The annual heritage festival that was held online last year due to the pandemic will return once more to the streets and venues of Alexandria.

The press conference started off with a speech from Mohamed Nihad, the French consul in Alexandria and the head of the French Institute in Alexandria, who explained that he was very happy to host and be part of such a cultural connection. 

“This year, it is very special. Because last year, we decided that we will host the festival online due to the pandemic, but this year we decided to resume our programme offline and connected with our partners and stake holders and decided that we will be ready to physically implement and participate in the events sometime between Autumn and Winter,” explained Marie-Dominique Nenna, the director of the Centre d’Études Alexandrines.

She added that “this year’s slogan: ‘Alexandria that once was and Alexandria that will be,’ was selected so that participants could appreciate the past and present of the city and see it from both perspectives.”

The poster of this year’s event is quite intriguing. Designed by Mahitab Fathy, it reflects the slogan of the festival by combining the painting of an Alexandrian sailor drawn by André Dutertre — one of the famous artists of the French Expedition — while turning the background of the painting into a modern-day photograph of Alexandria’s coastal line. The poster also features the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.’

This year, Marwa Abdel-Gawad, the head of the outreach department at the Centre d’Etudes Alexandrines and the coordinator of Heritage Days of Alexandria, revealed that this edition of the event will be exceptional given that it will feature a lot of illuminating events, such as rare photo exhibitions of 19th century Alexandria, the launching of a book on the Greeks and their impact on Modern Egypt, a showcase of paintings of Alexandria by the artists of the French exhibition (1789-1801), and the launch of an application dubbed ‘Visit Alexandria’.

For the full programme, click here.