The Project

The Holy Community of Mount Athos, with commitment and respect to the millenary spiritual and cultural tradition of the Athonite Fathers, has decided to undertake new forms of action with the view to preserve and disseminate its cultural heritage. The main purpose of this effort is to exploit modern information and communication technologies by digitalizing, documenting and disseminating its cultural heritage.
 
 

• Digitalization of the historical archives, manuscripts, incunabula and artefacts.

The project has produced two million two hundred thousand (2.200.00) digital records that include:
 

• Historical Archive

It is estimated that the historical archive contains about 200.000 documents. (556.795 digital records)

• Manuscripts

It is estimated that the repository contains 3.300 manuscripts approximately (parchment and/or paper). (908.336 digital records)

• Incunabula

It is estimated that the repository contains 1.512 incunabula approximately. (450.473 digital records)

• Artefacts

It is estimated that the repository contains 22.000 objects approximately (icons and religious objects-relics). (51.650 digital records)
 

• Development of the digital repository– documentation

As the documentation is a rather scientific work, it requires specialist knowledge, indispensable in its turn to facilitate the search of the digitized material. The specifications therefore of the digital repository meet the international standards and protocols of interoperability, which the project is obliged to take into account. The solution adopted is the open source repository software D SPACE.
 

• Creation of a portal for the promotion of the Athonite cultural heritage

The project design involves the creation of a specifically designed webpage that will serve as a portal for the Athos Digital Heritage. The access to the digitized material, as well as the access to the rest of the web and mobile-based digital applications and services to be developed within the framework of the project (such as the application concerning the Divine Liturgy) will be facilitated through this portal.

As far as the portal design and functionality are concerned, there will be two modes of accessibility: one specifically designed to facilitate the needs of the academic community and researchers in general, while another concerns the wider population seeking Christian material of religious and spiritual benefit.
The portal shall provide a uniform search engine, which will make possible to search and browse the digitized collection and their content all at once.

Users will be able to select and view the document in full screen resolution, along with the document entry.
 

• Creation of multilingual digital applications.

It is planned and already in progress the development of certain digital applications, such as:

1. The development of digital Proskinitarion (pilgrimage narrative) for each of the participant Monasteries. The technical term «proskinitarion», in use since the Middle Ages, refers to a printed handbook that compiles whatever is remarkable of each Monastery.
2. The development of four applications, the «digital footpaths», which will bring out the existing, until our days, ancient footpaths of commuting and communication in Mount Athos.
3. The development of digital multimedia applications of diverse educational content.

Athos Digital Heritage aims at a twofold objective: to communicate, on the one hand, and disseminate the outcomes of this enormous digitization and documentation project with the view to meet the needs of the academics and research community in general. To support, contribute in and develop, through the digital applications and the dissemination of the digitized content of spiritual value, innovative pedagogical tools and applications.