#makedonya

“   Salonica ceased to be an Ottoman city in November 1912. The capital city of Macedonia had been annexed by the Kingdom of Greece at a time when most of its population was non-Greek. Here, then, the main assignment was to obliterate the Ottoman heritage and to reinvent the Greek antecedents of the city.

   In Salonica, various events facilitated the task of the Greek administration. One major factor of urban reorganization was the big fire of August 1917 which destroyed 9,500 buildings, or approximately two thirds of the city. When the reconstruction process came to an end in the 1930s, nothing much remained of the urban pattern as it had been shaped during the last decades of Ottoman presence. Many Jews had lost their property in downtown Salonica and had been forced to move to suburban quarters. When one looks at photos of the 1930s, one easily remarks that the city had lost, by then, its Oriental character. No minarets in view. No intricate streets. A rigid grid of avenues and lanes arranged following a chequered pattern had replaced the playful Ottoman city.

   While the reconstruction process was going on, efforts were also made to resuscitate the Greek and Christian heritage of Salonica. The Hébrard plan foresaw highlighting of the main monuments of the city through a strategy of destruction of environing constructions and isolation of edifices of historical interest. Thus, small Byzantine churches, which had survived thanks to their invisibility, were transformed into major landmarks. In parallel, public squares were populated with  statues of Greek national heroes and the façades of the buildings all around were covered with typically 'Greek' ornamental motifs, although remaining faithful to Hamidian neoclassicism.

    After the departure of the Turks, the new image of Salonica drew mainly on the Christian and neo-Hellenic past of the city. But, like in other places in Greece, antiquity was also considered a major component of the city's memory. Although not much was done to revive ancient Salonica, subsequent to pioneering archaeological research by the French 'Armée d'Orient' between 1916 and 1919,24 some attention was nevertheless given to prominent late-Roman monuments such as the Rotunda, the Palace and Arch of Galerius, and the Agora.”

• Kuzey Makedonya,Tetova

*yaşamak*