The Minister of National Defence Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos signed a contract for the conversion of “Poulios” Camp into a museum of the city of Trikala, in cooperation with the Triakkaioi Municipality.

The signing of the contract was held on Friday 18 December 2020 at the Ministry of National Defence with the participation of the Chairman of the Organization for the Management and Development of Cultural Resources Mr. Panagiotis Dais and the Minister of Culture and Sports Mrs. Lina Mendoni. The event was also attended by the Deputy Minister of National Defence Mr. Alkiviadis Stefanis, HNDGS Chief General Konstantinos Floros and HAGS Chief Lieutenant General Charalambos Lalousis .

The Former Camp of “Major Poulios” which hosted in the past the Support Division and the headquarters of A’ Army Corps will become:

1. An intertemporal Museum (Ministry of Culture and Sports)

2. An interactive technology Museum (Triakkaioi Municipality)

3. Unification-Utilisation along the Prophet Ilias Hill (Triakkaioi Municipality)

4. Kindergarten

In accordance with the contract the Ministry of Culture and the Triakkaioi Municipality will lease 14.816.39 sq.m. from the Ministry of National Defence as follows :

1. Leasing of 4,74 acres., with a three-storey building of 1000 sq.m, for the establishment of the intertemporal Museum of Trikala, care of and with expenses of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

2. Leasing of approximately 10,01 sq.m., with three masonry buildings of 447 sq.m. for the establishment of the interactive technology museum and the utilization of the Prophet Ilias Hill care of and with the expenses of the Trikkaioi Municipality.

3. The duration of the leasing will be 25 years with a leasing renewal capability and the Municipality of Trikkaioi will pay 2,800 euro per month, while the Ministry of Culture will pay 3,500 Euro per month.

During the teleconference with the mayor of Trikala Mr. Dimitris Papastergiou, the Minister of National Defence stated the following:

“Set the example of how such gestures can bear tangible results for the Local Administration. You have a responsibility in your hands and I am quite certain you know how to handle it and execute it. This is why we are all positive about this venture. I wish god utilization, this is what we are after, this is our bet and this is the example you can set. I know you can. We count on it. The Military leadership of the Armed Forces is standing in favour of this venture.

The competent body has discussed the matter and it was also presented to the National Defence Fund where a substantial discussion was held. All matters were on the table and we deemed that we need to trust the Municipality of Trikala to proceed with this project. This is why I talked about responsibility, which you are expected to take advantage of and deliver results. We are moving on because your municipality has presented many remarkable ideas and this of course was evaluated positively. Whenever the Local Administration asks to lease Camps all we want is to have a structured and well-substantiated proposal so we can move on.

Of course we want to utilize the property of the Armed Forces to the Armed Forces benefit, but simultaneously we need to see how we can help the Local Administration, when it is structured and prepared with proposals to present”.

The Minister of Culture and Sports, Mrs. Lina Mendoni stated:

“In 2013, the Ministry of Culture presented to the Ministry of National Defence its proposal to concede part of the camp, to host the Archeological Museum of Trikala. We worked on it till the end of 2014, and then the whole thing was forgotten. We came back in 2019, with the help of the Minister, Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, the Deputy Minister Mr. Alkiviadis Stefanis and the whole Chain of Command.

Today we are pleased to announce that part of the camp is conceded to the Municipality of Trikkaioi to host its museums, i.e. to the Ministry of Culture, via the Organisation for the Management and Development of Cultural Resources, in the presence of its Chairman Mr. Panagiotis Dais who is a contracting party. So, Trikala, being a city which is moving on in the field of Culture and citizens’ quality of life, will now have a museum cluster, comprised of the Municipality Museums and the Archaeological Museum.

This is an important day for all, because Trikala, lagged behind in this field, when compared to other cities. So we come to restore an “injustice” and bequeath the city, with everybody’s help, with very important cultural structures. Today marks the end of a bureaucratic procedure and also the beginning of a lot of work to be done by the Municipality and the Ministry of Culture. The competent Antiquities Ephorate of Trikala is now responsible to draft the list of studies.

The technical services of the Ministry of Culture and Sports will assume the studies procedure, so that as soon as possible the building will be restored to host the exhibition of the treasures of the Region of Trikala. This is a case of utilizing the existing buildings. It is very important to utilize and preserve buildings that would otherwise collapse. We will not proceed with a new building, on the contrary, the mentality of preserving our cultural goods also means the preservation of the existing buildings which are themselves connected to the specific activity and history, also included in the exhibitions program.

Part of it will concern the camp, its people and what the camp meant to the local community and the area of Trikala. Consequently, we have two benefits. The establishment of the three museums and the preservation of the building while also protecting history and memory”.

The Mayor of Trikala Mr. Dimitris Papastergiou also added:

“The local community is extremely happy because this effort was initiated a long time ago, and were it not for your political will, it would not end, but it would move to the next governments and mayors.

I would like to highlight two important things: the first thing is that we are promoting our history, because the people who don’t honour their history have no future, and secondly, we have to show how we can all collaborate.

The Ministry of National Defence, the Army, the Ministry of Culture and Sports along with the Municipality, we can all cooperate in this affair that we concluded successfully this summer. This paves the way for more collaborations, so that we can promote our historical and building reserves”.