Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has inaugurated the restored Palace of the Despots at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Mystras, completing a €60 million overhaul of one of Europe's most significant 13th-century Byzantine monuments that includes new museum galleries, universal accessibility infrastructure and an automated firefighting system to protect its medieval frescoes.
The restoration, part-funded by Greece's post-pandemic Recovery Fund, marks the 30th major historical landmark revived by the culture ministry since 2019.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni joined Mr. Mitsotakis at the ceremony attended by international dignitaries in the fortified hilltop city in the Peloponnese.
"Mystras is not merely a UNESCO World Heritage site," Mr. Mitsotakis said. "It is the precise geographical coordinate where the twilight of Byzantium converged with the dawn of modern Greek identity."
He framed cultural heritage restoration alongside defense and economic progress as a pillar of national strength.
The automated firefighting installation is designed to protect the site's irreplaceable frescoes from the wildfire risk that has intensified across Greece in recent summers — a particular concern for a heavily forested medieval complex that previously had no such system.
Eight more regional museums are scheduled to open across Greece later this year as part of the same cultural infrastructure drive, which the government says is intended to broaden tourism revenue beyond the country's most visited island destinations.