, in order to implement the national goal of the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Athens and their reunification in the Acropolis Museum. This is undoubtedly testified by a series of events in the last two years: from UNESCO’s September 2021 decision, and the final (sine die) reunification of the Fagan fragment, to the turn in sentiment by global public opinion and its support of the Greek request.

“We repeat, once more, Greece’s fixed position that it does not recognize the British Museum’s right of possession, outright possession, and ownership of the Sculptures, as they are a product of theft. Therefore, the main opposition should stop expressing a frenzy of enthusiasm. We would expect, in this national effort, that small-minded party calculations would stand aside and everyone join together. Unfortunately, we are not seeing this. For some, their first goal is to harm the government, even through lies, indifferent to whether they are damaging the country. That is unfortunate.”

The book contains the minutes of the 7th International Summer University “Greek Language, Culture and Media” and was co-edited by Nikoletta Tsitsanoudis – Mallidis, Associate Professor of the University of Ioannina, and Dr. Patricia Koromvokis, Lecturer of the Modern Greek Studies Program at Macquarie University. The book was published in Sydney, Australia, and is supported by the Macquarie Greek Studies Foundation Limited and its honorable members.

The book commemorates the 200 years since the Greek Revolution and aims to highlight a series of current and modern scientific issues that emphasize the dialectical relationship between language and expression and, more specifically, the Greek language and the freedom of expression.

During the event, Archbishop Makarios of Australia in his virtual address warmly congratulated the two editors of the book and emphasized the importance of ethos in language which should be a part of the education of young generations. The Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Mr. Ioannis Mallikourtis, highlighted the value and the important role of the Modern Greek language in the diaspora emphasizing the effective contribution of the thriving and active community of NSW for the preservation of the language and also expressed his optimism that international collaborations, like the one between Macquarie University and the University of Ioannina, and the reactivation Exchange Programmes by the Secretary-General for Greeks Abroad & Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs strengthen the maintenance of the Greek language in the diaspora. Mr. Premetis, the President of the Macquarie Greek Studies Foundation Limited also gave a brief address reassuring the continuum support of the Foundation towards future projects. Dr. Patricia Koromvokis emphasized that the book is the outcome of successful collaboration and marks the beginning of other academic impactful synergies.

Mr. Prokopios Pavlopoulos, former President of the Hellenic Republic and Honorary Professor of the School of Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and Mr. Nikos Xydakis, Journalist and former Deputy Minister of Culture and Foreign Affairs were the keynote speakers of the event.

Mr. Ioannis Chrysoulakis, Secretary General for Greeks Abroad & Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Professor Polyxeni Pagge, Dean of the School of Educational Sciences also gave a brief address. The University of West Attica participated in the event. Cleo Sgouropoulou, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Attica addressed a greeting on behalf of the Rector Professor Panagiotis Kaldis. Professor Triantafyllos Albanis, Rector of the University of Ioannina, in his written message characterized the International Summer University as an academic activity of high standards.

Associate Professor Nikoletta Tsitsanoudis – Mallidis made important announcements about the future of the International Summer University “Greek Language, Culture and Media”. The event commenced with the reading of texts by the well-known actor Mr. Christos Loulis. Mrs. Alexia Koulouri, journalist and Head of the Hellenic Parliament Television, was the MC. The communication sponsor of the event was the Hellenic Parliament TV.

The set of sculptures, a major part of the 5th-century Parthenon’s decoration, have been a source of friction between Greek governments and the Museum, where they are shown, and Osborne’s statements to LBC were the first to hint at an opening to a compromise. As he told LBC, he would support an arrangement where the pieces were shared between London and Athens.

Calling them “an amazing testament to human civilization,” the museum official was asked whether that meant you could “move some of them to Greece at last for a while, and then back to London.” Osborne responded, “That kind of arrangement. Sensible people should come up with something where you can see them in their splendor in Athens, and see them among the splendors of other civilizations in London”.