The Municipality of Archanos-Asterousia and the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum are organizing an honorary event for the former MP of Heraklion, Stelios Matzapetakis, on Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. in the "Culture Hall" of the City Hall, in Peza. At the ceremony, Stelios Matzapetakis will be declared an honorary citizen of the Municipality of Archana Asterousia and honorary president of the Board of Directors of the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum.
For Stelios Matzapetakis, Roussos Kypriotakis, former Mayor of Archanos-Asterousia
Stefanos Trahanas, Director of the Mathesis Online Courses Center, will speak.
The event will be graced by the internationally renowned pianist Alexia Mouza.
A treat will be provided by the Cultural Association of Myrtia.
Stelios Matzapetakis was born in Heraklion and is a retired pharmacist.
He served in the Local Government, elected from 1978 as a municipal councilor, while in 1986 he was a candidate for Mayor of Heraklion. He got involved in the central political scene and from 1989 to 2004 he was elected four times as a deputy of Heraklion. He was particularly active in health issues and in the field of emigrants, while cultivating close relations with China, playing an important role in the promotion and export of Cretan olive oil. In 2007 he retired from politics and since then he has been dealing mainly with cultural issues, being particularly active in recent years with the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum, in which he has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2012. From 2013 to 2017, he was president of the Board of Directors.
When he assumed the presidency of the Board of Directors of the Museum, made it his life's goal to solve its serious financial problems, foreseeing that a permanent solution could ensure its uninterrupted operation. In the long and difficult process of finding a sponsor or a combination of sponsors, a happy ending was found, when the shipowner Vangelis Marinakis accepted the Matzapetakis proposal and gave the Museum a big breath. Having ensured the survival of the Museum for many years and also a promise to support outreach actions from the sponsor, Stelios Matzapetakis turned his efforts to staffing the Museum with scientifically qualified staff who could support new programs which would be aimed at the youth but and to the wider population, as well as cultural activities in Greece and abroad. At the same time, he sought to strengthen the relations of the main organizations supporting the work of Nikos Kazantzakis.
The Museum, under the firm leadership of Stelios Matzapetakis, opened new avenues of intervention. It brought the local community of Myrtia closer to the Museum and inspired other dynamic members of the local community to embrace it and volunteer to support its actions. His contribution both to the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum and to the local community of Myrtia, as well as to the wider area of the Municipality of Archanos-Asterousia, is great and timeless. With this event, the Municipality of Archanos-Asterousia and the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum express their great gratitude to Stelios Matzapetakis for his great and timeless contribution.
