The Paths of Culture network aims to put Samothrace on the map

One can safely assume that few of the Louvre visitors who stand marveling at the Winged Victory of Samothrace prominently displayed at the Paris museum are familiar with this celebrated marble statue's place of origin. A largely overlooked island in the northeastern Aegean, close to the coasts of both Greece and Turkey, Samothrace (or Samothraki) whose official population of 2,840 shrinks considerably in the winter, is still just a place on the map for most Greeks, despite the island's natural charms.

Over the past couple of years, the island's local community has joined forces with the Greek Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage and the Hellenic Cultural Center in Paris to shed light on Samothrace. "We are looking at ways to connect the Winged Victory of Samothrace with its homeland," Thanasis Vitsas, the island's mayor, told Kathimerini.

As part of...