Simon's Blog: Thessaloniki Part 2

Thessaloniki

The While Tower, built by the Ottoman Turks in the late 15 th. C and now the icon of the city.

The only remaining mosque in the city, the Hamza Beg Cami foundedin 1468. Currently it is being slowly restored, it was, until the 1970's the Alcazar cinema.

The Ottoman period Bey Hamam Baths, known as the Paradisos

The Turkish Ottoman period ended for Thessaloniki with the surrender of the Turks to the Greek forces 26 October 1912, and the name changed from Salonica to Thessaloniki. An event commemorated by the stamp below, issued in 1913.

The city then suffered one crisis after another, a story used by Victoria Hislop in her novel "The Thread"

First was the Great Fire of 5 August 1917 which totally destroyed the entire downtown area except the Ladadika district.

Post card of the Fire

The above site today, what was an elegant Libertee Square is now Eleftherias Square, a car park and bus station. The 1930's building houses the City Liberal Studies, replacing perhaps The Liberal Club.

The next event was the occupation by the Allies after the First World War. Documents from the National Archive at Kew detail tensions between the Admiralty and the French Government over the use of Quay and Greek Custom House, seen in the postcard below;

Another "Then & Now"

1922 saw the tragic forced population exchange following the Treaty of Lausanne at the end of the Greco-Turkish War 1919-1922 involving 1.5 million pontiac Greeks and 0.5 m. Turks. An event witnessed by Ernest Hemingway when working for the Toronto Star.

The whole character of Thessaloniki continued to change. Next came the German occupation in 1941 which saw the forced removal of half a million Jews, never to return. The Sephardic Jews were invited to Thessaloniki by the Ottomans in 1492 following their expulsion by the Spanish. It became the largest Jewish city and was referred to as the "Mother of Israel". The character of the city changed again.

Following Civil War, a Military Junta and joining the Eurozone Thessaloniki is furiously re-inventing itself; in 2010 Lonely Planet ranked Thessaloniki as the worlds 5 th. best Party Town!