Mendoni: Thessaloniki received €42 million in Recovery Fund cultural projects

Around €42 million from Greece’s Recovery and Resilience Facility has supported cultural projects in Thessaloniki, ranging from restored monuments to upgraded cultural institutions and new digital services. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni presented the projects at a conference held during the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair.

The investment includes the restoration of the Alcazar and the completion of work at Bey Hamam. Byzantine monuments have also been restored and returned, or are being returned, to public use. Other projects focus on contemporary cultural organizations and infrastructure.

Among them are MOMus-Air, a permanent contemporary art museum at Macedonia Airport, and accessibility improvements at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall. The concert hall also received a modern recording center. The State Conservatory of Thessaloniki underwent restoration and gained digital tools for its operations.

The conference highlighted archaeological and cultural projects in Macedonia and Thrace financed through the Recovery Fund. It also examined how protecting monuments could connect with sustainable tourism and the local economy.

Mendoni said the Culture Ministry had planned 13 regional maps beginning in 2019 to record local needs, requests from communities and cultural organizations, and interventions considered beneficial for each area. “The Recovery Fund came to finance projects which, under normal circumstances, would have gone at least four years later, at best, when the new funding period of the NSRF opened,” she said. She added that mature projects, or projects accelerated through fast-track procedures, moved forward much earlier.

Nationwide, roughly €450 million in Recovery Fund money went directly to culture, excluding national funds and value-added tax. The ministry used those resources for 208 projects across Greece, involving archaeological sites, monuments, new museums, existing museum displays and digital transformation.

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The Recovery Fund came to finance projects which, under normal circumstances, would have gone at least four years later, at best, when the new funding period of the NSRF opened.