The Hellenic Foundation signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the Holy Archdiocese of America

The Foundation of the Hellenic World, in the context of its cooperation with the Holy Archdiocese of America, as soon as conditions allow, will transfer to the USA all its virtual reality applications and digital collections, so that they can be visited not only by our Greeks in America, but also by all Americans.

The Foundation's first interactive virtual reality production to cross the Atlantic could not be anything but "Hagia Sophia: 1,500 Years of History", especially after the provocative move, not only for Orthodox Christians, but for all Christians. and for all people of good will, regardless of religious identity, to turn this unique World Heritage Site into a mosque.

The "Hagia Sophia: 1,500 years of History" gives the opportunity to all those who attend it, for a detailed virtual tour of the most emblematic site for our Orthodox Church. Essentially, it is a complete digital representation of Hagia Sophia, which was created, after many years of research and with the collaboration of dozens of specialized scientists, especially for the Virtual Reality Theater "Tholos" of the Cultural Center "Hellenic World". The interior of the Temple, its architectural design, its sculptural and mosaic decoration are represented in every detail and, at the same time, the various phases of construction of the monument and important historical, social, and economic elements of Byzantine life are presented. This interactive digital production gives the public the opportunity to visit this iconic space as it was in its heyday.

In the course of the whole collaboration, the Foundation of the Hellenic World will then transfer to the USA and the rest of its virtual tours, such as the "Interactive Tour of the Acropolis of the Age of Pericles", the "Tour of Ancient Olympia", the "Interactive Tour of Ancient Agora of Athens ", the" Tour of Ancient Miletus "and so on.

The memorandum from the side of the Holy Archdiocese of America was signed by His Eminence the Archbishop of America Mr. Elpidoforos, while from the side of FHW his vice-president, Sofia Kounenaki-Efraimoglou.

Mrs. Sofia Kounenaki-Efraimoglou stated: "It is a great honor and joy for the Foundation of the Hellenic World to sign this Memorandum with the Archdiocese of America, which is shepherded by the highly worthy natural, spiritual and religious leader of our Greek Diaspora, the Archbishop. Along with him, we aspire to implement important projects and to transfer to all our Greek-American communities and to all Americans the wealth of our historical, religious and cultural heritage. We will take the first step as soon as possible with the "journey" of our unique virtual reality work for the jewel of our Orthodox faith, the Holy Temple of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. We want to give all our expatriates the opportunity to virtually tour the Hagia Sophia, but also to raise awareness in the American public about the universal dimension of this important World Heritage Site. "