My birthplace, greatest love of my life! I grew up in your arms and got from you the sacred knowledge and the supreme virtue. I stood still upon your rocky hills and sang many songs about you in many ways. I gave life to your myths and legends and enlightened your everlasting secrets!

And when I fall, strengthened by your knowledge and your beauty, I want to rest in peace, to hear the human messages, the songs of the universe. I hear your breathing like a lullaby, caressed by your gentle pulses! My everlasting dream, my beloved birthplace!

...The place where one is born and raised is a living reality that binds tightly to his life. This bond with birthplace is strengthened even more by the knowledge of local history. Without this knowledge, it is impossible to love our past, with which we are bonded biologically and let it guide our life. Ignorance of our local history prevents us to measure the forces of the present and to look towards the future. Life carries past into it and if we want to ignore it, actually we ignore ourselves. That is why one of the primary lessons in our life should be our local history...

Fotis D.Papanikolaou