Cultural Heritage in Marathon: Threats and Disasters

The municipality of Marathon presents a rich reserve of cultural heritage and natural landscapes with significant ecological, sociocultural, and historical values. Unfortunately, this legacy is not widely known. Moreover, it remains under constant pressure from environmental and anthropogenic risks, which result in ecological degradation, material deterioration, and, in many cases, partial or complete destruction. The research questions aim to examine the impact on Marathon's national and cultural heritage and the challenges that occur both from human activities and a changing Mediterranean climate. Various methods, including literature review, recorded data analysis, and site surveys of selected study areas, were used at different research stages. The results indicate a sequence of risks that may act individually or combined. The degree of impact in the study areas can differ significantly, mainly due to local characteristics such as topography, vegetation, hydrology, and materiality. This variation results in different levels of vulnerability between the selected examples. The paper concludes that significantly more efforts and major restructuring of both the management and coordination and response between all the representatives of the local society, both institutional and citizen initiatives, are needed towards the preservation of such important cultural and environmental assets.