The mayor of the Greek city of Sparta recently announced recently that the city council is organizing a series of events to celebrate the 2,500th anniversary of the Battle of Thermopylae between the Spartans and the invading Persian army.

Spartans are particularly proud of this anniversary, when Leonidas, the warrior king of Sparta, led his brave 300 men in the legendary last stand against the Persian army, precisely 2,500 years ago next year.

The mayor of Sparta, Petros Doukas stated that the committee that will organize the celebratory events that will attract global attention has already been set up and comprises both Greek and foreign nationals. Namely, the board includes politicians, historians, and royals, as well as business people and distinguished personalities, from Greece, the UK, the US, and other countries around the world.

'They will help us with their international prestige, their knowledge, and their international relations and networking abilities in organizing events truly worthy of Sparta, Leonidas and the 300,' the mayor told AMNA.

 

The Battle of Thermopylae commemoration will include events that highlight the achievements of ancient Spartan civilization, including politics, geopolitics, poetry, philosophy, gymnastics, dance, martial arts, Spartan cuisine, and many others.

To read this article in full, please visit: Greek Reporter

 

 

German airline Condor has added new Greek destinations to its summer 2020 program.

 

The German airline has announced that as of May 1, 2020, it will offer non-stop flights from Germany’s main airports to the Greek islands of Samos, Santorini, and Mykonos. Next summer season, travelers will be able to fly directly to Santorini and Mykonos, from Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, and Munich. Furthermore, Condor announced a new flight from Stuttgart to Samos, which can also be approached from Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Munich, and Hanover.

 

In total for summer 2020, Condor has scheduled services to 17 Greek destinations from seven German departure airports.

To read this article in full, please visit: GTP

Have you ever wondered what it's like to do yoga in a room full of paintings from Picasso and other renowned artists? Well, the Goulandri Museum has decided to bring art and yoga together, one of the most ancient practices that harmonize the body, mind, and soul.

Maria Stylianaki will be there every Tuesday and Thursday (19:00 - 20:30) to offer visitors an unforgettable experience! Classes are suitable for people of all ages with no mandatory previous experience in yoga. All they have to do is bring a yoga mat, comfortable clothes and register online.

The museum opened its doors on October 2nd and is now home to art pieces from Greek and foreign artists like Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, Gauguin, Cézanne, El Greco, Moralis and many more!

Petit Paris is back in Athens for another year from November 21^st to December 1^st with this year's theme being «Cabarets du monde» (Cabarets of the world)!

Get ready for a ten-day parade of art and culture in the city center of Athens and neighborhoods like Omonoia square, Larissa station, Peloponisos station, Metaksourgio, Agios Pavlos church and Viktoria square, with more than 500 artists, creators and thinkers participating, coming from in and out of Greece. 

With lots of music, art and photo exibitions, street art, theater and varietè, street events and street art, lectures, “tables rondes” and “rendez-vous sociaux”, walking tours, educational programmes and games, this festival is helping some of the most underrated areas of Athens get filled with culture and art, and is helping young artists to shine. It is co-hosted by Athens Art Network and the Organization of Culture, Sports and Youth of the City of Athens.

The festival is being held with the support of the Embassy of France in Athens and the French Institute of Greece.

In 2013 the first festival was dedicated to the 100 years since the birth of Albert Camus. In 2014 Petit Paris d'Athènes was dedicated to Βelle Époque as well as the declaration of World War 1. In 2015 the festival's theme was Bistrot and Cafe culture featuring rive gauche and post-war Paris. In 2016 the festival's theme was Team Spirit and Art. In 2017 Petit Paris d'Athènes was dedicated to The Woman in Europe. In 2018, the theme was “May of 68. Fifty years after.”

 

Click HERE to view the festival's full schedule!

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XpatAthens is proud to be a Media Sponsor of Petit Paris d'Athènes 2019

Photo credit: Martha Lazou

Boutari Winery is one of the greatest and most historical companies of quality wine making. Since its establishment in 1879, the company has set the foundations for the production of quality bottled wine, it has contributed to the revival and development of indigenous grape varieties and it continuously invests in innovative products and services. Its presence in 35 countries, as well as the numerous distinctions it has received until today, render the company a worthy ambassador of quality bottled winemaking in Greece and abroad.

The company has been honored with the award Winery of the Year for the 18^th time by one of the most important publications in the wine sector worldwide, the American magazine Wine & Spirits. This distinction ranks Boutari Winery in the Hall of Fame’s top six wineries in the world.

The company has been active in the regions: Naoussa, Goumenissa, Mantinia, Santorini, Crete while in Attica collaborates with Roxane Matsa Estate since 1980 in the region of Kantza.

SANTORINI WINERY
Megalochori, A.C. 84700 Santorini
Tel: +3022860 81011, 81607
Email: santorini.winery@boutari.gr

Opening Hours:
Monday-Friday 10:00-15:00 (Winter Season)
Monday-Saturday 10:00-19:00 (Summer Season) 

CRETE WINERY
Skalani, A.C 70100 
Tel: +30 2810 731617
Email: crete.winery@boutari.gr 

Opening Hours:
Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-18:00 (From April to October)
By appointment at crete.winery@boutari.gr (From November to March)

 

NAOUSSA WINERY
Boutari Winery, Stenimachos, Naoussa
Tel: +30 23320 41666

Opening Hours:
Monday - Friday 09:00 – 15:00 by appointment
Weekends by appointment 

This is a story, unlike the ones we usually share. It is not a breaking news story, and it is not a recent Greek achievement; however, it is a story of courage, kindness, and selflessness–attributes for which numerous Greek people have been celebrated for!

Melpomeni Dina, a 92-year-old Greek woman, was reunited with two Jewish siblings she helped save from the Nazis during WW2 for the first time. As a teenager, Melpomeni Dina hid 6 members of the Mordechai family before assisting them to escape.

This emotional reunion took place at the Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, more than 70 years later, and is likely to be the last of its kind. The surviving siblings Sarah Yanai and Yossi Mor brought their 20 children and grandchildren to the event.

"There are no words to describe this feeling," Ms. Yanai told reporters. "It is very emotional for us to be together again." "We were hidden in her house. She saved all my family. Six persons... you can't imagine how dangerous it was for her, for her family, to keep us all... They saved our lives."

During the Nazi Germany occupation of Greece between1941-1944, most of the Greek Jewish population–as many as 80,000–died as a result of Nazi persecution. It was during that time that Mrs. Dina and her two sisters hid the Mordechai family in an abandoned mosque before moving them to their own tiny home when things got too dangerous. When the family's location became compromised, the sisters assisted them in escaping toward different directions. They survived, reunited after the war, and left for Israel.

In 1994, Mrs. Dina was honored by the museum as Righteous Among the Nations– a title bestowed to those who helped save Jews during the Holocaust. Among the approximately 27,000 people who have been recognized by the museum, 355 of them are from Greece.

Even though reunions like this used to be quite common at the Yad Vashem museum, unfortunately, they have become scarce in recent years. "This is probably going to be our last reunion, because of age and frailty," said Stanlee Stahl, the executive vice president of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, quoted by the Associated Press.

To read this emotional story in full, please visit: BBC

Boutari Wines will be participating in the “Fine Red Wines” tasting event on November 24th, 2019 which will take place at Hotel Grand Bretagne in central Athens. 

Greek wine-producing companies and fine wine importers and distributors will exhibit their most exclusive and rare, red wines.

Boutari Winery will present rare and exceptional wines of past vintages.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

More information about the wine tasting event can be found in Greek
on the organizers’ website fineredwines.gr 

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Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met on Wednesday, October 23 at the Maximus Mansion with Antonis Papadimitriou, President of the Onassis Foundation, regarding the Foundation’s contribution to upgrading the infrastructure on the Hill of the Acropolis.

During the meeting, at which Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni and the Onassis Foundation’s Director of Culture Afroditi Panagiotakou were also present, Mr. Papadimitriou informed the Prime Minister of the Foundation’s decision to fund the installation of a modern platform lift (in place of the current lift and hoist), as well as the renovation and upgrading of the night illumination of the archaeological site.

Prime Minister Mitsotakis thanked Mr. Papadimitriou for the Foundation’s valuable contribution. He stressed that through its actions, the Foundation “projects the face of a Greece that has always maintained its values and sensitivity, particularly toward its cultural heritage, which comprises the heritage of all of humanity.”

Ms. Mendoni thanked Mr. Papadimitriou for the Onassis Foundation’s long-standing and constructive collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and noted that, “The Foundation’s financial support is important for the improvement of the infrastructure and services that are offered to the thousands of visitors that come to the archaeological site of the Acropolis. It is particularly important given the fact that the Acropolis is a primary image of Greece.”

In turn, Mr. Papadimitriou noted that “With these actions on the Hill of the Acropolis, the Onassis Foundation affirms its deep belief that culture is an issue of democracy, one that concerns society as a whole. By installing a wheelchair platform lift, we solve a practical, but also a symbolic issue: we stress the importance of equal access for all. We are also renewing the illumination of the Acropolis as a small gesture of respect to the monument and to the archaeologists that protect it in all of our names—because, in the end, the Acropolis will continue to illuminate us.

For the Onassis Foundation, everything is an issue of education. The Acropolis, as a monument that expresses Athenian Democracy, cannot help but comprise a priority. The monument continues to stand there, with or without us. But we have an obligation to renew its symbolism, according to the needs of the age. In collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, the Onassis Foundation gives residents of Athens a new incentive to rediscover their city.

This effort is part of a broader strategy we have outlined for our city, Athens, with actions that will be announced in the coming months.”

The existing lift and hoist system will be replaced by a modern wheelchair platform lift, as is now customary in similar situations elsewhere in the world; the platform lift will provide the best possible accommodations for people with mobility impairments.

As for the lighting infrastructure, which was installed in 2004 in time for the Olympic Games, the plan calls for a comprehensive upgrade on the basis of the original study, so that the lines and shadows of the monuments and the rock can emerge anew from the new environment of the nighttime Athens of today.

Both projects are projected to be completed by summer 2020, while the cost is estimated at 1.5 million euros.

 

In 490 BC the Persians are defeated at the Battle of Marathon, despite outnumbering the Athenians four to one. Pheidippides an Athenian messenger is sent to Athens, 42km away, to deliver the victorious news. Upon his arrival, Pheidippides manages to utter the joyful words, νικῶμεν (nikomen)—“we have won”—and then collapses. Most historical accounts suggest that he died there and then from exhaustion. This could be a romanticized version of the events; though to be fair, Pheidippides had also just legged it 240km from Athens to Sparta and back again to ask for help when the Persian fleet landed in a bay near the town of Marathon.

Today, more than 1,500 marathon races are organized around the world. However, Greece is where it all began; at the first modern Olympic Games that were held in Athens in 1896, the 42km race from Marathon to Athens was one of the defining events of the new Olympic era, a way of reviving the ancient glory of Greece. Fittingly, a Greek water-carrier, Spyridon Louis, won the race in 2 hours, 58 minutes and 50 seconds. Every year, long-distance runners from all over the world come to Athens to challenge their body and spirit to retrace the legendary footsteps of Pheidippides. With its combination of hills, heat, and history, many consider it the toughest—but most poetic—Marathon route of them all.

About a decade ago, there were 10,000 participants running through the city in various races during the Athens Marathon. In 2019, there were about 50,000 runners, and thousands cheering on the sidelines, celebrating the power of human endurance and the strong bonds of international community!

To read this article in full, visit: www.thisisathens.org

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