The Ministry of Culture, in line with the strategic plan set forth in the Cultural Charter for Development and Prosperity, continues to implement comprehensive cultural projects in the country’s remote regions, presenting local communities with monuments that have been preserved, restored, and given new life.

On the first day of her two-day visit to Lesbos, Culture Minister Lina Mendoni presented the local community and the large number of visitors with the restored northern enclosure of Mytilene Castle, the roofs and domes of the Church of Saint Therapon in Mytilene, a monument of great emotional and religious significance to the residents, the modernized Resin Museum, and the restored medieval Gatelouzoi Tower in Ampeliko. These projects preserve monuments from different historical periods and cultural contexts, highlighting the continuity over time and the multicultural character of Lesbos.

The Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, stated: “The protection, restoration, and promotion of Lesbos’s monuments are a constant priority for the Ministry of Culture, within the framework of the comprehensive strategic planning outlined in the Charter for Prosperity and Development, preserving the island’s cultural heritage and making it a driver of development and openness to the outside world. We are delivering projects to the public that will enhance the Mytilene Castle, one of the most significant fortification complexes in the Mediterranean, through the completion of work on the northern enclosure and the restoration of the seminary, a monument that was on the verge of collapse in 2022. Today, it has been fully restored for cultural use. From 2019 to the present, more than 900 meters of the fortification wall at the Upper Castle of Mytilene have been completed, while a total of 18 million euros has been allocated for restoration and rehabilitation work, drawn from the Recovery Fund and the last two programming periods of the NSRF. The restoration of the roof of the Church of Saint Therapon, Mytilene’s most iconic landmark, serves the same strategy. With a budget of 1,200,000 million euros from the Recovery Fund, the long-term protection and preservation of this monument—which holds unique architectural and historical value in the Northern Aegean—is ensured. Similarly, in Ampeliko, the modernized Resin Museum and the fully restored medieval tower are two invaluable repositories of memory and identity. The Resin Museum honors the people who dedicated their lives to the cultivation and collection of resin, while also highlighting the region’s timeless history, and the Gatelouzoi Tower showcases Lesbos’s medieval heritage. The Museum and the Tower together form a new cultural destination for southern Lesbos, demonstrating that cultural heritage acquires true value when it remains alive, becomes part of people’s daily lives, and is transformed into a force for creativity, social cohesion, and sustainable development for local communities.”