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Nodes and Routes

Ioannina has always been a network of trade routes between the east and the west, the north and the south of Europe, as well as Asia, Africa and Europe, along which merchants transported goods including leather, spices, metals and food for thousands of years, as well as a node, a meeting cross point. As the route network connected many ports, cities and villages, and travel happened in multiple directions, not only goods but also people, cultures, knowledge, languages, and technologies intersected along these Routes and Nodes —all of which profoundly shaped the history of the region.  

 

Food and Culture

Food preparation is recognized as “intangible cultural heritage” by UNESCO. Intangible cultural heritage refers to things like music, dance, and, yes, culinary traditions that are essential parts of culture to be celebrated and protected. Unlike tangible cultural property such as art objects or buildings, intangible cultural heritage is protected and preserved by people doing it, remembering it, teaching it, sharing it, and passing along the knowledge and skills related to it. Recipes and ways of preparing food transmit cultural knowledge and skills from one generation to the next, or from one community to another.

In memory of the late Ioannina Mayor Moises Elisaf, an intercultural meeting place, an education space, the Mmm…. ulticultural Cooking event in Ioannina, 26 April 2023, 12:00, Pyrsinella mansion, will explore questions, mixing flavours from Syria, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Greece, as well as the Romaniote Jewish community in Ioannina, such as: 

  • What cultural knowledge do you hold in the form of recipes or ways of preparing food?  
  • What food-related cultural knowledge have you learned from others, or passed along to others?  
  • What forms of cultural exchange have you participated in as a member of your local community/ies? 

Food makers, migrants and refugees and all residents of Ioannina, will discuss the roles of migration and exchange in culinary history, followed by tastings of dishes from the areas traversed by the ancient routes through and in Ioannina until today. 

The Partnership