KOS City - 2008

Unification of the archaeological areas of the city of Kos. A. Giannikouri (Director, Archaeological Institute for Aegean Studies) reports.
The earthquake of 1933, which levelled the greater part of the city of Kos, highlighted the necessity for an up-to-date city plan, in which, following the views of the archaeological service, building-free zones were formalized and characterized as archaeological parks, with the aim of promoting Kos as an archaeological city. The dialogue between the anc. and the mod. city began from that point.
The large-scale excavations of the years 1928−1943 and then the work of the Ephoria of the Dodecanese have uncovered a large part of the the Hel−Rom city and its cemeteries. Work towards unification began in 2002 with the display of the archaeological site of the agora/harbour settlement at the beginning of an archaeological trail (Fig. 1). With funding from the EU 3rd Community Support Framework, the 2nd−3rd Ct AD Casa Romana, which covers an area of ca. 2,500 m², was conserved and restored (Fig. 2). The archaeological trail incorporates the Rom odeion, which was restored under the Italian government and conserved and stabilized in the 1990s. Recent work includes the laying of a metal floor in the substructure, the organization of a photographic exhibition combined with audiovisual media concerning the history and operation of the odeion, and the conservation of the ECh house E of it.