ΙΩΝΙΑ

Παρουσίαση

IONIA transcends all particular, confining, geographical borders and, despite the fact that it is still the "opposite", "forbidden" shore for many Greeks - and not just the Greeks of Greece, but throughout the entire world - it has never ceased to be an Idea.
The idea "Ionia" does not simply contain within it one of the most genuine parts of the ancient Greek and Byzantine experience: it is a symbol in modern times of the precious blending of Greek civilisation with the magical legend of the Orient.
At the present day, the idea "Ionia" is for those who know, those who feel, an inextinguishable beacon of the cosmopolitan spirit, for Europe and the entire world.
I would like to thank Dora Minaidi and Maria Fakidi for their wonderful photographs, and the authors of the texts, Stantis and Irkos Apostolidis and Ismini Kapandai, and indeed all those who have contributed in any way to the production of this book, for their excellent work and their spirit of cooperation: chiefly, however, because they have laboured to create a publication which continues a project that I personally hold sacred: the preservation of the historical and cultural memory of the immortal homeland, the homeland whose contribution defines the Greek national and cultural identity and consciousness.
For Ionia is not just a heritage.
It is our identity.
And anything that contributes to its preservation is precious and sacred for us and our children.
I firmly believe that, even when we long nostalgically for the past, or when the present is unbearable, "the nightingales will still sing" in Ionia, as long as there are Greeks like ourselves, who carry within us our cultural and national life as an "idea".
We carry Ionia inside us like an old family picture. We search for traces of it in books like this, and we listen to the sound of it, unbroken over the centuries [...]. (From the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

PREFACE
WANDERING IN SPACE
WANDERING THROUGH TIME
BYZANTINE AND EARLY MODERN TIMES
PHOTOGRAPHS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX