We are pleased to announce that two very interesting byzantine churches are open to the public this summer, in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades.
In particular:
Both churches are open daily during July and August from 11:00 to 14:30.
The people responsible for the safekeeping of the churches are teams of volunteers of our association, like during the last two summers. However, this year with the addition of students from the archaeology department of the Greek University of Athens, chosen by the Ephorate of Antiquities. All expenses for the students’ transportation and feeding, as well as accomodation are provided by our association, thanks to the donations made by the the visitors of the church of Diasoritis the past two summers. These small donations were collected by the association Tragaia and were used as follows:
a. The repair of the roof of st George Diasoritis by workers chosen and supervised by the Ephorate of Antiquities
b. The repair of the path from Monoitsia to Taxiarches church which was damaged by the rain during the winter
c. New stairs were built on the way to Taxiarches church, in place of the old damaged and dangerous ones.
d. Local authorities were asked to provide workers and equipment to open the path from Diasoritis church to Taxiarhes church so that the two monuments can be accessible and connected in under 6 minutes on foot.
e. New signs were made and installed to show the way from Halki village to the two monuments.
f. Accomodations were created for the archaeology students in the Arts Centre building of our association in Halki and all the expenses needed for their stay for the summer were covered; this way the young archaeologists can work as volunteers at the monuments.
We would like to thank the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades for their trust, as well as the Municipality of Naxos and the South Aegean Region for their help. However, above all, we need to thank all the volunteers (more than 40) who keep offering their free time for the purpose of keeping these magnificent monuments open to the public.