The Educational Approaches to Virtual Reality Laboratory, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus The Euromediterranean Cultural Heritage Agency, Lecce, Italy Educational Software Development Laboratory, University of Patras, Patras, Greece Contact: The Educational Approaches to Virtual Reality Laboratory University of Ioannina GR-451 10 Ioannina, Greece Tel.: +30 26510 95697 Fax: +30 26510 95854 Email: [email protected] Url: http://earthlab.uoi.gr © copyright 2008 ISBN: 978-960-233-187-3 Design ang layout: Afroditi Zouki Printing: Livanis Publishing Organization S.A., Athens Co - financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by national funds of Greece, Italy and Cyprus Elevating and Safeguarding Culture Using Tools of the Information Society: Dusty traces of the Muslim culture ESCUTIS The Educational Approaches to Virtual Reality Laboratory (EARTHLAB) The University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece (Lead Partner) Prof. Tassos A. Mikropoulos, Project Coordinator, Scientific Responsible Prof. George Smyris, Scientific consultant - Researcher Dr. Eleni Pintela, Researcher Nikiforos Papachristos, Administrative and technical support Afroditi Zouki, Graphic designer Margareth Swanberg, Editing Sofia Pegka, Digitization Marikelly Staikopoulou, English-Greek translator Ioannis Vrellis, Technical consultant – QTVR & 3D development Comitech S.A., Dynamic website and Hypermedia development The Euromediterranean Cultural Heritage Agency, Lecce, Italy Lecce, Italy Mauro Martina, Project Manager Prof. Baykar Sivazliyan, Scientific responsible Prof. Isabelle Oztasciyan Bernardini D’ Arnesano, Scientific consultant Monia Chirizzi, Researcher Annamaria Contenti, Photographer Gabriela Muci, Emanuela Perrone, Karam Alain, Translators Teresa Magrini, Financial consultant Paola Conte, Administrative and technical support University of Cyprus Nicosia, Cyprus Prof. Charoula Angeli, Project Manager, Researcher Prof. Nicos Valanides, Research Consultant Agathi Erotokritou, Content Expert - Researcher Kyriaki Leventi, Photographer Educational Software Development Laboratory (ESDLab) University of Patras, Patras, Greece Prof. Panagiotis Pintelas, Project Manager, Scientific Responsible Ioannis Messinis, QTVR development Margarita Pintela, QTVR development Lampros Tsiknas, Eleni Stathi, Stamatis Dragoumanos, 3D development The partnership 03 Contents 05 Introduction 08 CYPRUS dyring the Ottoman domination 13 ITALY Traces of the Ottoman-Turkish Presence in Southern Italy with Particular Reference to Apulia 127 GREECE The Muslim Presence in Epirus and Western Greece 277 GREECE Catalogue of Ottoman Monuments 367 Contents Visualizations in cultural heritage 451 Quick Time Virtual Reality Technology in cultural heritage 460 Each text together with its proper nouns, footnotes and references follow the authors’ preference. Contents Introduction The University as an academic institution, beyond its primary goal of new knowledge con- struction and high quality education, must have close connections with and contribute to so- ciety. This is even more important for a peripheral institution and especially for the University of Ioannina which is located in western Greece, an area with a great tradition in culture and a crucial geographical location. In western Greece (Epirus, Aitoloakarnania and northwestern Peloponnesus) and in Cyprus, which are at the frontiers of the historic Muslim – Ottoman world, as well as in southeastern Italy which is its western European border, a large amount of evidence exists that documents the history of a multicultural society. The cultural heritage traces of the Muslim – Ottoman community are of special interest. The heritage traces consist of monuments, urban and religious buildings, handicraft, fine art objects and documents, which can be found in various locations. They have not as yet been given their proper historical due with regard to the international rules and regulations for ad- ministering and preserving cultural heritage as the world’s cultural property. On the other hand, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are a part of al- most every human activity and their use allows basic and applied research results to be quickly introduced to products and services, such as cultural heritage and education. This book is one of the deliverables of the ‘Elevating and Safeguarding Culture Using Tools of the Information Society: Dusty traces of the Muslim culture, ESCUTIS’ project, under the measure 3.2: ‘protection, reformation, planning and management of the cultural heritage’, priority axis ‘integrated and sustainable management of cultural and natural resources and of landscapes and risk management’, Archimed programme of the Community initiative IN- TERREG III, STRAND B. In this project, Information and Communication Technologies are exploited in culture with the aim of elevating, safeguarding and disseminating the traces of the Muslim – Ottoman cultural heritage from the 15th to the 20th century found on the western coasts of Greece (Epi- rus, Aitoloakarnania, Peloponnesus), Cyprus and southeastern Italy. Specifically, the project aims at the elaboration of methods and the exploitation of ICT tools for the dissemination of cultural, historical and scientific knowledge, the probing of new methods of looking at histori- cal events, in particular those related to cultural heritage, the exchange of all the above within Introduction the regions of the European Union. Until now, traces of the Muslim cultural heritage in the areas under focus are still ‘dusty’, not yet fully recorded, studied and utilized in detail. Using ICT tools such as multimedia rep- resentations, visualizations, data bases, hypermedia applications and dynamic websites instead of engulfing the Muslim – Ottoman culture in static images of ‘boutique multiculturalism’ al- lows a historical and heterogeneous approach to cultural data. The multimodal and non linear structure of managing this data allows the study of the diversity within the Muslim – Ottoman culture of the regions under focus, its dispersals, discontinuities and changes along its historical itineraries as well as the variations and transformations when in contact with other cultures. Sidestepping the hegemony of the ‘authentic’ and homogeneous cultural voice, this project could be the host for recovering multiplicity, pluralism and variety within cultures. This book becomes particularly crucial today for enhancing the democratization of the civil society. In a post 9/11 epoch, most mass media perpetuate and reinforce the dominant myth of ‘the war of cultures’ through piecemeal stereotypical images of non western others. At the same time, the project of European enlargement and Europeanization seems to stumble on the problematic of borders between Europe and the other of Europe. Exhibiting the diversity of cultures and the process of cultural hybridization with ICT, we can show that there is cul- tural change and not death of cultures. Moreover, expanding the modalities of representation through narrative and image is paramount to understanding cultures and enhancing intercul- tural dialogue. The development of a new, positive perception and attitude towards Muslim – Ottoman cultural heritage is important for Europeans to live in their multicultural environment, but if each nation develops its new perception and attitude isolated from other nations and cultures then this new perception and attitude will have strong national characteristics. Thus, luck of cohesion in attitudes towards the Muslim – Ottoman cultural heritage is more likely to oc- cur. This book is a result of the close collaboration of all the project partners, who have ex- changed knowledge, experience and know – how. The transnational cooperation and con- tribution to the elevation and safeguarding of the traces of the Muslim – Ottoman cultural heritage using ICT tools contributes to a cohesive and balanced development of a common, multicultural – friendly perception and attitude towards different cultures. The elevation and protection of the almost forgotten Muslim – Ottoman part of Europe’s multicultural heritage Introduction is of great importance to the development of a common self – understanding of the European culture and its integrated components, as well as of developing a positive attitude towards multicultural societies. The book is a result of research, recording and elaboration of Muslim – Ottoman cultural heritage traces in the project areas and preservation of Muslim – Ottoman cultural heritage through printed and digital studies and material. “Safeguarding and exploiting cultural heritage induces the production of numerous and heterogeneous data. The management of this data is an essential task for the use and the diffu- sion of the information gathered in the field. The development of computerized data manage- ment systems to store and make use of archaeological datasets is a significant task nowadays. This allows preservation of the information digitally (in addition to the paper documents) and offers new exploitation possibilities, like the immediate connection of different kinds of data for analyses, or the digital documentation of the site for its improvement” (Meyer et al., 2007). Following Richards statement that “although archaeologists have been quick to apply the latest technology, in most cases the technological driving force has been outside the discipline” (1998), we propose solutions to this difficulty by exploiting ICT through dynamic