Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni attended, on Saturday 18 May 2024, the event for the creation of the “School of Stone and Traditional Building Forms” in the community of Pentalofos in Kozani. The art of “zoupaniotis” in the mastic villages of the Municipality of Voio refers to the living collective memory, the songs, stories, narratives and cultural events of the inhabitants of an entire region, which are the hearths of the traditional art of stone carving and building.

In her speech, Lina Mendoni praised the importance of the traditional art of stone, which flourished in these areas and announced the establishment of two Vocational Apprenticeship Schools classified according to the institutional framework of the Ministry of Education.

The art of stone is used to restore and maintain monuments, churches and monasteries, schools, bridges, old mansions, buildings of pre-industrial technology (mills, oil mills, tanks, etc.), dilapidated or obsolete houses, retaining walls on sloping terrain, support for paths and cultivated land, etc. New buildings shall be built to fit into traditional settlements without altering their character.

At the event, which is a major step towards the establishment of “Schools of Stone and Traditional Building Forms”, the research papers prepared by students of the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens and the School of Architecture of the University of UTAH Valley, USA, during their study in Pentalofos, in October 2023, were presented.

The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Stathis Konstantinidis, the MP of Kozani Michalis Papadopoulos, the Regional Governor of Western Macedonia George Amanatidis, representatives of the academic community and many representatives of local institutions were present.