The Congress has been held every five years for over a century (the first in Bucharest in 1924) and draws over 1000 scholars from around the world. In this year, it has been taking place in Venice and Padua, both in person and in a hybrid format.

The format of the International Byzantine Congresses has proven to be very productive: it is at these congresses that researchers from national schools of Byzantine Studies exchange information about their own research with their foreign colleagues; it is here that the development of this branch of the humanities is coordinated internationally and ideas are exchanged that ultimately have a noticeable impact on the national consciousness.

The International Congresses of Byzantine Studies are actively attended by Russian Byzantinists, including teachers from STOUH. This year, these included Dr. A. A. Voronova, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of the History and Theory of Christian Art of the Faculty of Church Arts, (The Christian Conversion of Ancient Architecture: The Littoral and the Inland of the Western Balkans) and Dr. Е. A. Vinogradova, Associate Professor of the Department of the History and Theory of Christian Art (The Murals of the Empire of Nicaea: An Attempt of Reconstruction).