The memorial will open to the public in the first week of August and until August 17, entry will be free
A memorandum for the re-opening of the Bourtzi fortress of Nafplio as a visitable monument with cultural and recreational uses was signed today by the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni and the Authorized Advisor and Acting CEO of the Public Real Estate Company (ETAD), Panagiotis Balomenos.
The memorial will open to the public in the first week of August and until August 17, entry will be free for visitors.
In particular, the operating framework of the fortress was agreed upon, which will initially function as a visitable monument, providing high-level services.
The individual areas, refreshment bar-restaurant, shop and exhibition area will operate gradually.
Work on the famous monument
In 2013, by decision of the Ministry of the Interior, the project “Consolidation – Restoration – Elevation and Reuse of Bourtzi Fortress in Nafplio” was included in the E.P. “Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship”.
Work began in 2014 and ceased in 2015. Work resumed in 2017 and was completed in 2021.
The work of the YPPO, in summary, included extensive maintenance and restoration of all the original parts of the fort.
In addition, it was carried out repair and reconstruction in all functional parts of the interior and exterior of the fort (floors, walls, stairs, frames, railings, coloring, accent lighting) and radical renovation of all networks (water supply, drainage, electrical installation, heating, cooling, telecommunications).
A small exhibition space and a shop were created in the bastions. In addition, the old use of the small restaurant and refreshment bar was preserved.
Auxiliary uses were installed in the northern buildings and secured conditions of access by disabled people with the construction of an elevator that allows access to the main level of the Fortress.
Inside the south tower, its layout as a hotel room has been preserved and its furniture and mobile equipment have been restored, as a display of the fortress’s earlier use.
The total budget of the project amounted to 2,784,899.54€ with implementing bodies the Ephorate of Antiquities of Argolis and the Directorate of Studies and Execution of Museums and Cultural Buildings Projects.
The history – A few words about the fortress complex at Burji:
The Bourtzi fortress is a monument of maximum importance and one of the most important fortifications in the Greek area. It was built during the period of the First Venetian rule, 1471 to 1477, by the architect Antonio Gambello, when Vittore Pasqualigo was the prefect of Nafplio (provedittore, i.e. commander).
The fortress served the defense of the city for 350 years, during which it received several repairs and modifications. During the Greek Revolution, it played an important role in the liberation of Nafplion.
After 1865 it was used as a place of residence for the executioner, who left the island only for the guillotine executions that took place in Palamidi. When the executions stopped, the fort was abandoned.
With the creation of the Tourism Organization, the sea tower was leased in the early 1930s for tourist exploitation and turned into a hotel that operated until the end of the 1960s.
Later, with individual operations of the EOT in the mid-1980s, it functioned as a restaurant and refreshment bar, until about 1995, after which it remained closed.
The fort has been declared a prominent monument since 1922, while at the same time it was designated as a Tourist Public Estate, in 1949. with the N.W. Its administration and management was entrusted to EOT and today it has been transferred to the Public Real Estate Company (ETAD SA).
In 2010, a memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Tourism Development Company and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for the restoration and reuse of the monument. In the context of the memorandum, the study of mapping, fixing, restoring, highlighting and reusing the Fortress was drawn up.
According to the study, it was proposed to preserve the monument in the form it took after it was converted into a hotel in 1936-37.
The proposal included the return of the monument to the public, with restoration of the abandoned spaces.
Source: Skai
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