In celebration of this important day, with the ultimate aim of raising public awareness of the importance of culture, a different theme is promoted every year and events are organised with the participation of citizens.

This year, as the entire planet continues to experience unprecedented conditions due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organization of events will be limited to the promotion of our cultural heritage, as it is preserved through monuments and archaeological sites, by using technology and the Internet.

This year’s theme for the celebration of the International Day for Monuments and Sites, entitled ‘Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures’, emphasises the need to recognise the multiple significance and complex character of our cultural heritage, in order to be a beacon for a complex, diverse and promising future based on the timeless values of the past. As demonstrated throughout the current pandemic crisis, we can effectively address the serious challenges faced by modern societies, with our cultural heritage as a compass. It is the belief of the Department of Antiquities that the difficulties of today, can as a whole, be faced with more power and confidence, through the knowledge of the past and the heritage of humankind.

Cyprus has a complex past, due mainly to its important geographical location, as clearly portrayed through the cultural heritage that is preserved to this day. As a bridge between the west and the east and as evidenced through material culture dating to diverse chronological periods, Cyprus has played a decisive role over time in the transfer of people, objects and ideas between cultures. By bequeathing this wealth, we must invest in the universal values represented by our complex past, for solidarity and unity, at the state and transnational level.

The Department of Antiquities, within the framework of the International Day for Monuments and Sites, celebrated the connection between our Complex past and Diverse future, by organising an online concert which was presented on April 16, 2021 at 19:00 via the social media accounts of the Department of Antiquities (YouTube and Facebook).