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“ORMYLIA” Foundation (OF) founded in 1996 under the auspices of the Sacred Convent of the Annunciation and the Monastery of Simonos Petra. It is a non-profit, non-governmental institution supervised by the Ministries of Development, Culture, Education and Health. OF, in its two divisions, the Art Diagnosis Centre (ADC) and the Centre for Social Advancement, Medical Prevention and Research (MPR), “Panagia Philanthropini”, has an average number of more than 7000 of individual external users per year comforting and alleviating the suffering of human beings without preference to race, religion, gender, or creed. Serving others through the use of medical science has been a special mission of orthodox monasticism since early Christian times. These services contribute to the development of human beings, supporting those in need, in social exclusion through practical works of love. It is in this spirit that the OF provides high quality standardized cancer tests for the underserved. Together with the medical services, spiritual and social support, humanitarian aid, public health education and other works of love for the people of social exclusion and inhabitants of rural areas northern Greece and beyond are offered.
The Art Diagnosis Centre is conducting interdisciplinary research in a wide range of applications in the field of analytical investigation, documentation and preservation of artworks and monuments of cultural heritage with particular expertise on Byzantine Iconography. It operates through permanent cooperation with University departments, multilateral international co-operation with other research infrastructures and institutions and participation in National and EC research projects. The main research domains applying in the field of Cultural Heritage preservation regard: Development of advanced integrated analytical devices combining complementary modalities for non-destructive analysis; Development of decision making systems involving the processing of data acquired with several sensors; Advancement of improved methodologies based on well-established analytical techniques in conservation science; Analytical physico – chemical investigation assisting the development and monitoring of novel conservation strategies; Development of integrated systems, Image and signal Processing, software design and application for knowledge management based on up-to date technologies for enabling universal accessibility to cultural heritage resources of multilevel, multimodal information and multidisciplinary scientific and documentation archives.
The “Ormylia” Art Diagnosis Centre offers opportunities for advanced training to young scientists and operators, in collaboration with National and European University Departments with the objective to foster the level of research in the conservation of Cultural Heritage Collections. Specialised instrumentation, high technology facilities and appropriate know-how allow for the application of complementary techniques and methodologies to the characterization of a wide range of materials and the integrated study of diverse typologies of artworks offering high-level services to the Cultural Heritage Community. Among returning users of ORMYLIA infrastructure are Scientists, Conservators, Museums, Cultural Heritage Ephorates, Churches and individuals. The Art Diagnosis Centre within its RTD actions developing new techniques and methods have already setup collaboration with SMEs such as BRUKER Optics, Sphere Optics, Olympus (xPanametrics) and Enviroacoustics who are mainly support the development of the devices by supplying custom made parts according to the development needs. During the last eight years “ORMYLIA” Foundation participated either as a principal partner or as a lead participant in numerous European and National projects. During this period various systems designed and developed bottom-up multidisciplinary frameworks of sensing methods using different kind of waves-radiation (electromagnetic, x-rays, ultrasounds, etc) and the fusion of the information derived from these techniques.
