Περίληψη:
The issue of our project is “Documentation of monuments on Vasillisis
Olgas street in Thessaloniki (Previous name Exohon Street) and the
entry of the results in a Data Base”. First step was to collect data about
each building separately but also about the historical evolution of the
street. Basic data sources have been the Municipality of Thessaloniki,
Public Library of Thessaloniki, the Library of 4th Seniority of Modern
Monuments in Central Macedonia and the History Center of
Thessaloniki. Precious information was taken from relevant websites.
The project consists of three basic parts. The first part is about the city of
Thessaloniki since its constitution till recent history. The second part
contains data and photos for the “Hamidye Boulevard”, that is for the
history of Vasillisis Olga’s avenue and its evolution. Last, but not least,
the third part has detailed data for the buildings we worked on and
particularly historic architectural data, but also data for its location and
use.
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki is the second largest city of Greece and the capital city of
the region of Macedonia. Throughout history, the city enjoyed the
advantages of its strategic location. The famous Via Egnatia (Egnatian
Way), spanning Macedonia from east to west, passed through the walls of
the city. This important Roman highway facilitated travel and commerce
between Rome and her eastern provinces. It has been estimated that
during Paul's time its population may have been as high as 200,000. The
majority of the inhabitants were Greeks, but there was also a mixture of
other ethnic groups, including Jews. Kassandros, King of Macedonia in
315 BC, founded Thessaloniki. The city is named after his wife,
Alexander the Great's sister. It became the capital of the Roman province
of Macedonia in 148 BC and an important harbour. At about 300 AD,
tetrarch Galerius Maximianus transferred the capital of his province to
Thessaloniki, and had a series of new buildings constructed.
The district of “Pirgoi”
The first neighbourhood to be planned outside the walls, thus
representing the new European Thessaloniki, was that of Pirgoi
(mansions). Greek and foreign architects, educated in Europe and
Constantinople, built luxurious villas luxurious villas here for
wealthy Jews, Greeks, Turks, Donmeh and Franco-Levantines
(Europeans who had long made their home in the Ottoman
Empire).
The waterfront villas even had small private jetties from which to bathe in
summer. Artisans connected with the building trades came to
Thessaloniki on a seasonal basis, as had the old guilds. Among them the
master builder G. Siagas and his sons stand out; they constructed the Casa
Bianca and the Red Mansion for the Georgiadis family from Siatista.
The Allatini were the most distinguished family not only of the Jewish
community but of the whole city.
Paul Lindau, who visited their mansion in 1888, remembered that "the
forecourt, where the members of the Allatini family had gathered to
welcome their guests, was lit up by many portable lampstands, each with
six lamps, arrayed at every point of the courtyard. As we entered, a host
of servants received us... Albanians wearing their characteristic
fustanellas (pleated kilts)... The younger members of the family, who had
exchanged the beautiful costumes of their ancestors for dull Western
clothes, led us from the wide staircase, carpeted with impressive,
beautiful, thick rugs, to the wonderfully illuminated ceremonial hall on
the first floor. . ."
The mansion’s guest rooms, which lay off the courtyard, and extolled the
view over the Thermaic Gulf, the view at which, twenty years later, also
impressed Lindau, Abdul Hamid would gaze in frustration for hours on
end, exiled and imprisoned in the Allatini villa after his failed coup.