Manousi mansion which is included in the most important Architectural monuments of Siatista, The Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni visited late today at noon. The Minister of Culture showed interest in the specific mansion for which all the actions have been foreseen in order to intensify an NSRF program for its restoration..
As stated by Mrs.. Mendoni "there is the design maturity of the project to secure funding from the resources of the Region of Western Macedonia after a proposal submitted by the Municipality of Voi". Mrs.. Mendoni explained that after the support works of the skeleton of the building, the ministry with its competent services the directorate for the preservation of Ancient and Modern monuments "will undertake the maintenance of the decoration which is important, is the component of this building ". He added that if all goes well "the 2023 all the restoration work will be completed "and that" an important asset for the city of Siatista will have been saved ".
Manousi mansion is located in the Chora district and is dated according to an inscription on its facade in 1762/63. It was built during the period when Siatista experienced its greatest economic growth, as a shopping center with a strong presence in the wider area of the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe. The rich interior decoration of the building reflects the wealth of the Manousis family, which had created one of the most powerful Siatist trading houses in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The son of the family, Theodoros Manousis, deeply educated for the data of the time, was a university lecturer at the first University of Athens, National Benefactor, while donating his rich library to the university. Even today, the institution he established through legacies he offers offers scholarships to the young men and women of Siatista.
The Minister of Culture, when asked about the rescue of mansions that belong to private individuals and today are in danger of collapsing due to abandonment, stressed that "private real estate is not the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Culture". As he explained, the ministry is only considering issues of restoration of monumental elements. He stated that "it is not easy to allocate public funds for the restoration of private monuments" and concluded that it is an issue that should be addressed in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment.
During the meeting he had in Siatista with the mayor of Voio, Christos Zefklis, stressed that "it is the obligation of all of us to protect the cultural resources of Siatista" and called on the municipal authority "to focus on the special weight that this city has". During her tour of the old town where there are mansions that have been restored and belong to the Ministry of Culture and the municipality and others that belong to individuals but were rescued and restored with private funding, suggested to the municipal authority to proceed immediately by utilizing European programs in the undergrounding of all overhead power networks, telephone and TV antennas, in order to fully highlight the traditional form of the settlement.
Mayor X. Zefklis offered to the Minister of Culture the first Alphabet by Michalis Papagrigoriou that was printed in 1786 which, among other things, contains theology and mathematics and is kept in the "Manousia Library" of Siatista.
Source: RES-EIA
