Naodomia: “Architectural heritage of sacred worship places from the early Christian times up today
The project NAODOMIA is aiming at providing a thorough investigation, documentation and promotion of the historic, cultural and architectural heritage with respect to the sacred worship places of the Christian Orthodox world in the region of the South-eastern Mediterranean Basin. “NAODOMIA” is a Greek term that does not meet a direct translation in the English language. As a combination word consists of the words “NAOS” [ΝΑΟΣ] = Temple / Church and “DOMI” [ΔΟΜΗ] =Structure. Freely translated the word could be attributed as “Church Architecture”. Naodomia, evolved throughout the centuries mainly because of the following factors: 1. Religious Symbolisms 2. Cultural Aspects 3. Historical, political, economical events 4. Values and priorities of everyday life 5. Advancement of technological knowledge 6. Availability and evolution of Construction materials 7. Climatological conditions All of the above mentioned factors managed to mold various typologies of structures as far as the “making of a temple” is concerned. This explains the multi-diversity of architectural typologies in the Southeastern Mediterranean Basin. It is important to state that although different geographical areas [i.e. Greece, Southern Italy, Cyprus] in the Southeastern Mediterranean Basin had as a common denominator the Religious Creed, they managed to develop very different sacred worship structures (from a typological point of view) in order to “host” it. As a result of this, it is evident that an incredible amount of worship structures survives and exists in a wider geographical region, without having been documented and classified in an official and organized fashion. This fact leads to the inability of providing a concentrated and well informed data bank which could be utilized in serving various needs of different target groups, namely the in-depth scientific research and study, the potential for further development and evolution of architectural typologies, the organized exploitation for touristic and educational purposes, etc. Through the materialization of the proposed project, there is a great opportunity to gather all of the necessary information by investigating and documenting the vast majority of the architectural typologies, in an effort to produce a serious and reliable data bank with respect to the naodomic evolution. The process as well as the results of this effort will promote a series of actions that can be proven beneficiary to the following: 1. The advancement of scientific knowledge 2. The exchange of cultural ideas and values 3. The development of the proposed regions 4. The preservation and promotion of neglected historical and architectural monuments 5. The transnational bonding among the partners that participate in this project. 6. The introduction of state of the art techniques and technologies for the attainment of the designated targets.