Webinar | Introducing the National Student Competition Of Digital Works “Hack The Map: Rigas Velestinlis Charta”

The Onassis Foundation and the Onassis Library, on the 200th anniversary since the outbreak of the Greek Revolution, organize an open call to second grade teachers across Greece for participation at the National Student Competition "Hack the Map: Rigas Velestinlis’ Charta".

The "Great Charta" (i.e. map) of Greece, by Rigas Velestinlis, is among the most significant intellectual products of the Modern Greek Enlightenment, and the leading work of Greek cartography during the pre-revolutionary period. The current textbooks provide only a few insights to the Charta, and lack a thorough presentation of the document itself, but also of its importance for the Modern Greek History, from 1796 – when the first leaf of the map was published – until 1798, the year Rigas Velestinlis, who conceived and created the map, passed by.

The National Student Competition "Hack the Map: Rigas Velestinlis’ Charta" aims to highlight the importance of this great cultural item, to breathe new life into it, as well as to motivate a whole new generation to decode the symbols hidden inside the map, and to access – even online – historical sources and significant pre-revolutionary works, through new technologies and the internet.

Educational digital material was created and is offered online – with free and open access – as part of the National Student Competition, aiming to encourage participation. It is available for use both by the teachers and the students, at the Onassis Foundation’s educational platform Classroom.

The competition is organized in the context of the "Protovoulia 1821-2021," in collaboration with the Cartographic Heritage Archive of the General State Archives / Historical Archive of Macedonia, and the Department of Geography, Harokopio University.