Institute for Mediterranean Studies

ByHeriNet

Byzantine Heritage Network: Rehabilitation, highlighting and management in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin - ByHeriNet

ByHeriNet aims to create a collaborative network for the preservation and promotion of Byzantine Cultural Heritage.

Program: EU Community Initiative Programme - INTERREG III, STRAND B ARCHIMED

Axis: Integrated and Sustainable Management of Cultural and Natural Resources and of Landscape and Risk Management

Measure: 3.2 Protection, reformation, planning and management of the cultural heritage

Goal of the Project

The cultural, archaeological and architectural heritage referred to the Byzantine world is one of the most interesting aspects of identity for countries which faces the east side of the Mediterranean Basin. Important churches, monasteries and settlements as a whole characterize the landscape of south Italy as fair as Greece, and Cyprus and are already, but one by one, tourist or/and religious pilgrimage  destinations.

Actually we register a non-homogeneous and fragmentary knowledge about this heritage as a whole and over all a lack of strategic tools for an integrated and global enjoyment of landscapes touched by this heritage. These points of criticism will set up the potentiality of this project.

The mission of the project is to establish a well-grounded network, under the acronym "ByHeriNet", addressed to cultural highlighting, integrated enjoyment and management of these landscapes in which the byzantine heritage, found  a real and important resource.

The basic principles are the cooperation relationships and the exchange of knowledge and experiences between all the partners involved in this project, aimed to reinforce the common identity of all countries and to produce expected qualitative and quantitative results.

The main activities of the project include:

  1. Definition, analysis and project of cultural itineraries aimed  to highlighting the byzantine cultural heritage through all the countries.
  2. Pilot projects aimed to development of on-line and off-line platforms for distance enjoyment of monuments and site characterized by difficult conditions of accessibility and enjoyment, through tools  and systems of the Information Society.
  3. Information activity for the divulgation of deliverables and outputs of the project.

The objectives of the project are oriented towards the construction of a cooperation network aiming the safeguarding and utilization of the Byzantine cultural heritage, the determination of a common strategy for utilizing the cultural landscapes in the framework of integrated strategies of spatial development and the rising of awareness as far as the byzantine cultural heritage is concerned.

The project is financed by the CIP INTERREG III B ARCHIMED 2000-2006 and it is ERDF co-financed.

IMS-FORTH is hosting the results of the project. Any comments with respect to the material which is included in the particular page and refers to the project can be sent to the Lead Partner of the Project.

The Involvement of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies - FORTH

The Laboratory of Geophysical - Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeo-environment of IMS-FORTH provides its technical expertise to the Prefecture of Rethymno.   More particularly, the Lab is responsible for the GPS mapping of archaeological sites (Byzantine and Venetian), the creation of an archaeological database and the completion of the information regarding the Byzantine and Venetian sites of Rethymno that will be registered to the data inventory for the goals of the project and the construction of a WEB_GIS portal for the dissemination of the information through the Internet.  The particular data will be also able to be retrieved through the official WEB site of BYHERINET.  A more complete archaeological database and synthetic maps for the cultural heritage of the island of Crete can be found at http://byherinet.ims.forth.gr .

Useful Links

The official web site of the project: byherinet.ims.forth.gr

The official WEB site of BYHERINET (at the University of Athens)

Basilicata Region, Italy

IBAM-CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto per i Beni Archeologici e Monumentali, Italy

Lecce Province, Italy

Prefecture of Rethymnon, Crete, Greece

University of Athens, Greece
www.uoa.gr
www.remsenslab.geol.uoa.gr

University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus