Ministry of Defense: The aim is to restore and utilize the old tobacco warehouses

The need to restore and utilize the great building wealth of the old tobacco warehouses of Xanthi was emphasized by the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni from the city of Xanthi, where she was today at noon and performed an autopsy in the area of ​​the abandoned tobacco warehouses for many years.

The minister, accompanied by the governor of AMTH, Christodoulos Topsidis and the mayor of Xanthi, Stratos Kondo, walked in the area of ​​the tobacco warehouses, some of which are real architectural ornaments. He was informed by the officials about the ownership status of the buildings, the interventions that have been made in some of them to date, as well as what possibilities exist from each body for their utilization.

Some of these tobacco warehouses belong to the AMTH region, some others to the municipality, some to the Ministry of the Interior, while there are also tobacco warehouses that belong to private individuals who are interested in selling them. In recent years, a systematic effort has been made both by the region and by the municipality of Xanthi so that one of the tobacco warehouses is fully restored in order to house the tobacco museum there, highlighting the rich and significant tobacco history of the city with a thousand colors.

Mrs. Mendoni underlined that Xanthi is today one of the few regional units in all of Greece that does not have its own archaeological timeless museum in which the archaeological finds will be able to be housed, as well as historical ones of the most recent times.

“In this context”, noted the minister in her statements, “we want to see a possible intervention by the Ministry of the Interior in the wider area of ​​tobacco warehouses. For us, it is a priority to mature such a plan. It is a first reading visit to the area of ​​tobacco warehouses, which are themselves classified as monuments of modern cultural heritage and must be restored in the proper way.”

Lina Mendoni underlined that it is an obligation of the state to restore such monuments that are within the urban fabric in an effort to save them, beautify the urban fabric and improve the quality of life of the residents. He also added that the abandonment of these buildings gradually turns them into hotbeds of all kinds of pollution, burdening the daily life of citizens who live in urban centers.

The regional governor Christodoulos Topsidis warmly thanked the Minister of Culture for her continuous and practical interest, saying characteristically that in these first six months of his term he met with the minister five times, while she also visited the region many more, showing her undivided interest for Thrace and eastern Macedonia.

Mr. Topsidis made special reference to the collaborations and synergies between regional and municipal self-government and the Ministry of Culture, characterizing them as particularly beneficial in order to move forward with important and large projects, such as the utilization of the large building stock of Xanthi’s tobacco warehouses.

Strict timetable for the restoration of the Bayazit Mosque

Earlier this morning, Mrs. Lina Mendoni, accompanied by the secretary general of the ministry and the regional governor of AMTH, visited the Didymoteicho in order to closely monitor the progress of the restoration work of the Bayazit mosque, which had suffered significant fire damage.

The minister noted that the intention of the YPPO is to strictly adhere to the timetable for the restoration of the mosque that has been set by the competent services of the Ministry of Culture and the National Technical University of Athens, which is the scientific partner of the project. The aim is to deliver the project at the end of 2025.

“This specific project is complex and the strict schedule makes it imperative to monitor it closely,” the minister emphasized in her statements. A major issue for this particular project is the reconstruction of the wooden roof of the Bayazit mosque, emphasized Mrs. Mendoni, which, as she said, “was one of the largest wooden projects that had been created in Europe, so we have to restore it with the absolutely appropriate scientifically and methodologically, way”. He also stated that the necessary arrangements have already been made with a foreign company that will undertake to carry out its cutting and assembly under the strict specifications set by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the NTUA.

Mrs. Lina Mendoni described the cooperation with the region of Eastern Macedonia Thrace as “extremely good”, saying that it produces “special fruits” and underlining that a very large part of the projects carried out by the Ministry of Culture in the Regional Unit of Evros, are financed by resources of the region, from both the previous and the current program period.