Vision and Goals
The Four Pillars of the Vision
Erotokritos today
Erotokritos should return to the center of contemporary education as a living work that connects tradition with the present, as it has done for centuries.
Education and Creative Dialogue
To cultivate education and culture in Sitia and to provide individuals and groups with the opportunity and means for dialogue and reflection, training and expression, creation and upliftment for a better society.
Contemporary Cultural Center
To create an open and modern exhibition, educational, and research center in Sitia, through which the work of Vitsentzou Kornaros will be further promoted.
Sitia and the Cretan Renaissance
Sitia, the poet's birthplace, should acquire the same cultural significance as the birthplaces of the great figures of the Renaissance, and the Cretan Renaissance should take its rightful place alongside the other manifestations of the European Renaissance.
Cretan Renaissance
We have all heard of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Galileo, El Greco – Theotokopoulos, and Vincenzo Kornaro. But how many of us know that all these figures, and so many others, were contemporaries and belonged to the same revitalizing movement in literature, science, and the arts known as the Renaissance? And how many of us know that Theotokopoulos and Kornaro were children of the Cretan Renaissance, which made its own distinctive mark on that period of European prosperity?
David Holton, one of the most prominent scholars of the period, said at the 2009 conference in Sitia that the Cretan Renaissance was “an admirable marriage of local and Italian culture” that “has not yet been recognized internationally as it deserves.” Roderick Beaton describes Cornaro as “a pioneer who anticipated the modern novel.” And earlier, in 1946, George Seferis praised Kornaro and the language of Erotokritos, “the most perfectly organized language heard by medieval and modern Hellenism.”
The Power of Erotokritos
Vitsentzos Kornaros wants future generations to enjoy this poem and embrace its ideas.
To think freely, free from prejudice
And if dreams had such power, what would be the point of human intelligence and knowledge?
Speak properly
and when he speaks with knowledge and eloquence, he makes people's eyes cry and laugh.
Compete fairly
For whoever pursues his desire without restraint will suffer torment at first, but the end will be good.
Sitia and the Cretan Renaissance
What was life like for Kornaros, 1553-1613/4, and what was life like in Sitia and Crete during that period? What books did he read, what influences did he have? How did he manage to create such a work that was recognized by scholars, but above all by the people, who for centuries made it their “political” gospel?
The VITZENSOS KORNAROS Cultural Center is committed to addressing these questions; it aims to become a hub for creativity, culture, and entertainment, and has the grand ambition of placing Sitia on Europe’s contemporary cultural map.