Athens, the capital and largest city of Greece and Attica, also known as Attica Peninsula, a historical and administrative region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, as well as its surrounding surburban cities and towns, Hellenic epicentre of history and culture, highlighted by endless beaches along the glamorous Athenian Riviera and relevant access to several stunning islands in the Aegean Sea are set to benefit a €40 million - euro cultural investment program that will fund 21 projects designed to protect heritage sites, and upgrade infrastructure with the aim to strengthen cultural tourism across the Greek metropolis and the region.
The initiative is part of the Attica 2021 - 2027 Operational Programme, a regional development strategy co - financed by the EU and Greece, to guide investments in areas like research, innovation, digital convergence, sustainable development, and improving quality of life.
The programme focuses on key priorities such as reinforcing SMEs, promoting digital transformation, achieving a green transition, and fostering social inclusion through projects in infrastructure, health, education and culture and is implemented through the Integrated Territorial Investment in Culture (ITI).
The agreement was signed by Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni and Attica Regional Governor Nikos Hardalias and focuses on three cultural hubs : Athens, Elefsina, and Lavrio with also projects for other sites outside the Greek capital.
According to the ministry, the goal is to create a strong cultural axis connecting these historically significant areas while supporting the city and region’s broader development strategy.
Among the interventions are the reopening of the Old Acropolis Museum with new uses, a major archaeological exhibition built in a niche at eastern edge of the rock, the promotion of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, a colossal building developed between the sixth century BC and the second century AD in honour of the Greek god Zeus, located 500 metres south - east of the Acropolis and about 700 metres from Syntagma Square.
Futher works will be dedicated to the Lyceum of Aristotle, the philosophy school founded in 335BCE over the the rests of an ancient temple, one of three oldest gymnasia in Athens, also known as Aristotle’s Peripatic School, located in the Kolonaki area, near the Hellenic Parliament, and the Byzantine and Christian Museum.
Restorations will also include the fire - damaged neoclassical building at Stadion 478, which will be converted into a Theatre Museum and additional projects include the restoration of listed buildings in Plaka, old historical neighbourhood of the Greek capital, clustered around the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis, for use as cultural spaces and the pilot operation of the “Akropol” Center for Culture and Creativity.
Outside Athens, funding will support work at the eleventh century Byzantine Holy Monastery of Daphni in the suburb of Chaidari, south of Athinon Avenue, the archaeological sites of Elefsina, historic port city in West Attica located in the Thriasio Plain at the northermost end of the Saronic Gulf.
Other operations will be managed in the archaeological area of Rhamnous, site overlooking the Eubonean Strait, northwest of the modern town of Agia Marina, and the Church of Agios Georgios in Megara, in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, and resotrations will be also managed in Lavrio, town in southeastern part of Attica situated on a bay overlooking the island of Makronisos.
Greek Culture Minister underlined that the projects upgrade the cultural footprint of Attica and strengthen the region’s cultural extroversion, highlighting their potential to extend visitor stays.
Governor Hardalias noted that Attica is the first region in Greece to utilize National Strategic Reference Framework resources for a holistic promotion of its cultural wealth, calling the initiative “a new development model centred on culture and thematic tourism”.
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