ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΕΚΔΡΟΜΗ
Triennial study trip · First edition: February 2028
Ελληνική Εκδρομή —“Greek excursion”— is the Areopagiticum Foundation’s triennial study trip: every three years, a group travels to the places where the tradition the Foundation studies and promotes was born and handed down. The first edition will take place in February 2028, joining Greece and Rome; later editions will take the journey to other topoi of that tradition, such as Sicily or Cappadocia.
2028 EDITION · GREECE AND ROME
From 7 to 21 February 2028, the group travels through classical Athens, the Peloponnese, the sanctuary of Delphi, the monasteries of Meteora, Byzantine Thessaloniki and the Macedonia of Pella and Vergina, ending in Rome. Alongside the guided visits there are three half-day workshops, one at each stage, devoted to beauty in a Neoplatonic key —luminous, cosmic and divine—, from Plato to Nicholas of Cusa.
ROUTE
WORKSHOPS
Workshop I
Athens · 9 February
Instituto Cervantes
Plato and Luminous Beauty
Beauty as the most manifest of intelligible realities (Phaedrus 250b–e) and the ascent to beauty itself (Symposium 210a–212a), with the Good that, like the sun, illuminates what is known (Republic VI); and its rereading in Dionysius the Areopagite, who names God Beautiful and Beauty (De divinis nominibus IV, 7).
Workshop II
Thessaloniki · 16 February
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Maximus and Cosmic Beauty
Maximus the Confessor (c. 580–662), the great Byzantine reader of the Corpus Dionysiacum: the cosmos as manifestation of God, the logoi of creatures in the Logos (Ambigua) and the Mystagogy as a reading of the cosmos and the church.
Workshop III
Rome · 21 February
Pontificia Università della Santa Croce
Nicholas and Divine Beauty
Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) and absolute beauty as the source of all beauty, from the sermon Tota pulchra es (1456) to De visione Dei (1453): the Latin reception of Dionysius in Cusanus, who rests in San Pietro in Vincoli.
DAY-BY-DAY PROGRAMME
| Date | Stage | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 7/02 | Rome · Athens | Meeting at Rome-Fiumicino airport and group flight to Athens. Transfer to the hotel and walk through Plaka. |
| 8/02 | Athens | City tour: Syntagma, Panathenaic Stadium, Academy of Athens. Acropolis —Propylaea, Athena Nike, Erechtheion and Parthenon— and Acropolis Museum. National Archaeological Museum. |
| 9/02 | Athens | Workshop I. Free afternoon. |
| 10/02 | Corinth · Epidaurus · Nafplio | Corinth Canal and the ancient theatre of Epidaurus. Arrival in Nafplio. |
| 11/02 | Nafplio · Delphi | Journey through Central Greece, crossing the Gulf of Corinth, to Delphi. |
| 12/02 | Delphi · Kalambaka | Sanctuary of Apollo, Sacred Way, theatre, stadium and Archaeological Museum of Delphi. Journey through Thessaly to Kalambaka. |
| 13/02 | Meteora · Thessaloniki | Orthodox monasteries of Meteora and transfer to Thessaloniki. |
| 14/02 | Thessaloniki | White Tower, Arch of Galerius, Rotunda, Church of Saint Demetrius and Byzantine walls. Museum of Byzantine Culture. Free afternoon. |
| 15/02 | Pella · Vergina | Pella, capital of the Macedonian kingdom and birthplace of Alexander, and Vergina, with the royal tombs of Aigai. |
| 16/02 | Thessaloniki · Rome | Workshop II at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Flight to Rome. |
| 17/02 | Rome | Vatican Museums, Saint Peter’s and the Scavi. |
| 18/02 | Rome | San Clemente and Trastevere. |
| 19/02 | Rome | Visits of one’s choice. Free afternoon. |
| 20/02 | Rome | Catacombs and basilica. |
| 21/02 | Rome | Workshop III at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce. End of the trip. |
RECTORATE
Rector
Juan Francisco Franck
Pro-Rectors
Pablo Adrián Cavallero
Haris Papoulias
Participation is by personal invitation of the Areopagiticum Foundation.