I first lived in Greece in the late 1980s as a student. I’d exchanged chilly Cambridge for the beautiful Peloponnesian town of Nafplio and was carrying out postgraduate research on modern Greek identity and tourism.
US Deputy Chief of Mission David Burger toured the archaeological museum of Kastellorizo on Monday, as part of his visit to the island.
A decision by Turkish authorities to re-convert the Byzantine Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora into a mosque is “completely reprehensible,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
After Hagia Sophia, Turkish authorities issued a new presidential decree on Friday morning to re-convert the Byzantine Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora into a mosque.
Recitals at archaeological sites throughout Greece continue on Thursday at the Roman Agora of ancient Delphi with the participation of soloists from the Greek National Opera. Thursday’s performance will include nine distinguished soloists in famous arias from operas and operettas and classical cantatas with subjects drawn from ancient Greek mythology and Greek literature. It is part of a series of cultural events titled "All of Greece, one Culture," organized by the Culture Ministry. The events began on July 18 and will run to September 15, with 20 different music, opera, operetta and dance programs and tributes at 70 archaeological sites, in a total of 111 performances. The photo shows a performance at Ancient Olympia by the sopranos Marisia Papalexiou (left) and Chrysa Maliamani (right). [Elli Ruben]
A 19th-century religious icon that was stolen in 2005 along with 11 others from a monastery in northwestern Greece was returned from the United Kingdom on July 31, the Culture Ministry announced on Tuesday.
A series of events will be held in 37 of the 77 museums and archaeological sites throughout Greece that will be open and free to the public on Monday night for the full moon of August.
Hidden and protected for millennia, an ancient shipwreck in Greece opens to the public for the first time on Aug. 3, fusing archaeological wonders in the depths of the sea with the marvels of modern-day artificial intelligence.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni visited the construction site of the National Gallery in central Athens, on Tuesday. Work on the ambitious revamp is reportedly progressing at a rapid pace so that the opening can take place next March, as planned. The aim is to make the National Gallery a defining architectural feature of the Greek capital, aligned with the adjacent Hilton Hotel, Lycabettus Hill and Kostas Varotsos’ iconic glass statue of "The Runner." The new design has not only increased the museum’s surface area but has also created much larger spaces to showcase the museum’s collection of 19th and 20th century paintings and visiting exhibitions. [ Culture Ministry/ANA-MPA]
The Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate has confirmed that a religious ceremony will take place to mark this year’s August 15 feast day of the Greek Orthodox Church at the historic Monastery of Panagia Soumela in the mountainous Trabzon region, known among Greeks as Trapezounta.
The ancient theater of Epidaurus, renowned for its acoustics, has reopened for a limited number of open-air performances, with organizers planning a live-streamed event Saturday for the first time in the Greek monument’s 2,300-year history.
Turkey and Greece exchanged harsh words on Saturday over the conversion of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia into a mosque, a day after Islamic prayers were held at the ancient site for the first time in nine decades.
The Greek Foreign Ministry on Friday criticized Turkey’s recent decision to convert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia into a mosque, saying that the move “cast a dark shadow over its reputation.”
The Greek National Theater is going on tour to different parts of the country with “Wonderful Ruins,” a play inspired by the accounts of foreign travelers to Greece from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The play is a part of the Culture Ministry’s summer program, which comprises 24 different theater, music and art productions. [Ministry of Culture/ANA-MPA]
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chose a heavily symbolic day to present himself as a new Ottoman conqueror, converting the Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque on the 97th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne.
Fulfilling a dream of his Islamic-oriented youth, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined hundreds of worshipers Friday for the first Muslim prayers in 86 years inside Hagia Sophia, the Istanbul landmark that served as one of Christendom’s most significant cathedrals, a mosque and a museum before its conversion back into a Muslim place of worship.
Friday prayers will be held for the first time at Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the building once again a mosque after a top Turkish court ruled in favour of annulling its museum status.
Elementary school pupils in faraway Chengdu in southwest China took an imaginary trip to Athens during the plague and the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC, via an animated video starring the young Athenian girl Myrtis, whose face was reconstructed by Greek scientists after her remains were discovered in the mid-90s. In the video, young Myrtis urges viewers to follow experts’ advice on Covid-19 and also introduces children to ancient Greek culture.
The ministers of Foreign Affairs and Culture, Nikos Dendias and Lina Mendoni, agreed to the creation of a small working group which will, within 10 days, propose a specific action plan for the immediate future in response to the conversion of the former church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul from a museum into a mosque.
The conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque does not only offend its status as a cultural heritage site. It also violates international law.