A new cultural institution in Athens
First entry: Monday, August 29, 2022, 13:38
The Municipalities of Penteli and Athens together, an important new cultural institution, the Festival of Mount Penteli, grasping “at the beginning the strong thread that connected Athens with Penteli in ancient times”, as they state in their announcement.
According to the announcement of the two municipalities, the festival will be held every year at the beginning of September on Mount Pentelikos, while throughout the year, there will be cultural events in Athens and Penteli. The curtain will open with the historic ERT Choir, in an honorary tribute to our great composer Mikis Theodorakis, in the area of the Ancient Quarry of Penteli.
Until September 18, with free admission, the public who can attend concerts. theatrical performances, concerts, exhibitions and lectures, in emblematic spaces, which are highlighted and restored to the public, such as the Ancient Quarry of Penteli and the Palace of the Duchess of Placentia.
In the 1st Festival of Mount Pentelikos, which is under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, he participates with his concert at the Palace of the Duchess of Placentia at the Greek Music Workshop of the Organization of Culture, Sports and Youth of the Municipality of Athens (OPANDA).
The Mount Pentelikos Festival offers with free admission theatrical performances, concerts, exhibitions, lectures, concerts and through its rich cultural program, aims to:
· Highlight the monuments and cultural treasures of Mount Pentelikos (Ancient Quarry, other quarry sites, Palace of the Duchess of Placentia, Byzantine heritage).
· Connect these different historical periods to the present.
Familiarize the residents of Lekanopedi with these areas.
· Strengthens and promotes through its events the belief that culture and the natural environment are an indivisible unity.
· Be a new pole of attraction for cultural tourism.
“The two municipalities” emphasize in their announcement, “they have been connected and cooperating since ancient times. The stone-paved route of “Pentelethen Lithagogia”, starting from the Ancient Quarry of Spilia, keeps the secrets of the miracle of the Parthenon, the monument that is the most reliable testimony of a previous technological and aesthetic civilization”.
“The Parthenon, in the Municipality of Athens and the Ancient Quarry in the Municipality of Penteli, are reconnected as points of high symbolic, political and religious value through Culture”, the two municipalities emphasize in their announcement.
Regarding the initiative, the mayors of Penteli Dimitra Kehagia and Athens Kostas Bakoyannis stated:
Dimitra Kehagia – mayor of Penteli: “From the bowels of Mount Penteli, from the Ancient Quarry, through a miracle of engineering, quarrying art and culture, the timeless symbol of Athens, of Greece, was created. This aspect of Mount Pentelic has not been illuminated as it should be. Our Duty to the Municipality of Penteli is to highlight this monument, to highlight the cultural wealth of our mountain, to upgrade the environment. Pentelikos and the promotion of his contribution to classical antiquity, a new cultural institution in Attica. The Festival of Mount Pentelikos takes place in the Ancient Quarry and in the grounds of Pentelikos every year at the beginning of September, while there are cultural events throughout the year in Athens and Penteli. I thank the Mayor of Athens, Costas Bakoyannis, for the excellent cooperation we have. Through the Mount Pentelikos festival program, we offer our fellow citizens quality events and give the Athenians the opportunity to create our bouno and experience its beauties up close.”
Kostas Bakoyannis – mayor of Athens: “Athens and Penteli are linked by a relationship that has not been broken over the centuries. An ancient road, which led to creation and civilization. The culmination of this relationship in antiquity was the universal symbol of beauty, the Parthenon. We come today and with this collaboration, we invest again in culture through other ways. Because this is the biggest intangible capital of our country. We seek, along with the Mount Pentelikos Festival, to raise awareness that the natural environment and culture were and can be an indivisible and indivisible whole.”