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 three figures of beauty in the Platonic and Christian tradition —luminous, cosmic and divine—, from Plato to Nicholas of Cusa.

ROUTE

Ελληνική Εκδρομή 2028

WORKSHOPS

Workshop I

Athens · 9 February

Plato and Luminous Beauty

The ascent towards the beautiful in the Symposium (210a–212a) and the analogy of the sun in the Republic (VI, 507b–509c): beauty as what shines forth most clearly (Phaedrus 250d) and the Greek origin of the metaphysics of light later inherited by Neoplatonism and the Corpus Dionysiacum.

Workshop II

Thessaloniki · 16 February
Centre for Byzantine Research

Maximus of Chrysopolis and Cosmic Beauty

Creation as cosmic liturgy: the logoi of creatures in the Logos (Ambigua) and the Mystagogy as a reading of the cosmos and the church, in dialogue with Dionysius’ Celestial Hierarchy and with Hans Urs von Balthasar’s interpretation.

Workshop III

Rome · 18 February

Nicholas of Cusa and Divine Beauty

The sermon Tota pulchra es (1456) and De visione Dei: divine beauty as the coincidence of the visible and the invisible, and 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 Centre for Byzantine Research. Flight to Rome.
17/02 Rome Vatican Museums, Saint Peter’s and the Scavi.
18/02 Rome Workshop III. San Clemente and Trastevere.
19/02 Rome Visits of one’s choice. Free afternoon.
20/02 Rome Catacombs and basilica.
21/02 Rome A walk through the city and 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.