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Anastasia Balezdrova

In the past, history often divided countries and their inhabitants whereas in recent decades it has certainly acted as a connecting link in the majority of cases, which is the goal of a project called "Olkas: From the Aegean to the Black Sea - Medieval Ports in the Maritime Routes of the East". Its results were presented in Athens within the context of the Greek Presidency of the European Union.

Everything started in 2012 when the European Centre of Byzantine and Post Byzantine Monuments in Thessaloniki decided to initiate a project to research the medieval ports in the northern part of the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The project is called "Olkas", after the name of one of the most typical merchant ships in Byzantium that sailed the Black Sea.

Although the researchers did not travel by sea but by land, they were able to visit, explore and describe 45 port cities from Thessaloniki to Batumi in Georgia and from Odessa to Istanbul. "We travelled by car, we got on a phaeton in Balchik and on board a boat near Constanta, and we were able to cover the most important ports during the time of the Byzantine Empire," said  project coordinator Flora Karagianni.

The ports are located in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan and the project involved 11 universities, museums, research centres, institutes and municipalities from the eight countries. The presentation of the results was attended by their ambassadors who stressed the importance of the cultural cooperation between the countries.

The results of the programme are united in a photographic exhibition that presents old photos, prints, cards, and contemporary pictures of the ports that, in the Middle Ages, created and formed the culture of the specific areas and are living witnesses of the connections between the separate and remote regions.

The maritime routes connected the port cities in the Black Sea and the Aegean region with the capital, Constantinople. They were the main route for the transfer of goods, ideas, values and cultural trends that have influenced what we now call cultural heritage.

At the same time, there is more and more new evidence of the life in Byzantium - the largest port in the city, the so-called "Port of Theodosius" has been recently discovered, during the excavations for the underground in Istanbul. The archaeologists have found 37 ships, four of which have carried their load through the centuries. According to Flora Karagianni, the municipality intends to build a replica of the "Olkas" ship that will sail the Golden Horn bay, offering visitors to the city an exciting journey through its history.

Similarly, the results of the research will be included in tourism products in all countries involved in the project.

They can be found even in the volume of scientific works of an international symposium on the same topic as well as in a cultural guide entitled "40 Medieval Port Cities in the North Aegean and the Black Sea. Cultural Guide".

A documentary was filmed within the context of the project, which was presented at several festivals of archaeological cinema.

In addition, a new project called "Limen" was launched last July, which aims to accelerate the development of cultural tourism in the Black Sea region. The project provides for the establishment of an institution called "Cultural port on the Black Sea." It aims to help create a cultural, tourist and economic and social network between port cities and support the local employees and SMEs that operate in the tourism and cultural sectors.