The Monument of Episkopi, a Roman mausoleum converted to a Byzantine church on the Greek island of Sikinos, was among the winners of the 2022 European Heritage Awards, announced on Thursday by the European Commission and Europa Nostra, ANA reports.
The awards were given to 30 winners from 18 countries in 5 categories and will be celebrated at the European Heritage Awards Ceremony in Prague on September 26. The Sikinos monument was recognized in the “Conservation and Adaptive Reuse” category.
Episkopi’s monument was constructed in the 3rd century AD and later converted to a Byzantine church and used continuously. The ancient monument was added during the Middle Ages and in modern times, with all the additions preserved nearly intact. The restoration project “combined meticulous research with cautious conservation, resulting in a high-quality restoration project,” the award citation said.
After surviving destructive earthquakes and interventions, the monument was abandoned in the 20th century. The Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cycladic Islands of Greece decided to restore it in 2016 and return it to public use. Private and EU regional funds provided the support, while the restoration revealed valuable inscriptions and frescoes from the Roman and Byzantine eras. It also revealed the hermetically sealed and intact grave of a higher-status woman named “Neiko”.
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA Copyright: C. Charnock
