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Day conference and photography exhibition

12 September 2025
On Friday 12 September 2025, at the Thessaloniki History Centre (Billis Building, Ippodromiou Square), the Mount Athos Center, in collaboration with the UK-based Friends of Mount Athos (FoMA), organised two events under the title ‘Mount Athos: A Unique Monument of Nature’, both of which were devoted to the unique biodiversity and natural environment of Mount Athos.
The first event took the form of a day conference involving leading researchers and members of the Friends of Mount Athos, who for decades have been working to clear and improve the footpaths on Mount Athos. The second event consisted in an exhibition of photographs taken by members of the Friends.
The day conference began with a welcome address by the Holy Community of Mount Athos, which was delivered by its representative, hieromonk Ieronymos Simonopetritis, First Vice President of the Mount Athos Center. This was followed by an address by the Mayor of Thessaloniki and President of the Center’s Board of Directors, which was delivered on the Mayor’s behalf by Mr. Vasileios Gakis, Deputy Mayor of Culture, Tourism Development and Intermunicipal Cooperation of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and Executive Vice President of the Mount Athos Center. Immediately afterwards, Mr. Christopher Thomas, Vice Chairman of the UK-based Friends of Mount Athos, addressed the conference and referred to the successful collaboration between the Friends and the Mount Athos Center.
View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://www.agioritikiestia.gr/index.php/en/conferences#sigProIdf246a446b5

In the first session of the conference, Mr. Stephanos Diamandis, former Director of Research at the Forest Research Institute, gave a talk on the theme ‘Landscape, Flora, Fauna and Fungal Diversity of Mount Athos’. This was followed by a talk by Mr. Nikos Gounaris, Forestry Consultant of the Mount Athos Authority, on the subject ‘Management of the Chestnut Forest of Mount Athos and its Enhancement in View of Climate Change’. The session ended with a talk by Prof. Spyros Galatsidas of the Democritus University of Thrace on the theme ‘Origin of the Black Pine (Pinus negra) of Mount Athos’.   
View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://www.agioritikiestia.gr/index.php/en/conferences#sigProId2efea0d289

The second session of the conference began with a talk by Mr. Andrew Buchanan of the Friends of Mount Athos (FoMA) on the subject ‘Walking and Working on the Holy Paths’, and this was followed by a talk by Mr. Peter Howorth, publisher of the Mount Athos Map, who spoke on the theme ‘The Topography of Mount Athos’. The conference presentations were followed by an open discussion with the public that focused mainly on the future and the preservation of the unique natural wealth of the Athonite Peninsula, while the conference organisers also urged pilgrims to make use of Athos’s footpaths.
View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://www.agioritikiestia.gr/index.php/en/conferences#sigProIdc80570c837

The conference was followed by the second event of the evening: the official opening of the photography exhibition, which contained material gathered by members of the Friends of Mount Athos on their visits to the Holy Mountain. Through the thematic units Natural Landscapes and Ecosystems, The Patina of Time, and The Friends of Mount Athos In Action, the exhibition captures not only the rare beauty and spirituality of the Holy Mountain but also the systematic work carried out by the Friends of Mount Athos to care for and improve the ancient footpaths.

The exhibition was curated by Peter Tatooles, a member of FoMA’s path-clearing leadership team and coordinator of the US group, and Anastasios Ntouros, Director of the Mount Athos Center.    
View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://www.agioritikiestia.gr/index.php/en/conferences#sigProId8cca92a293

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue bearing the same title as the exhibition and containing all the photographs presented in it, together with short descriptive texts by FoMA members who have participated in missions to Mount Athos.  



Further details about the catalogue may be found HERE.
 
ΓTo view the conference proceedings, click HERE.
 

Zagora, Pelion
14 - 16 July 2023

The Mount Athos Center in cooperation with the Pelion Letters and Arts Society jointly organize with the Magnesia and Sporades Regional Units a Scientific Symposium under the theme ‘Pelion - Mount Athos: A relationship enduring for centuries’ on the 14th, 15th and 16th of July 2023, in Zagora, Pelion.

The events are under the support and auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture and the Holy Metropolis of Demetriada and Almyros.

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The 10th Scientific Conference of the Mount Athos Center focused on what is a crucial period in the thousand-year-long history of Mount Athos as it is connected with Greek self-consciousness in the broader Balkan region, marks the progression of the Athonite community towards the modern era and, in effect, Athos’s position in the Orthodox world today in institutional, constitutional, ecclesiological and geopolitical terms, thus making it a period of particular importance and relevance.

The theme ‘Mount Athos: Spreading the Light in the Orthodox World: the Metochia’ was the focus of the third conference on the special thematic cycle. Through the centuries, the Athonite metochia have played a decisive role in the survival and development of the monasteries since the geological morphology of the Athonite peninsula has not provided sufficient resources for the survival of the sacred foundations.  

The conference on the theme ‘Mount Athos in the period before, during and after the Liberation’, which was organised in November 2012 to mark the centenary of the liberation of Mount Athos from Ottoman rule, presented an opportunity for researchers to explore not only the historical event of the liberation of the Athonite peninsula, but also the history of Athos during the last few decades of the 19th century and the period up to about 1920, roughly ten years after the incorporation of Athos into the Greek state.

More Articles ...

  1. 6th Scientific Conference / Mount Athos in the 15th and 16th Centuries
  2. 5th Scientific Conference / The Architecture of Mount Athos: History and Research
  3. 4th Scientific Conference / St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite and his Era: 200 Years since his Repose
  4. 3rd Scientific Conference / From Dionysios of Fourna to Fotis Kontoglou and the Contemporary Iconographers’ Workshops on Mount Athos

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