The Board of Maritime Museum of Litohoro and Me welcome you to this year celebration of our patron Saint Nikolas.
We are delighted to welcome also and the citizens of our new named Municipality: Dion - Olympou, to whom I will say the following announcements:
The Maritime Museum of Litohoro is unique in Northern Greece.
It belongs to the "club" of Naval Museums (25 in number).
It is now recognized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism under the registration number 1444 as a Cultural Institution of our Naval Heritage based in Litohoro. And it wouldn't be different because here beats the "heart and lungs" of the North Aegean Marine from ancient times until today.
In the few years of its operation it has shown tremendous performance.
Briefly I mention: The Panhellenic Conference of Maritime Museums in 2008 with theme: "Shipping in Northern Greece from antiquity till today and its preservation of Hellenism in Thessaloniki - Macedonia in the after Othomaniki era".
The Announcements were made by teachers with global reach such as: Helen Ahrweiller - Vakalopoulos - Pantermalis - Paloumpi etc.
In 2009 we organized an exhibition of wooden ship models who wrote brilliant pages of history in Greek seas and not only, from the Ancient Age to the Age of steam.
They are works of the Engineering - Engineer and model ship maker of timber ship Mr Dimitris Maras. He has the largest collection of models in Greece. He is now together with us and we thank him for it.
Several of them already are hosted at our Museum and you can see them.
The visibility of the Museum is developing at a good pace, in the just two months of our web page the number of visitors already is 1500 guests.
The Maritime Museum is the result of excellent cooperation of: The Naval Society of Litohoro - many large and small donors and the Municipality of Litohoro from 2002 until today. Each Euro bid in the Maritime Museum of Litohoro will bring multiple added values in the future.
With the same spirit of cooperation, we will implement the program which we launched in 2011 and 2012 paving the way ahead of other Museums that work years: Hydra - Crete - Galaxidi - Chios - Andros etc.
All those as an update for our new members and the citizens of our new named Municipality.
Today is the most emotional day for the Marine's family of Litohoro.
We perform religious and professional memorial for the sailors of Litohoro who were lost at sea and we dedicate this memorial.
As usual every year, the banquet is collocated from a shipping company of Litohoro.
This year it is collocated by DST Shipping company co. of Mr Tsolakis Dimitris and Sdougos Dimitris, we thank those for it. To both of them hope seaworthy ships and profitable travels.

Professional memorial

It is a heavy price of human lives of Litohoritikis Shipping.
Leafing through the book's long history of Litohoro, we stand in the chapter called Naval Tradition - Marine Heritage and the role played by both economic and cultural development.
The Society of Naval of Litohoro (1908) and the Association of Retired Navy Retirement Fund of Litohoro 1923 deliver today to the Maritime Museum of Litohoro this monument and dedicate it to:
The seamen from Litohoro whose the sea cut early the way of their journey: In shipwrecks - Disappearances - Accidents - Death convoy (military convoys) and bombing and torpedoing at all the wars of our nation.
Many of them left without cry from their closest people - unburied - unaccompanied - no last kiss and their last farewell by relatives and friends.
They were even denied the joy of their last departure to Ithaca of their heart Litohoro.
For many other famous and anonymous who bear - transfused and grafted the Society of Litohoro with the best known experiences from their near and long journeys, for those who created the diversity in our country, we believe that soon we will be able to make their reference point: That of the "missing Sailor of Litohoro".

For the Board of Directors President

Nikos Vlahopoulos.