When

9 May 2025

Where

Conference Centre of the Region of Central Macedonia (former Thessaloniki Gasworks)

What happened

The Museum participated in the 2nd Panhellenic meeting of members of the European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH), held in Thessaloniki on “Industrial Tourism and sustainable development: the role of industrial heritage”.

The aim of the meeting of representatives of institutions and museums was to highlight the importance of industrial heritage for tourism and sustainable development and to strengthen relations between members through the presentation of experiences, positions and good practices resulting from the national and pan-European networking between institutions.

The head of the Telecommunications Museum, Ms. Nikoletta Liakostavrou, in her presentation entitled “Telecommunications, an unexpected route of Industrial Tourism”, focused on the material heritage of telecommunications, from the networks that leave behind cables, wires and antennas, to the centres that leave behind buildings, stations, exchanges and scaffolding. 

In particular, with regard to the OTE buildings, Ms Liakostavrou pointed out that “beyond the objects and telecommunications material exhibited and preserved by the Museum, the buildings themselves can be exploited as cultural landscapes”. Wanting to show how the various telecommunication structures in the city can form a network of monuments of technological memory, she proceeded to present a route starting from Piraeus and ending in the centre of Athens, emphasizing emblematic OTE buildings and their importance for the industrial heritage.

As the last stop on this route, Ms Liakostavrou mentioned the YMA-NYMA, which will in future host the Telecommunications Museum. "With the YMA we are joining the circle that opened our route to the Museum as an industrial tourism destination. The stories we tell at the Museum will meet a monument to Greece's technological infrastructure."