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Fifteen of the twenty monasteries of Mount Athos as well as the Holy Community (the control body of autonomous Mount Athos) have agreed to participate in the programme "Digital Convergence" of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks. The aim of the programme is to create a kind of "digital ark" with the treasures of Mount Athos monastic community.

With the exception of the monasteries that have responded negatively and ultimately will not be included in the programme (among them Helandariou Monastery and Konstamonitou Monastery), the other fifteen monasteries have agreed to submit for digitizing some of their cultural treasures, which they themselves will select.

The digital archive will include collections of handwritten codes, documents, forms, church plate, vestments, works of folk art and other treasures. Furthermore, the programme provides for the creation of a three-dimensional tour in cathedral Protata in Karyes (the main city and administrative centre of Mount Athos), with the famous murals of Manuel Panselinos.

The cathedral in Karyes

Documentary

In addition, twelve monasteries have agreed on the making of short videos about their history, which will show images from inside the monasteries. A documentary and two workshops are also part of the programme.

This June the Directorate General for Communication and Post invited the Holy Community of Mount Athos and requested the representatives of the monasteries to respond until mid-August as towhether they would participate in the project.

For several years already and within the context of a similar programme Pantokratoros monastery and Simonos Petras monastery have also digitized some of their valuable archives, providing online codes and manuscripts with high resolution and explanatory notes.

The other monasteries, which were informed in 2010 on the preparation of a programme for digital presentation of their cultural treasures, have also completed the preliminary work and have described the objects they can provide for digitization, along with short texts to them.

The representatives of the particular monasteries have paid special attention to the issue of copyright and the protection of the digital materials. In particular, they have asked for assurance that those who will implement the digitization will be scientists, few in number, and basically the same with minor changes in each monastery. The representatives of the monasteries have also notified that the libraries and archives, as well as other rooms will be open on specific days and at particular hours and nothing will be taken out for printing unless representatives of the respective monastery are present.

Translation in four languages

As stated in the programme "Mount Athos Digital Ark" that was uploaded a few days ago on the government website "Diavgia" (Transparency), there will be eight services to access the ecclesiastical treasures of Mount Athos. A web portal, Mount Athos library and documentary will be initially developed.

In the second stage, the digital archive, manuscripts, documents, objects, the three-dimensional image of the cathedral in Karyes and the short videos about the twelve monasteries will be accessible through this portal.

As is known, the access to, and the practical use of, the cultural treasures of Mount Athos is now limited because their use implies the physical presence of researchers, students and the academic community in general.

The programme with a total budget of 9.42 million euro, which is almost exclusively financed with EU funds (8.5 million euro) will be completed within 9 months and the digital materials will be translated into four languages, namely English, German, Russian and Bulgarian.