The Open University of Cyprus promotes the Byzantine heritage of Cyprus in one of the widest online collections of Byzantine art and archaeology through the BYZART project

The Open University of Cyprus (OUC) is member of the consortium, which implements the project "BYZART: Byzantine Art and Archeology on Europeana" aiming to make digital objects of cultural heritage accessible online through the Europeana collections. OUC’s research team is led by Associate Professor George Deligiannakis, Academic Coordinator of the undergraduate programme "Studies in Hellenic Culture". The project received funding by the European Union's “Connecting Europe” programme and the consortium consists of the University of Bologna (coordinator) and the Museo d'arte della citta di Ravenna (Italy), the National Research Foundation, the Ionian University and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Institute of Art Studies.

BYZART aims to digitize, catalogue, enrich and make accessible online to the public, a significant number of photographs, artworks, documents, video and audio content about the impressive and rich Byzantine history and culture through the project’s website and Europeana, which catalogues archives, libraries and museums to share cultural heritage for enjoyment, education and research.

OUC’s contribution to the Byzart project aiming to promote the Byzantine heritage of Cyprus included the following actions:

• Online exhibition entitled "The Silk and the Blood: Power and Patronage in the Byzantine World", with two thematic sections ”Sculpture in the East. Public Portrait in the East (AD 300-600) as images of Authority)” and”Local Hierarchs – Universal Authority: Perspectives from Cyprus”.

• Digitalization and documentation of the following invaluable collections that are now available online through the Byzart’s and Europeana’s digital collections:

• the digital collection of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, which includes five Cyprological collections and two museums, including museum exhibits of the Pierides Foundation and images of Byzantine Art and Architecture of the Holy Bishopric of Morphou.
• digital collections of the Press and Information Office (PIO) of the Republic of Cyprus, which includes a photographic archives and a number of panels from travel exhibitions from the 1950s until the present. Amongst the collections are mosaics and painting decorations before and after ripping from the walls of now occupied Byzantine monuments in the aftermath of 1974 war.
• collections of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus with photographic archives of objects such as ceramics, pottery, vessels and jewelry, as well as photographs including the painted churches in the Troodos region, listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites and the occupied regions of the island, which are exhibited in four museums of the island.
• Collections of the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia with images of coins and medieval ceramics.
• Artifacts of the Museum of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos and the Byzantine Museum of the Holy Bishopric of Tamassos and Oreini with a wide variety of artworks of jewelry, objects, manuscripts and images.

• Detailed documentation of a series of three documentaries by the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) on the History of Byzantine Cyprus, the History of Medieval Cyprus, and the Church of Cyprus - Two Thousand Years History and Culture.