The Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas visited the Church of Saint Dimitrios (in the Skaramagas Naval Fort – PALASKAS Training Centre) on Friday 29 September 2017. The hagiographies of the church were created by the painter Panagiotis Tetsis in 1948, while he was serving in the Hellenic Navy. The tour was conducted by the Associate Professor of the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens Manos Stefanidis.
The Chief of HNDGS Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, the Chief of HAGS Lt General Alkiviadis Stefanis, the Chief of HNGS Vice-Admiral Nikolaos Tsounis, the Chief of HAFGS Lt General Christos Christodoulou, the Commander of the National Defence College Vice-Admiral Alexandros Diakopoulos and the Commander of Naval Training Rear-Admiral Panagiotis Lymperis also attended the presentation and the tour.
The Metropolitan Bishop of Nikea Alexios, the MP of SYRIZA Chara Kafantari, the Alternate General Secretary of the Ministry of Interior Tzanetos Filippakos, Anastasios Papageorgiou a representative of the Ministry of Culture, the Mayor of Egaleo Dimitris Mpirmpas, the Regional Vice Governor of the Western Sector of Athens Spyros Tzokas, the Deputy Mayor of Chaidari Moschos Choudeloudis, Thodoris Spiliopoulos Municipal Councilor of Chaidari and head of the Municipal Party “Citizens in Action”, Kostas Fotinakis representative of the IKOPOLIS association and the president of the Hellenic Maritime Museum Anastasia Anagnostopoulou-Paloumpi attended the event.
The religious icons painting of the particular church by Panagiotis Tetsis constitutes an unknown, to the wider public, monumental work of this important artist, which deserves to be brought into prominence and studied, since it demonstrates a different aspect of the art of the said painter.
With this initiative the Alternate Minister of National Defence aims to contribute and bring into prominence the aspects of history and artistic value of this monument and in general of the monuments and works of art located in Armed Forces’ facilities.
Mr. D. Vitsas stressed that the aim is to register and bring into prominence important works of art and pictorial wealth in general, which can be found in Armed Forces’ facilities and through that procedure demonstrate their contribution to the prominence of our cultural heritage.
