Restoration of the Palace of Aigai: Sea, Sun and Culture?
In a country affected by overtourism to the seaside, the opening of Aigai Palace to the public in early 2024, after some fifteen years of work, could mark a turning point.
Overlooking the green plains of Central Macedonia, an hour drive from Thessaloniki, lie the ruins of the ancient seat and beating heart of a kingdom that conquered the then known world. However, even two millennia after the Palace that saw Phillip murdered and Alexander crowned underneath it was buried, its importance has not yet diminished. The now restored ruins are spearheading a tourist boom in an area that, according to the Sea and Sun slogan that has dominated the Greek tourism industry, should have had no tourist interest based on its lack of sea and beaches. Is the archaeological site of Aigai changing how we perceive tourism in Greece and finally placing the word culture beside the two giants, sea and sun?
“The Parthenon of Macedonia”
The Palace of Aigai was built during the reign of Philip the II (359-336 B.C) and was the center of his recently reorganized kingdom.
“The palace was not a place of residence but the political, religious, judicial and military power of Phillip” says the archaeologist that was in charge of the restoration project that brought the Palace back to life, Aggeliki Kottaridi.
The building was simple but at the same time awe inspiring. It spans a surface of 4.000 square meters, making it arguably the biggest surviving building of Classical Greece. It could host up to 8.000 people and was essentially the Macedonian Court.
It is worth noting that the Palace is one of the many excavated parts of the Archaeological Site of Aigai, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1996. Aigai was the royal capital of the Kingdom of Macedon and seat of the ruling dynasty, that of the Temenids. Although only a few parts of the city (asti) of Aigai and ancient necropolis have been excavated, the findings until now have been astonishing. These include the sealed tomb of Phillip the II, father of Alexander the Great, the ancient theater where Phillip was murdered by the conspirator Pausanias, the ancient city walls and many more noteworthy tombs.
The Palace was ultimately destroyed and burned by Metellus, the Roman general that subjugated the Kingdom of Macedon, 200 years after its
construction, in 148 B.C. For centuries afterwards the palace was looted of its stones and marble. Masonry even made its way to a nearby 16th century Greek Orthodox Church of significant cultural and archaeological importance.
The monumental restoration project
Excavation of the site that the Palace is situated first began in 1865 and continued in the 1930s and 1950s and 60s, but after that and until 2007 it was abandoned and left vulnerable to the environment. Fearing that further damage might be irreversible, Kottaridi and a team of archaeologists from the Ephorate of Imathia launched an effort to stabilize, maintain, restore and showcase the site of the Palace of Aigai. According to Lina Mendoni, the Minister of Culture, when the works first began there was archaeological material scattered around the center of the monument and the site was essentially flat.
“When we began what we confronted were tens of thousands of scattered architectural remains, a huge jigsaw puzzle of column bases and tops, architraves, roof tile fragments and walls” said Aggeliki Kottaridi in an interview for The Guardian.
The restoration project thus began slowly but surely. By 2011 the first glimpses of what the Palace really looked like started to appear. In 2013-2014 archaeologists began to notice that the first landslide that was the reason Aiges was abandoned in the 1st century A.D was still active. A big engineering effort began in order to stabilize the ground underneath the Palace and was completed by 2018. The final phase, that of the restoration, began in 2018 and lasted through the pandemic, and was finally over in 2023. In January of 2024 a grand opening ceremony was held in the site of the Palace, where prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis praised the work of the Ephorate and noted the significant cultural and economic importance of the monument for Central Macedonia, especially the district of Imathia where the site is located. He also remarked that Aigai and Imathia could become an international cultural hub and that such a project could attract tourism in an area that is not traditionally the go-to pick.
The restoration project was made possible through generous EU funding amounting to 20.300.000 euro. The funding was drawn from consecutive co-funded ESPA programmes (2007-2014 and 2014-2020). Public expenditure amounting to 10.000.000 euros was integrated into the Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation plan (EPANEK) which was funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund.
Diversifying the Greek Tourism sector
Greece with its beautiful islands, majestic beaches and picturesque scenery has always been a summer destination for tourists. The country ranks 3rd globally for its Sea and Sun Tourism, with most travelers choosing to stay in all inclusive hotels or in Athens. Although tourism amounts to around 13% of the country’s GDP directly, the last few years mass tourism has taken a heavy toll on the local populace, especially in Athens, where housing prices have skyrocketed. Although Sea and Sun tourism is still the most prevalent in Greece, a growing number of tourists want something more from their vacation, they seek meaning in their travels and a deeper understanding of the places they visit. Thus, experience tourism is slowly but surely starting to make its way to the Greek market, which, faced with a dismal future of over-tourism and gentrification, is desperate to diversify.
Imathia, the district where Aigai is situated, was never a preferred tourist destination due to the lack of the characteristics that are often associated with vacation to Greece, namely sea, beaches and pharaonic all inclusive hotels. The last few years, due to several big projects involving the archaeological site of Aigai, Imathia has seen a steadily increasing amount of visitors and is slowly becoming a tourism destination that can rival even famous islands of the Aegean. The Polycentric Museum of Aigai, which opened its gates to the public in 2022, is one of those projects that have managed to change the way the local community and Imathia in general interacts with the notion of tourism. The Polycentric is a grand museum that acts as the center of the vast archaeological site of Aigai, including the newly restored Palace, arguably its biggest attraction. It was also funded by the EU through consecutive ESPA programmes. Last year the Polycentric managed to draw 300.000 visitors from around the world, numbers that, according to Kottaridi, rival even those of the Acropolis of Athens.
“In essence, the monuments of Aigai act as excellent growth tools for the whole region. Most of the people that visited the archaeological site then got a chance to enjoy part of the tourism product that the region has to offer, such as culture, local cuisine, the excellent sour black wine variety and the natural beauty of the mountains, plains and rivers that dot Imathia” according to Nikolaos Koutsogiannis, Mayor of Naoussa, one of the three largest towns in Imathia
The mayor continued by elaborating on the “alternative” tourism model that Imathia has implemented that essentially showcases the “other” Greece, the one of mountains, nature, rivers and experiences, as he put it. He also pointed out that the slogan for Naoussa the upcoming season is “Sorry No Beaches”, clearly intending to showcase the fact that the industry can flourish even in the absence of the sea.
“Critical to the communication of that alternative Greek travel experience is the archaeological site of Aigai and its ability to attract tourists to Imathia”
Mr. Koutsogiannis praised the EU for its ability to pick projects that can bring multiplying positive effects to local communities in need of support and pointed out that the restoration project of the Palace of Aigai is the perfect example of EU funding well spent. He was also confident that projects such as that of the restoration of the Palace of Aigai could add the word culture to the slogan Sea and Sun and provide a much needed diversification to the tourism sector.
A magnificent yet unfinished project ?
Although the opening of the restored Palace of Aigai was celebrated and praised not only in Greece, but globally, a few questions and concerns were raised, mainly regarding the factuality of the historical evidence presented.
The Greek chapter of ICOMOS(International Council on Monuments and Sites) accused the Ministry of Culture of presenting unsubstantiated evidence about the date the Palace was built and by whom, raised concerns about the perceived overuse of new stone in the restoration process and slammed the Ephorate and ministry about the lack of accessibility.
According to Theodoros “Archaeostoryteller” Papakostas, a renowned archaeologist, podcaster and writer“The restoration is too recent and there is already great discourse around it which is good, but we should probably wait for the scientific research part of the project to be published. There is a problem with accessibility in and around the archaeological site of the Palace, however we cannot choose where a site is.”
When Mr. Papakostas was asked what his personal opinion was for the restoration project he answered enthusiastically “The Palace of Aigai can definitely bring cultural tourism on par with that of the sea and sun model, it is important that such actions are taken throughout the entirety of Greece because every meter of the country has unique cultural sites that should be preserved and showcased”.
This article was produced as part of The Newsroom 27 competition, organised by Slate.fr with the financial support of the European Union. The article reflects the views of the author and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for its content or use.
