An online map for the religious and cultural monuments in North Macedonia and Thrace

An online map – guide for the religious and cultural monuments (Christian, Muslim and Jewish), a reminder of interfaith and intercultural routes in Eastern Macedonia (Drama, Kavala) and Thrace, developed by scientists within the Innovative Cultural Experience (ICE) program.

As explained, speaking to the Athenian/Macedonian News Agency, Angeliki Ziaka, professor of Religion at the Theology Department of AUTH and scientifically responsible for the Introductory Department of Muslim Studies, it is a map (google map) “accessible in Greek, English and Turkish (see ice.web.auth.gr) and a small deliverable of a large project, ICE, which in Greek is translated as Development of an Innovative System of Augmented Reality, with application to the promotion of cultural heritage in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace”.

The project was implemented within the framework of the Action “Research – Create – Innovate” and was co-financed by the European Union and national resources through EPANEK. The Action focused on how religious and cultural, tangible and intangible heritage can be presented in a tangible and multimedia way to young and old.

“We initially deliver a platform with many and varied exhibits that can be used in museums, exhibition spaces, and even at school, through which one browses various monuments or even objects of interfaith and cultural interest, which we have chosen for the needs of project. But until we reach this choice and the development of the innovative system, which was implemented by the Electronics Laboratory of the Physics Department of AUTH, the AETMA Laboratory of the Informatics Department of DIPAE and Prisma Electronics based in Alexandroupoli, the other bodies we were responsible for for the collection of the cultural and interreligious, material and intangible heritage, that is, the Department of Theology of the AUTH, the Laboratory of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Research of the Department of History and Ethnology of the DTH and the MOHA Research Center in Kavala, it took 36 months – and including and with the pandemic – the researchers of the Project should map the area of ​​North Macedonia and Thrace in order to collect a rich cultural heritage material”, points out the AUTH professor.

As Mrs. Ziaka explains, in the context of this action, a huge amount of material was gathered that led the involved bodies to think about the development of this interreligious and intercultural map, where one can find a lot of information about the post-Byzantine, mainly, monuments and churches of the area , for the historic Muslim mosques but also for what remains of the Jewish presence in the area.

“We invite researchers throughout Greece something similar has been done, both by the University of Crete and for the bibliography of the Ottoman monuments of Greece – to enlarge this map”, notes Ms. Ziaka, explaining that Greece has an extraordinary wealth of this of a kind that remains untapped and unknown.

“Of course, in addition to the religious monuments there are also monuments such as the Ottoman baths, which are beautiful, the few remaining tekdes, and the many turbeds. There is, in other words, a multitude of monuments, which can be highlighted in a variety of ways, we can be happy about them and pass into our consciousness as a common cultural heritage” he underlines.

A handy online tool

The map is an easy-to-use tool for highlighting interreligious and intercultural routes, as Ms. Ziaka tells APE-MPE. He brings, as an example, the route from Xanthi to Bulgaria, which includes Thermes, where there are the impressive thermal baths of the valley of this mountainous settlement but also an Ottoman hammam that still operates in the area.

Another route, as pointed out by the scientific manager of the Introductory Direction of Muslim Studies of the Theology Department of AUTH, is from Komotini to the Rhodope mountain range and another from Alexandroupoli to the other side of the Rhodope mountain range. “On this route one can visit Cem Evi in ​​Megalo Derio, Roussa with its tekke, but also enjoy all the monasteries and churches that exist along the way along the Evros route and see the city ​​of Didymoteichos and Soufli. Didymoteicho is like a small Damascus. It has so many cultural, inter-religious and other monuments and historical references that it opens our spirit and we are happy to live in this country” says Mrs. Ziaka.

The map is available at: Reminder of Interreligious and Intercultural Routes ICE Project Map _ Intercultural and Interreligious Places

SOURCE: APE – MEB / Sofia Papadopoulou