Prof. Dr. Ch. K. Papastathis & Dr. E. A.

Hekimoglou

The Great Fire of Thessaloniki (1917)

On the 30th anniversary

of our co-operation with

SURVEYORS - LOSS ADJUSTERS

 PUBLISHED BY:
E. N. Manos Ltd.
Metropolitou Iosif 5,
Thessaloniki 54622

AUTHORS:
Charalambos K. Papastathis
Evanghelos Hekimoglou

EDITED BY:
Efrossyne Roupa
Evanghelos Hekimoglou

DESIGNED AND PAGINATED BY:

Hara Pasalidou
Evanghelos Hekimoglou

Printed in
Thessaloniki, Greece,

by Printing House S.A.
for E. N. Manos Ltd

Legal notice:
This book is in copyright
(under the Greek Law 2121/1993 etc.)
No reproduction of any part may take place.

Cover page: See pages 28-29

hessaloniki 2010

ISBN: 978-960-88442-3-0
 This volume is dedicated:
To those who espoused Karl Thiemes visions and who,
under the influence of his intellectual heritage,
led Munich Re to the first position in the world;
to those who, beginning in 1880 and until today,
firmly preserved his values without yielding to adversities;
to those who will continue the legacy to the future.
 Introductory Note: 30 Years of a harmonious relationship
It all started because of a tomato!
This phrase means a great deal to our company. All of us
who work with E. N. Manos Ltd realize its meaning. True
indeed, it all started because of a tomato. The explosion of a
boiler in a tomato paste factory in August 1981 hallmarked
a turning point to my familys business progression. It
hallmarked our co-operation with Munich Re.
Since then time has passed fast and many developments
have taken place. Our co-operation with Munich Re a co-
operation, for which we feel honored, proud and grateful-
approaches its 30th anniversary. The help and support we
received from this giant enterprise has been the driving
power behind the expansion of our business. They helped
us initially to establish an office in Athens and, after that,
to expand our business abroad, in a number of countries.
Beginning with a tomato, Munich Res support allowed
a local business to expand to other countries, to create a
network staffed by 75 experts, to expand our knowledge
and abilities. In other words, it allowed us to improve
and become more efficient in our sector and master new
challenges.
From our part, we tried, with liability and commitment,
to rise to Munich Res expectations. Our familys tradition
in the field served as the moral reserve to which we turned
to during this effort.
Our harmonious co-operation with Munich Re is
reflected in a series of letters the company addressed to
us over the years on the occasion of important events. We
keep these letters as a valuable token of our co-operation
and we include them in this publication believing that they
emphasize the high level of professionalism and the nature
of our outstanding co-operation.
I hope that our harmonious relation and co-operation
with Munich Re will continue in the decades to come,
justifying those who initiated it. I trust it will continue for

many more years and always in line with Carl Thiemes
values: Worldwide trust Riding out the storms together
with our partners Turning risk into value.
This album is published on the occasion of the
forthcoming 30th anniversary of our co-operation with
Munich Re. It deals with the subject of Thessalonikis
Great Fire in 1917 and the fire insurance market during
that era.
Among the twenty fire insurance agents of Thessaloniki
was my grandfather, Nikolaos Manos the elder. Back then
he represented an American company that prior to 1917
had a low turnover volume in the local fire insurance
market.
Thessalonikis conflagration was the biggest ever to
break out in Greece. With regard to the insured damages
it was the largest worldwide for that year and one of the
biggest for that decade. Of course, it cannot be compared
to the damages San Francisco encountered from the 1906
earthquake and the consequent conflagration, which were
nine times bigger.
San Francisco destruction was a point of reference for
Thessalonikis insurers. Right after the destruction Karl
Thieme himself gave instructions so that the American
insurance offices accounts were promptly credited. Because
Munich Re took immediate actions to pay its insurance
liabilities in San Francisco, the insurance offices managed
to pay full compensations to the policy-holders.
The payment ability and the swift payments exhibited by
Munich Re and the consequent reliability of the insurance
companies, encouraged more Thessalonians to purchase
insurance policies and even more to adjust the policy they
already had into the real value of their possessions in order
to avoid underinsurance. In the great fire that occurred in
 Karl Thieme (1844-1924),
founder of the Munich Re
Thessaloniki in 1890, the losses were estimated at 800,000,
of which only 25 per cent were insured. In the fire of 1917,
the losses were estimated at 8,000,000, but the percentage
of the insured damages had gone up to 50 per cent. In
17 years the local fire insurance market has increased by
2,000 per cent!
Because of the WWI, the German insurance and
reinsurance companies were cut off from the Greek
insurance market and they were replaced by British
offices.
As a consequence of this, the British insurers retained
disproportionately high sums of risks. In the great fire
damages of 1917 Thessaloniki, Norway, Vladivostok,
New Jersey and Atlanta, USA-, the British insurers were
extremely exposed.
Consequently, since September 1917 the premiums
increased dramatically as well as the claims. As a result
many insurance offices closed. In Thessalonikis fire
insurance market, competition was limited to a small
number of offices that survived the crisis. One of them was
Nikolaos Manos the elder.
The event of Thessalonikis conflagration since which
92 years have passed- serves as an example both to be imi-
tated as well as to be avoided. The inappropriate way the
fire was handled leading to its spreading is an example to
be avoided. The immediate evaluation and the partial com-
pensation of the damages as well as the laying out of a new
town plan are examples to be imitated.
For still many years after the fire the agents of the fire
insurance companies repeatedly mentioned the damages
the loss of thousands of households and of businesses-,
in their effort to persuade potential customers to purchase
a fire insurance policy. Moreover, they stressed the fact
that most insurance companies compensated promptly the
policy-holders, an immediate response which eased some
of the problems caused by the destruction of the central
business district of the city. Munich Re paid 3 million
marks net to Greek companies for losses sustained by the
Great Fire of 1917 within a very small period.
The albums splendid photographs speak for
themselves, yet their detailed annotation in addition to
the historical texts bring forth their value. I think that the
present publication is a serious contribution to, if not the
beginning of, the history of insurance in Thessaloniki.
I would like to thank Prof
.
Dr. Charalambos Papastathis
and Dr. Evanghelos Hekimoglou who kindly allowed their
work to be published in this album dedicated to our co-
operation with Munich Re.
Nikolaos Manos





10
Foreword for the English edition
The following paper was originally published in
a Greek historical review.1 Besides the translated text,
to which corrections and additions of minor importance
have been made, the present English edition moreover
includes two informative appendices about the causes of
the fire and an unpublished chapter on the activity of the
insurance companies in Thessaloniki before and after the
conflagration of 1917.
Furthermore, the volume includes 27 photographs, dated
to 1917-1918. All photographs come from an album
handmade by the French Army Aeronautical Section
(now in the possession of Professor Ch. K. Papastathis).
Some of the photographs were taken from an airplane
that flew over Thessaloniki, a few hours after the fire of
August 1917; therefore, they are important documents
for the extent of the damages caused by the fire. All these
air photographs are annotated in full detail.

1 Thessalonikeon Polis 11
(
September 2003)
11-77.

11
 Introduction
1. Historical outline
The great fire which destroyed Thessaloniki in August 1917
remains fresh in the public memory of Thessalonians.1 The
fire was a keystone in the history of Thessaloniki; it caused
demographic changes and, above all, extensive re-planning
of the city. The fire took place in a historical milieu of
crucial importance to Greece. The nation had fallen in a
painful division because of conflicting policies adopted
by King Constantine and Prime Minister Eleftherios
Venizelos respectively, on the participation of Greece in
WWI. Constantine was pro-neutral, his political stance
favouring
the interests of the Central Powers. On the
contrary, Venizelos advocated Greeces participation in
the war on behalf of the Entente, a stance inspired by the
national hopes of the Greeks and the conventional liabilities
of this country against Serbia, which was already involved
in the war. Therefore, the Greek Government permitted
the landing of British and French troops in Thessaloniki
to help the Serbs. The first British and French units had
already landed in the autumn of 1915. Due to Austro-
Hungarian military pressures, the Serbian army evacuated
its territory and took shelter in Corfu to redeploy.
Afterwards, they settled in camps around Thessaloniki,
along with the other Allies.
In May 1916 German and Bulgarian troops took
possession of Fort Roupel on the Greek-Bulgarian frontiers
and a little latter they invaded Eastern Macedonia,
although neither Germany nor Bulgaria had declared war
on Greece. On August 30th, 1916 (August 17th by the
Julian calendar) civilians and army officers attempted a
coup dtat in Thessaloniki, known as the National Defense
Movement. As soon as they took power, they invited
Eleftherios Venizelos to become their leader. Venizelos
accepted and formed a revolutionary government, the
so called Provisional Government of Thessaloniki,
which participated in the war on the side of the Entente.
1 Indicative bibliography (see on page 91): Gardner, 253-256;
Kastrinos, 7; Kitsikis, 28-30 ; Zographakis, 8-9; Papastathis, 1978,
141-170; Loucatos, 311-349; Hekimoglou 1990, 39-42 ; Hekimoglou
1996, 359-363; Hekimoglou 1991b, 14-19; Hekimoglou, 1992;
Hekimoglou 1995, 469-489; Karadimos- Yerolympos, 1985.
2 It was rumored that the fire was caused by French military staff.
12
Subsequently, two Greek states (one in Athens and the
other in Thessaloniki) were in action from September 1916
to June 1917; on June 11th, King Constantine was obliged
to abdicate; Venizelos returned in Athens and the Greek
territory was re-united.
When the fire broke up, Thessaloniki had already been
turned into a vast circumvallated barrack. Permanent
populace and refuges, either from the Bulgarian-occupied
Eastern Macedonia and Pelagonia (modern Bitola area) or
from North-western Anatolia, bunched up in the city. The
already existing cosmopolitan character of Thessaloniki
with Jewish, Muslim, Greek, Westerners and the inter-
Balkan demographic elements- was enhanced with the
troops from six states (Greece, Serbia, Britain, France, Italy,
Russia) and many races, if we figure out of the presence of
the colonial units. In 1916 the whole population (the locals
and the refuges) was moderately estimated to 271,000
persons, without taking into account the military personnel,
whereas 157,889 persons were registered in 1913.
2. The reasons
The fire broke out on Saturday, August 18th, 1917
(August 5th, by the Julian calendar), at about 15.30 hours.
A house-wife, who resided at Olympiados Street, number
3, was frying aubergines, when sparks flew on heaps of
forage, stored in the basement, and produced fire, which
immediately surrounded the neighbourhood. After a while
the fire sprawled in the centre of the intra muros city as well
as the coastal areas.2 The main reason for the rapid spread
of the fire was the local northerly wind (Vardaris), which
blew strong these days. Another reason was the sea aura
produced by the high temperature in a long distance along
the coast3. Other factors contributing were the stranglehold
urban environment, with the narrow streets and the lack of
open spaces, the wooden houses, the obsolete fire-fighting
service and the lack of water, the consumption of which
The general-in-command M. Sarrail was blamed for arson of the
city; see Ioannides, 433. These rumors perhaps originated from
pre-German inhabitants, but presumably they had a basis in
the blasting of some buildings in order to create fire breaks; see
Charalambous, 252. See also Appendixes I-II.
3 Kyriazopoulos, 330.
had gone up because of the increase in the population and
the troops camped around the city. On the other hand,
the water reserves were reduced due to the drought of that
summer.
3. The spread
At first, the fire followed two directions towards the
Government Building and the market place, one via Saint
Demetrius Street and the other via Leon Sophos Street
respectively. The Government House was in immediate
danger; meanwhile, the neighbouring buildings of the
Muslim community and the Police Arrest Station had
been turned to ashes. The Government Building was finally
saved due to its strong construction and the intense efforts
of the Government employees, who hurried to protect their
offices. However, on the other hand, the northerly wind
got stronger and the fire moved rapidly southwards, to
the centre of the city. By 23.00 hours of the same day the
flames reached the area named Un Kapan (Flour Market),
which lied between the modern Liberty Square and
Aristotle Square. Early in the morning of August 19th,
the winds direction changed and the fire turned back.
Combined with another fire moving southwards, along
Leon Sophos Street, the two of them ruined the central
business district. At about 12.00 hours the fire skirted
round the parvis of Saint Sophia, without touching the
church, and moved eastwards, to the Hippodrome district,
up to the National Defense Street, which was the eastern
border of the fires spread. The western border of the fire
was situated a hundred metres to the east of Vardaris
Square, very close to the German School. The spread of the
fire ceased in the evening of August 19th (August 6th by
the Julian calendar).
4. Coping with the fire
In fact, the fire was not treated with due care from the
4 The report (dated August 7th by the Julian calendar) had been
compiled by Stel. Protonotarios, member of the Press Office of
Thessaloniki, and was addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The document was published by Lucatos.
beginning. The main responsibility should be laid on the
officers of the Entente, who denied cutting off the heavy
water supply to their barracks and hospitals. In the
afternoon of the first day of the fire, a French squadron
reached the Government Building, while the western wing
of the building was in acute danger, with the purpose to
blast with dynamite some surrounding houses in order to
make up a fire belt. But they blasted only two or three
houses before they left. If they kept on, it would be possible
to restrict the fire to the north-western side of the city.
At least, this was the common belief, as an official report
testified.4 The inaction of the French squadron permitted
the fire to move free, to keep on its destructive work and
to spread eastwards and southwards, directed by the
northerly wind.
The Representative of the Greek Government, Pericles
Al. Argyropoulos, and the directors of the civil services
tried in vain to mobilize the forces of the Entente. General
Sarraill himself visited the area of the Government
Building on Saturday afternoon, but he stayed only for a
little and he did not visit again on Sunday. Two pumps,
sent by the British Headquarters in the eastern area on
the morning of the August 19th, managed to stop the fire
at the coastal avenue, near the White Tower, saving thus
several buildings of the southern National Defense Street,
where the premises of the civil services were located. The
Customs Office, on the coastal Kountouriotes Street, was
also threatened by the fire, but was saved due to the efforts
of several French soldiers.
5. The Ententes attitude
In the official report of Protonotarios a tragic event is
mentioned: Instead of fighting the fire and helping the
women and the children, the Entente troops, except the
British, plundered and looted the area. Especially the French
soldiers, even officers, committed larcenies in common
13
 view, acts that largely reduced the prestige of French in
everybodys conscience. This behaviour of the lower ranks
and the obvious heartlessness of the higher ranks aroused
peoples indignation, which was prevented to blow up in
upheaval only by the marvellous charitable acts of the
Englishmen. Indeed, hundreds of English automobiles were
made available since the midnight to carry the fire-stricken
and their furniture, a service that the English soldiers
and officers offered with characteristic self-denial; to the
contrary, the drivers of some French automobiles, which
became available in the morning, demanded pourboires
from the fire victims.5
According to the same report, in the days after the
fire French soldiers sold watches for 1 or 2 drachmae and
sewing-machines for 10 drachmae. They also hampered a
jewellery merchant from the central Venizelos Street and
the manager of the big Tiring store to protect the most
valuable items of their merchandise, with the purpose to
be left in the dispose of their looting. It was rumoured,
according to the same document, that the French soldiers
raped women and virgins () all these and countless
similar depressing acts caused unbelievable anger and
disappointment in everybodys heart even among the
Englishmen- over the French. General Sarrail ordered the
execution of two French soldiers this morning, because
they were caught in flagrante delicto in the very act of
selling jewels.
Protonotarios report also stressed that action had
to be taken immediately to neutralize the distressing
impressions which the attitude of the French had created.
This attitude had caused the peoples demoralization, Rabbis establishment with its rich, centuries-old, archive;
similar to the one caused by the fire itself, regarding the
trust and the feelings owed to their allies and friends 6.
6. The extent of the damages
The destruction extended in biblical scale, but confined
5 Lucatos, 334.
6 Ibidem, 334-335.
7 Ibidem, 334.
14
only in material damages. As the fire spread gradually, no
death victims were reported with the exception of some
French soldiers, already drunk, who having entered a wine
shop were blocked by the flames and burnt alive.7
The fire was over at about 23.30 hours of the second
day, 19th August (August 6th, by the Julian calendar).
Almost the whole historical nucleus of the city, 120 ha
or 32 per cent of the total urban space, had been turned
to ashes. In a rough topographic sketch, the devastated
area was delimited by the streets Saint Demetrius Leon
Sophos Nikes (the sea front avenue) National Defense
Alexander Svolos Saint Sophia axed through Egnatia-
Saint Demetrius (modern place-names). The popular
name this destroyed area immediately took was the
burnt; alternatively, the burnt zone in the official
administrative terminology. Only a few buildings survived
in this broad area; moreover a number of buildings out
of the burnt zone were also destroyed; 9,500 houses had
been turned to ashes; 79,000 persons were homeless out of
a total population of 271,000; this number counted for 45
per cent of the population registered in the 1913 survey
(in total 157,889 persons). The destruction was not limited
to the houses. The Post Office, the Telegraph Office, the
Municipal Hall, the offices of the Water and the Gaslight
Companies, the Imperial Ottoman Bank, the National
Bank, the storehouses of the Athens Bank, were all burnt
down; so were the churches of Saint Demetrius (the entire
ensemble, the original wing of which dated to the Early
Christian period), Saint Theodora, Saint Nicholas; Saatli,
Burmali, Hamza Bey and nine other mosques; the Chief-
sixteen of the thirty-three synagogues of the city (Sicilia
Hadas, Pulya, Italia, Mayor, Ismael, Chiana, Magrana,
Arditti, Talmud Tora, Portugal, Sicilia Yasan, Pulia, Ezra,
Shalom, Aragon and Etz-a-Haim); many schools of the
various religious communities, organizations and foreign
missions; the Greek old peoples home, which housed the
massive archive and the library of the philologist Petros
Papagheorgiou ironically to be kept safe; the large stores
like Tiring, Bon March, Mayer, Orosdi and Hryssikopoulos;
the cosmopolitan hotels Imperial, Rome and England, on
Liberty Square, and Splendid Palace on the seafront; the
international bookshops M. Molho and M. Triantaphyllou;
the Flokas and Almosnino cake-shops, the Pentzikis beer
house, and the New Hellas coffee-house, all famous, located
in Liberty Square; almost half of the main commercial
arcades, Cit Saul and Aghios Menas; the Eden, Olympia,
and Path cinemas; factories, shops, storehouses, clubs; the
printing-offices of most of the numerous newspapers which
were published in the city, in many languages, like Nea
Alitheia, Neologhos, Nea Hellas, Tribune Paris-Balkans,
Avenir, Avanti, Esperanza, Voce d Italia, Pravda,
Srpski Glasnik, Velika Srbija; the warehouses with the
newspapers print paper. Newspapers ceased publication,
some for a while, some for ever. Furthermore, the electricity
supply was cut off for at least ten days, because the cables
and fittings in general had been incinerated. Of a total of
7,695 shops, 4,069 were turned to ashes. In fact the richest
traders, with premises in the centre of the city, were
ruined; the ones who escaped the fire were little shops in
the poor quarters. Almost 70 per cent of the private-sector
workers were left unemployed. The Jewish community was
hit the hardest. The fire affected more than 50,000 Jews
and the communitys premises suffered the worst damages.
About 12,500 Orthodox Christians and 10,000 Muslims
were also affected by the fire. The material damage was
estimated to 8,000,000 gold pounds, not including the
beyond price incinerated monuments. Almost three-
quarters of the properties were insured by English houses,
which paid 4,000,000 gold pounds for compensation. In
a few hours the whole economic network of Thessaloniki
ceased to exist. Eleftherios Venizelos, who was not known
8 Papastathis 1978, 121-124, 132-134.
for extravagant statements, told the parliament that it had
been a frightful disaster.8
7. Relief for the fire victims
The first steps to meet temporarily the needs of the
population were taken immediately after the fire, although
the general situation limited the states potential for
lavishing help. Despite the difficulties, the care for fire
victims was immediate and unreserved. Eight hundred
families were accommodated in 100 temporary homes,
which had just been built to house refugees from the
Bulgarian occupied areas of Macedonia; in various spots
of the city distribution centres supplied 30,000 people
with free bread. Food was also distributed by the Greek,
American, British and French sections of the Red Cross.
At the same time, the British and the French military
authorities created camps for the fire victims. The British
army organised camps with some 1,300 tents in which
7,000 people found shelter; the French army established
one camp for 300 families and the League of French
Ladies another one for 100 families. Free rail transport
was given to everyone who wished to leave for other Greek
cities. Almost 5,000 persons availed themselves of this
facility and left for Athens, Larissa and Volos. However,
the Italian military authorities discouraged the Jews from
taking advantage of the facility, even though they were the
hardest hit by the fire. Subsequently, a Directorate for
the Fire Victims was established by the Representative
of the Government, Pericles A. Argyropoulos, and started
immediately organizing the state relief for the victims
and coordinating all agencies (state, private and foreign)
activities for the relief and the rehabilitation of the victims,
under the intendance of the Central Relief Committee,
established by a royal decree on September 6th, 1917.
The command of each of the British camps was assigned
to an army doctor; relevant official reports praise the work
15
 of Captains Whatson, Oliver and Litt. Each camp had
its own operating-theatre, staffed by British nurses and
volunteering ladies of the Greek Red Cross. The seriously
ill were transferred to the Municipal Hospital, which had
been supplied with a hundred extra beds, or to the new
hospital which Red Cross had recently established. The
French Camp Denain, in 25th Martiou Street, was named
after Major Denain, who was in charge of the medical
supplies. Nuns of the Order of Saint Vincent de Paul carried
the nursing duties. The camp set by the League of French
Ladies was put under the command of Lieutenant Laurent
Vibert and housed 100 families for some ten months.
The Directorate for the Fire Victims produced a work
of multifarious character. It took the responsibility of
distributing the essential food, blankets and clothing; it
provided money assistance to needy fire victims, tools to
workmen and sewing machines to workshops set up in the
camps; it also provided free fuel for the winter 1917-1918;
it disinfected the fire victims lodgings. Besides, money was
raised by collections in Greece and abroad, which helped
considerably the fire victims. 9
8. City planning
The smoke was still raising over the ruined city when most
unusually for the Greek administrative machinery- action
was undertaken to schedule the reconstruction on a modern
city plan and turn Thessaloniki into an urban model.
Here the contribution of Alexandros Papanastassiou,
then Minister for Transport, must be stressed. His first
statute, Law 823/1917 launched the hopeful efforts to
create a modern city endowed with planning prospects.10
Papanastassiou established a committee to design a new
city plan, with the following members: the English architect
Thomas Mawson, the Belgian civil engineer Joseph Pleyber,
the French architect Ernest Hbrard, Professor Anghelos
Genis of the National Technical University of Athens;
the Greek architects Aristotle Zachos and Constantine
Kitsikis and the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Constantine
9 Papastathis 1978, 124-125, 135-149; Hekimoglou 1990.
10 Papastathis 1987.
11 Alexandra Yerolympos, passim.
16
Anghelakis. The committee was supported by French
architects and civil engineers who served in Orient Army
(LArme dOrient). Demetrius Lampadarios, Professor of
Geodesy, National Technical University of Athens, and the
engineers S. Nomikos, A. Lefteriotis and A. Makris were
assigned to prepare the topographic and the property
maps; Anargyros Demetrakopoulos undertook the
legislative preparations. Less than a year after the disaster,
on June 29th 1918, the plan was delivered to the General
Administration of Macedonia.11
9. The consequences
Since it is well known that none of the original urban
plans was ever fully implemented, perhaps it is of no use
to stress that the ambitious planning of Thessaloniki was
never fully realized. The financial interests of various
influential landowners and the successive governments
compromising attitude resulted in modifying the plan,
mainly with regard to the number of the floors and the
construction of the scheduled public buildings the later
because of the lack of public funds during the war in Asia
Minor and its aftermath. However, in comparison with
the situation before the fire, the central area of the city
acquired a modern design and layout, despite the fact that
the original plan was crippled.
The most notable consequence of the fire for Thessaloniki
was the bleeding of its population first in qualitative
and later in quantitative terms- as prominent families
moved away to create their homes elsewhere. Many of
them relocated to Athens. Many Jews left their for five
centuries- Mother in Israel and settled in western
countries, especially in France; others left for Palestine in
response to the Zionist call. The fire was the time-point
which marked the gradual annihilation of Thessalonikis
cosmopolitan character, as Jewish, Westerners, Turks and
other Balkan inhabitants began to move to their ethnic
homelands.
Ch. P.
 Fires and fire insurance market in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki was conquered by Murat II in 1430 and
remained under the Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries,
until the Balkan Wars of 1912-13. The Treaty of
Bucharest
(August 1913), which
was concluded by the winners of the
Balkan Wars, i.e. Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro,
and Greece, increased the area of Greece from 25,014 to
41,933 square miles and the corresponding population
from 2,660,000 to 4,363,000 inhabitants. Thessaloniki was
among the annexed areas. The annexation was confirmed
by the Treaty of Athens, signed by Turkey and Greece on
November 14th, 1913.
According to a population census which was carried in
Thessaloniki in April 1913, the local population stood at
157,889, of whom 25 per cent were characterized as Greeks,
39 per cent as Israelites, 29 per cent as Ottomans, 4 per
cent as Bulgarians, and 3 per cent as Foreigners, Others.
With regard to the main religious groups, i.e. Orthodox
Christians, Jews and Muslims, the above mentioned per-
centage was not essentially different from the percentage of
the Ottoman census of 1831 (Christians 21 per cent, Jews
43 per cent, Muslims 36 per cent), despite the significant
demographic changes that took place in the meantime, the
more recent of which occurred after the First Balkan War,
when a number of Muslim residents left for Turkey, an out-
flow anticipated by the inflow of Christian refugees from
regions annexed to Bulgaria.1
These political and demographic changes did not influ-
ence the frequency of fires, which had
been very common
1 A total of 293,081 Greek Orthodox immigrants left Western
Thrace, Eastern Macedonia, Serbian Macedonia, Caucasus and
Asia Minor for Greece; a total of 41.834 left Greek Macedonia
for Turkey; B. Gounaris, Doing Business in Macedonia: Greek
Problems in British Perspective (1912-1921), European Review
of History, 5/2 (1998) 172.
2 Risal, La ville convoite Salonique, Paris 1914, 211.
3 The Times, 17.10.1839.
4 The Times, 15.12.1846.
5T  abular Views of Universal History. A Series of Chronological
in Thessaloniki, as a
number of
conflagrations destroyed
repeatedly the business centre of the city. During the 19th
century there were 16 major fires, the most destructive
being those in 1839, 1846, 1854, 1856 and 1890. Fires
remained an element of everyday life until the 1930s.
A destructive fire broke out in September 1839;2 it was
believed to have been the work of agents of Mehmed Ali of
Egypt, who fought against the Sultan Mahmud II.3
In November 17th 1846, 860 houses had been destroyed
by fire, by which calamity 1,500 families were reduced to
indigence.4
A brief note in a world almanac states that in 1854 a
fire at Salonica, destroyed 600 buildings, April 8.5
The same almanac testifies a gunpowder
explosion
at Salonica, Turkey, July 17 1856.6 The
other day there
was a fire in Salonica; the damage was much increased
because an English subject chose to trade in gunpowder
though forbidden by the Turkish laws. Some barrels were
in his house, exploded, and knocked down whole streets,
the traveler Nassau W. Senior stated in 1856.7 Additional,
and perhaps different, information is provided by another
newspaper, The Times: According to more recent
accounts, the number of killed and wounded by the fire
at Salonica amounts to fully 700. Among the later are the
Russian, Dutch, and Sardinian consuls. A Greek merchant,
named Schillizzi, who was the cause of the disaster,
has been arrested.8 The
writer Henry Melville visited
Thessaloniki in December 1856 and made a brief note in
Tables Presenting, in Parallel Columns, a Record of the More
Noteworthy Events in the History of the World from the Earliest
Times down to I890. Compiled by G. P. Putnam and Continued to
date by Lynds E. Jones. New York London, 1890, 159.
6 Tabular Views of Universal History, 163
7 N. W. Senior, A Journal
ept in
Turkey
and Greece
n the autumn
of 1857 and the beginning of 1858. London, 1859, 131-132.
8T  he Times, 6.8.1856. Perhaps Schillizzi,
a Chian merchant, was a
French subject, like his uncle Prassakakis; see Hekimoglou 2004a,
244.
17
 his journal: Three months ago a great fire, overrunning
several acres.9 Not yet rebuilt.10
In August 1883 a fire burnt 26 workshops at a site named
Kari Pazar (the Sunday market). The fire did not spread
due to the lack of wind and the efforts of the volunteering
firemen.11 In the late 1880s twenty two fire pumps existed
in Thessaloniki, six of which belonged to the municipality
and the rest to insurance companies. Each fire pump was
carried by fifty men, who were salaried by the municipality.
In addition, four charity societies helped the fire victims to
move their belongings from their burnt homes and to find
a temporary shelter.12
Full details are known for the conflagration which
took place in 1890. The fire broke out at 1 o clock in the
morning of August 4th. A strong northerly wind fanned
the flames, which spread in all directions, and completely
baffled all efforts of the various insurance and municipal
fire brigades. The quarter attacked was mainly inhabited
by Jewish families, and the firemen felt compelled to
abandon the pumps in order to secure the safety of their
own families and of their own effects as far as possible.
The fire extended from Conak-street13 and Grand Rue14 to
the quay and to the ancient city walls, which are gradually
disappearing. Happily, the Grande Rue was saved, as,
if the fire had once obtained a firm hold of the inferior
constructions which abound there, the disaster would
probably have attained incredible dimensions. () The
losses are estimated at 800,000, of which only 25 per
cent were insured, chiefly with English offices. Among
these later the following companies are stated to be the
chief sufferers, viz: Commercial Union, 25,000; Queen,
22,000; Northern, 20,000; Lancashire, 17,000; Phoenix,
9 An
acre is equal to 4,046 square
metres.
10 Ekaterini Georgoudaki, Herman Melville in Thessaloniki: Fol-
lowing the steps of European Travellers, in S. E. Marovitz, A. C.
Christodoulou (edit.), Melville Among the nations: Proceedings
of an international conference, Volos, Greece, July 2-6, 1997, 92.
11 P haros tis Makedonias [local newspaper], 24.8.1883.
12 Hekimoglou & Danaciolu, 27. [For abbreviations, see at the end
of the book].
18
16,000; Royal, 7,500; () Among the foreign companies
are: Assicurazioni of Trieste, 16,000; Transatlantic of
Hamburg, 10,000; Hamburg-Munich companies, 10,000;
().15 Schultz and Barnsley, two archaeologists, students
at the British Archaeological School at Athens, visited
Thessaloniki to examine the monuments condition and
reported about the extend of the damage: The fire has
burnt out a part of the dirtiest and thickest populated
part of the town, but in proportion of area it is, perhaps,
about one-tenth or less of the enclosure within the walls. It
lies close to the water and on the level. Seen from the sea
the town seems as if nothing had happened, blocks along
the quay, which had escaped, hiding the mass of ruins
behind.16 This was the impression of the archaeologists,
although the burnt area included not only very important
monuments but also the central business district. The cost
of an ordinary house was 200; therefore the insured value
of 200,000 represented the value of 1,000 houses.
As already mentioned, the British insurance offices,
Commercial Union, Queen, Northern, Lancashire and
Phoenix, as well as the insurers of Munich and Hamburg, had
already achieved positions in the market of Thessaloniki.
In Britain, the fire premium income the British insurance
companies obtained from the home market (6-7 million
annually) was only about one-third of the total.17 The rest
they obtained from abroad. The sector was dominated
by a group of up to a dozen large companies. This gave
them all an interest in market stability (). The real force
behind this came from the special positions individual
companies had achieved in particular markets, based on
a large market share and high profitability, which they
were usually determined to defend.18 Therefore, it is not
13 Conak

street = The
street where the Governors premises were, i.e.
Saint Demetrius Street.
14 Grand Rue = Egnatia Street.
15 The Times, 12.9.1890.
16 The Times, 4.11.1890.
17 Oliver Westall, The Historian and the Business of Insurance,
Manchester University Press, 1984, 152.
18 Ibidem, 131.
astonishing that the struggle for new markets extended
to the East. The area bounded by Athens to the west
and Smyrna (Izmir) or Alexandria to the east was an
important one for the large insurers of the late nineteenth
century, Clive Trebilcock noted. It contained a number
of outstanding traditional entrepots of which Alexandria
and Constantinople were perhaps the greatest, but it was
experiencing also a surge of mercantile and constructional
activity, much of it related to the revolutionary transport
developments of the period.19
However, for some British insurers, like the Phoenix
of London, the East was, in fact, not fertile in revenue.
The five main centres, Constantinople, Salonica, Smyrna,
Alexandria and Athens rarely managed an average annual
return of more than 1 per cent Phoenix total overseas
revenue.20 Indeed, in the period 1871-1910 Phoenix
Assurance premiums in Thessaloniki were less than
1,500 in a total of 70,000 for the above mentioned five
main centres.21 Nevertheless, that was not the case with
all insurers. The North British and Mercantile, one of the
largest tariff offices,22 increased its market share thanks
to her close relations with the Allatini family and its
relatives. Since the last quarter of the nineteenth century,
respectable relatives of the Allatini family became agents
of insurance offices. In 1882 the Northern of London
authorized Fernandez and Misrachi as its agents in
Thessaloniki. A little later the North British and Mercantile
19 Clive

Trebilcock, Phoenix Assurance and the Development of
British Insurance, vol. II, The Era of the Insurance Giants 1870-
1984, University of Cambridge, 1998, 166.
20 Ibidem.
21 Ibidem, 167.
22 Tariff

Office: An insurance company whose premiums are
determined according to a scale set collectively by several
companies.
23 Gregoriou

2008, 165; see also the facsimile of a document from
the archive of the Socit Anonyme Ottomane Industrielle
dated to April 10th 1905 in E. Kaplidjoglou, Allatini Archive,
Thessalonikeon Polis 5 (May 2001) 19, according to which Edmond
Fernandez possessed 52 percent of the Socits dividends; Alfred
authorized Moise D. Morpurgo (1860-1940), a well-known
philanthropist.23 The North British underwrote the risks
of the Socit Anonyme Ottomane Industrielle, i.e. the
Allatini-owned flour mill and brickworks, which were the
biggest factories in Thessaloniki. In 1916
the North British
had these risks reinsured in the Provincial Insurance
Company.24
In 1901 Moise D. Morpurgo was elected as the first
Chairman of the Insurance Agents Syndicate in Thessaloniki
by twenty of his colleagues.25 His election and his repeated
re-elections until 1925 should be attributed not only to his
bonds with the Allatini family, but also to the reputation
the North British and Mercantile enjoyed. The North
British was one of the two English companies that had
agencies in Chicago at the time of the Great Chicago Fire
(October 1871); one third of its losses had been reinsured
in the Phoenix Assurance Company of London. The fact
that the North British & Mercantile paid on full, gave a
widespread impression that the European companies were
more reliable than American companies.26
The reputation of the European insurance companies
was confirmed in the San Francisco earthquake and
conflagration of 1906, when they paid out 80 million on
policyholders claims.27 Munich Reinsurance settled the
losses promptly. Just one day after the earthquake, the sum
of 200,000 was transferred to New York as a payment on
account for reinsured liabilities of 500,000.28 The German
Misrachi and Moise Morpurgo, small shareholders themselves,
signed as plenipotentiaries of Edouard Allatini, Guido Allatini,
Lazare Allatini and Charles Allatini (2.6 percent of the shares)
and of Adele and Mathilde Allatini (10.5 per cent) respectively .
24
Oliver

M. Westall, The Provincial Insurance Company 1903-
1938, Manchester 1992, 138-139.
25 Christodoulou, 148.
26 R. S. Critchell, Recollections of a Fire Insurance Man, Chicago
1909, 89, 97.
27 T
 he New York Herald (European Edition) 21.4.1906; R. K. Mac-
kenzie, The San Francisco earthquake & conflagration, Berkeley,
1907.
28
www.munichre.com
accessed
November 24, 2009.
19
 and Austrian reinsurance markets were extremely powerful;
on the contrary, only few British offices specialized in
reinsurance. The agents of the German companies were at
the elbows of the British managers, with their apparently
attractive offers () The Germans organized reinsurance
business thoroughly, and by the system adopting by the
leading German companies of allowing large commissions
and redistributing the risks among comparatively small
companies throughout Germany, they were able to offer the
British offices terms which ensured a profit to the latter.
Cheap working costs and satisfaction with an extremely
moderate ration of profit were probably the principal
reasons of their ability to absorb so much reinsurance
business from both British and American offices.29 So,
the German reinsurers, wisely, left the British offices to
collect the premiums abroad, and then offered to relieve
the British offices of whatever proportion the later did not
care to retain themselves.30
This is the reason why the direct presence of the
German insurance companies in Thessaloniki was not very
impressive.
The main representative of the German insurers
in Thessaloniki was Isaac Yahel,31 owner of a large plot near
the port.32 Leon Yuda was the agent of the Swiss company
Baloise;33 he was a British subject and had been an insu-
rance agent since 1883, working with his brother Felix.34
Victor Siaky, an Italian subject, resident of Paris, was the
agent of the French company Foncire; Gino Fernandez, a
Spanish subject, also a resident of Paris, one of the oldest
insurance agents of Thessaloniki, industrialist and land-
owner, represented Northern British;35 Daniel Modiano was
the agent of the Phoenix of London;36 Samuel Modiano, the
son of Daniel Modiano, was the agent of the Sun Fire;37 A.
Guzzeri, an Italian subject, represented the Austrian Com-
29 The Times, 21.6.1918.
30 Ibidem.
31
G. Hadjikyriakou, Commercial and Industrial Guide of Macedo-
nia, Athens 1910, 148.
32
Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou & Hekimoglou 2004b, 374.
33
Hadjikyriakou, op. cit.
34
Hekimoglou
2004b, 50.
20
pany Asiccurazioni Generali di Triesti.38 Nikolaos Manos
represented the Phoenix Insurance of Hartford.
In the ten-year period 1907-1916, 177 fires broke up in
Thessaloniki, with estimated losses 250,000; 71
of them
took place in the years 1910-1911, when a serious finan-
cial crisis affected the local market.39 In most cases the
destroyed shops and factories were situated in the com-
mercial Franks quarter. Because of their high frequency,
these incidents were thought to be deceitful. For
those
two
years, the total premiums for fire insurance fell short of
the respective compensations. Therefore, the financially
weaker insurance agents went bankrupt and the fire insur-
ance market cleared up in Thessaloniki; only half of the
40 agents remained in business. Another consequence was
the sharp increase in premiums. The insurance agents had
been syndicated since 1901 and
most of them
applied the
agreed upon tariff increases. Only a few agents did
not
participate in
the syndicate and tried to maintain the pre-
miums in low levels, but none of them possessed enough
capital to hold out the organized competition of their syn-
dicated colleagues.
Despite the two-year crisis 1910-1911, the premium in-
come for the fire insurance companies in the period 1907-
1916 summed up to 500,000 pounds and the paid compen-
sations to 220,000 pounds; for the same period the ratio
of collected premiums to paid compensations was 44 per
cent. Focusing on the year 1916, the respective ratio col-
lapsed to 14 per cent, as only six fires of minor importance
were compensated.40 It was a paradise for insurers, com-
pared to a target loss ratio that would amount to 55 per
cent of the anticipated premium income.41 Only 17 fire
insurance agents had remained in Thessaloniki to enjoy
these favourable market conditions.
35
Hadjikyriakou, op. cit.; Hekimoglou 2004a, 272.
36 Hadjikyriakou,
op. cit.; Hekimoglou
2004b, 140.
37 Hadjikyriakou,
op. cit.
38 Hadjikyriakou,
op. cit.
39 Hekimoglou 1991a.
40
Christodoulou,
147-149.
41
Westal,
The Historian, 134.
 Alas, the year 1917 was an unprecedented disaster for
the local insurance market. The air attacks, the l
a
ck of wa-
ter, the drought, the fear of explosions due to the enor-
mous quantities of explosives stored in Thessaloniki by the
Allied troops were some of the factors due to which the
demand for insurance contracts increased sharply. There-
fore, the premium earnings and the respecting liabilities
doubled compared to the previous year. After the fire had
destroyed almost half of the city, the insurance companies
paid compensations of 4,000,000 pounds; 60 per cent of
this amount was owed by London-based companies.42
Seven insurance companies undertook the three quarters
of the insured damages; the North British & Mercantile
underwrote 30 per cent of the total loss (1,200,000); the
Sun Fire 480,000; the Trieste 400,000; the Northern
British 240,000; the Union des Paris 240,000; the Baloise
200,000; and the Patriotic (guaranteed by the Sun Fire)
200,000.43
Measured by the insured damage, the fire of Thessaloniki
was the greatest conflagration in 1917, all over the world.
Some of the principal insurance offices suffered heavy
losses by this fire, among the chief sufferers being the
North British and Mercantile, whose fire accounts in
consequence showed a debit balance of 217,000 on the
years working, and the Sun Fire offices, which suffered
a loss of 290,000.44 According to The Times, the losses
of the British insurers were heavy because they retained
larger amounts of liabilities in consequence of the cutting
of the German and the Austrian markets.45
In 1917 fire losses were universally on a higher scale
than in 1916, a fact which is to be attributed partly, to
higher values placed in insured property, and partly to the
lessened amount of supervision and caretaking, which has
42 Christodoulou, 147-149, 267-268; Makedonia, 19.10.1917.
43 Makedonia, 3.10.1917.
44 The Times, 22.8.1918.
45 The Times, 21.6.1918.
46
Ibidem.
51 Makedonia, 17.10.1917.
resulted from the shortage of labor.46 That years second
great conflagration occurred in July, in Troudhjeim,
Norway, where stores en route from England to Russia,
valued at about 3,000,000 were destroyed. In March, at
Vladivostoc, a fire caused losses estimated at various sums
between 2,000,000 and 4,000,000; American supplies
for Russia being mainly affected.47
The prohibition of rebuilding in the burnt area, in
order
to first lay out a new city plan
, eased the pressure
of the fire victims against the insurance companies. In
the end of September 1917, two experts, named Milligan
and Robes, travelled from London to Thessaloniki, to
evaluate the damage.48 The former was in all probability
D.M.M. Milligan, member of the Aberdeen board of the
Northern Assurance Company, which was also affected by
the fire in Thessaloniki, after 40 years of uniformly good
experience.49
On October 11th, Voutsinas, the Representative of
the Greek Government in Thessaloniki, sent a letter
to Morpurgo and demanded a prompt payment of the
damages to the policy-holders, at least to the small house-
owners and shopkeepers. Morpurgo forwarded the letter
to the insurance experts.50 On October 16th the Mayor of
Thessaloniki addressed an appeal to the Prime Minister
E. Venizelos, to exercise his influence on the insurance
companies on behalf of the policy-holders: The insurance
companies expressed their disposition not to pay the losses
in full, but to reach a settlement with the policy-holders,
a disposition that caused a deep excitement to the later,
who have the honor to appeal by the present letter to
Yours Excellency.51 The same day, Voutsinas called the
insurance experts and demanded again a prompt payment
of the damages. The agents invoked the difficulties they
47 The Times, 22.1.1918.
48 Empros [Athens newspaper], 24.9.1917.
49 The Times, 2.5.1918.
50 Makedonia, 19.10.1917.
21
 encountered while trying to collect all the necessary
pieces of evidence and submitted a document with
questions about the fire.52 They stressed that as various
rumors circulated in Europe about the causes of the fire
and the conditions under which it spread, the insurance
companies have to collect full information, in order to
form a fair opinion of the matter.53
It seems that Voutsinas was really effective, because the
insurance companies were persuaded that there was no
reason for further investigation. In the mid-November they
started to pay the compensations.54
However, in January 1918 the Greek Government
intervened in excluding some categories of policy-holders.
The Law 1128/191855 prohibited the pay of the damages
either to Greek subjects who did not reside in Greece (i.e.
the Muslims who had fled to Turkey, or even the political
enemies of the Prime Minister, who were exiled in Italy)
or to the subjects of the Central Powers (Germany and
Austria) or even the neutral ones (i.e. some hundreds
subjects of Spain, who resided in Thessaloniki). In these
cases, the insurance companies had to deposit the respective
compensations in blocked bank accounts, at the disposal of
the Greek Government. Therefore, hundreds of damages
remained unclaimed, because the policy-holders were not
residents of Greece and the insurance companies were not
52 Makedonia, 18.10.1917.
53 Makedonia, 19.10.1917.
54 Makedonia, 21.11.1917.
55 The Newspaper of the Greek Government, No A 6/1918.
22
asked for depositing the respective compensations in Greek
bank accounts.
In April 1918, the Greek Government announced that
the total amount of compensations for the damages came
to 4 million; however, only 2.8 million had been paid, of
which 2.4 million by London companies. The Government
stated that all the necessary actions had been taken to
settle the rest of the amount.56 We found no evidence either
of those necessary actions or of the payment of the rest
1.2 million, a sum representing the value of the industrial
capital in Macedonia in 1917.57
An undercurrent detail is that, after some years of rela-
tive tranquillity in the local insurance market, fire inci-
dents became frequent again in the period 1925-1929,
during which 250 fires broke up in Thessaloniki; most of
them were supposed to be deceitful, as an economic crisis
had occurred in Greece, due to the tremendous increase
in commodities supply, even before the outbreak of the in-
ternational recession.58 In the year 1929, when Nikolaos
Manos the elder (1875-1947) was elected as Chairman of
the Insurance Agents Syndicate, more than 80 agents were
struggling to survive in the narrow local market; therefore,
it is not surprising that ratio of the premiums to compen-
sations raised again to 80 per cent that year.
E. H.
56 Makedonia, 6.4.1918.
57 Roupa & Hekimoglou, 13.
58 Ibidem, 25-38.
 The photographs

The photographs of the present volume come from

a hand-made album, titled: INCEDIE DE SALONIQUE
// 18-19 Aot 1917.
The title is written on the cover page of the album and is
accompanied by the indication: C.A.A. Aronautique,
which means: Commandement des Armes Allies (en
Orient), Service Aronautique, i.e. Command of the Al-
lied Troops in Orient, Aeronautical Section.
Each photograph is captioned with a brief type-written
title in French, not always accurate, which we repeat in
italics. The photographs were glued on common wrapping
paper, which had been cut into pieces 28,5 cm wide and
21,3 cm long. The binding was made by glue; a binding
margin set at 3 cm kept the album in excellent condition.

23
 Photograph No 1. The eight minarets locus.
[Lincedie dans la nuit du 18 au 19 Aot 1917].
The photograph was taken during the night between
the 18th and the 19th of August, 1917. The large number
of mosques (eight mosques in total) allows us to identify
the place as the northern area of Thessaloniki. Smoke of
the fire can be seen behind the mosques. The instant the
photograph was being taken, the fire was destroying the
southern part of the city. That means that the photographer
had placed his camera to the north of the mosques. The dark
area which extends along the bottom of the photograph,
leaving uncovered only an outline of the upper part of
the buildings, is perhaps the northern wall of the city.
The photographer chose a hill, outside the northern wall,
and kept the lens of the camera open for some time, in
order to take the photograph with the night light. Since
neither Yedi Kule (The Seven Towers monument) nor the
characteristic two-storey minaret of the Taxiarchs Church
can be seen, the photographer must have taken the shot
from somewhere in the suburb nowadays known as Sykies
[: fig trees]. Only from Sykies one could see eight mosques.

24
25
 Photograph No 2. From the Government Building
to the Port [Vue panoramique des destructions]
This is a sectional photograph, comprised of ten successive
shots, each one of which was taken with great care in order
all of them eventually to form a one-piece image. The
outcome is a really panoramic view of the city the day
after the fire.
On the end of the right side one can see the small natural
harbour of Bech Chinar (The Five Plane-Trees), nowadays
the Sixth Pier of the citys modern Port.
On the fourth part of the photograph (from the right to
the left) one can recognise the bell-tower of the Catholic
Church. The descending road which passes to the right of
the church is the old Leon Sophos Street; it started from
Saint Demetrius Street and cut across the city all the way
to the harbour.
The Government Building especially its northern and
western wings- appears to the left end of the photograph
(second section). That means that the photographer had
placed his camera behind and sideways of the Government
Building and Leon Sophos Street. These elements allow
us to identify the location from which the shot was taken
within the quarter (then named) Chadji Iskenter and more
precisely within the new prisons, i.e. the place now
occupied by a school building, between Cassandros and
Olympos Streets (see also the next map).
26
Map No 1. Quarters destroyed by the fire
[Quartiers de Salonique detruits par lincedie
des 18-19 Aot 1917]
A comparison between the previous photograph
and the present map leads to the conclusion that the
photographer decided to take the picture standing at that
particular site, because it was exactly on the borders of
the fire zone, perhaps a plot of land which had escaped
disaster.
On the map the areas in black are the burnt areas. At
the western end of the city (to the left) the quarters of
the Twelve Apostles Church and Tophane were not hit by
the fire. At the west-southern end the quarters of Istira
and Ladadika (wheat and olive oil markets respectively)
were also not burnt. Some buildings on Franks Street
also escaped the fire. At the eastern side, the fire stopped
near Nea Panaghia Church and the White Mosque (Akche
Mesdjit) quarter. At the northern side of the city the fire
destroyed the Saint Demetrius Church and then changed
direction, without touching the Prophet Elijah Church
and the Government Building, although it destroyed the
quarters between them.
27
 Photograph No 3. From Saint Sophia Street to Regi Vardar [Vue aerienne de Salonique]
A birds eye view of the city, including the western and northern extra muros places. The photograph was taken from
an aeroplane flying over the port.
The photograph is one of the most interesting in the album of the Aeronautical Section. It depicts the whole city from

28
Saint Sophia Street (to the right) to the Port and the quarter Regi Vardar (to the left). On the north-south axis the
photograph depicts the urban environment and the extra muros uninhabited area (nowadays Sykies region).
The photograph is divided in five sections, which will be analysed in the following pages.

29
 Section No 3.1. The tekke, the cemetery and the camp
In the upper part of the section the camps of the
Entente troops are located; in the centre of the section the
tekke of the Mevlevi can be seen; right at the left of the
tekke lays the western Muslim cemetery.
3.1.1 Mevlevi tekke (monastery)
The Islamic order of the Mevlevi was established in
Thessaloniki in the early 17th century.1 Their monastery
was located near the New Gate (Yeni Kapu); perhaps it
is not an incidence that the tekke of the Mevlevi order in
Istanbul was also located near the synonymous gate.2 This
is the first published air photograph depicting the specific
monastery, with its yard and all its premises.3 It testifies
to the hypothesis suggested by Prof. N. Moutsopoulos
that the tekke was located in the plot where the modern
Panaghia Phaneromeni Church is located nowadays.4
This tekke is oddly built according to the lay out of
catholic monasteries; on the one side there is the place of
worship; on the other side small cells for the dervishes () A
foursquare building, painted inside and outside, is dedicated
to the intriguing practice of their religion () Countless
cats run around () They feed and exercise 60 cats in this
monastery, a traveller noted in 1825.5
The aforementioned layout of the space corresponds to
the photograph, even if not in the absolute way given by the
traveller. It is possible that many changes had undergone in
the period between the travellers visit (1825) and the time
the photograph was taken (1917).
To the north of the New Gate, Mevlevihane is discerned,
between trees and high cypresses. The place is worth-visiting
because is clean and the landscape is wonderful. During the
spring, every Thursday afternoon, many Christian families
go there to see and admire the various religious habits of
the dervishes, wrote Moraitopoulos 35 years before the
photograph was taken.6 Indeed, many trees can be seen at
the north of the main building, although to the south the
vegetation does not seem to be all that rich.
In 1917 some dervishes still used to live in the tekke. The
image of their seikh (leader) was preserved by a photograph
taken by the Orient Army.7 In addition to the dervishes,
many refugee families resided in this monastery, as an
English officer reported with surprise.8 It is believed that
the tekke was demolished in the late 1920s,9 following the
population exchange between Greece and Turkey (Orthodox
30
Christians of Turkey were exchanged with the Muslims of
Greece. Only a number of regions was exempted).
In 1878 arrived the first laymen who settled in the area
around the monastery: on 33 acres of hilly and rough
land () the Ottoman Government for the first time gave
the right to Turk refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina to
build houses on the monasterys land, granting them new
title deeds (tapu).10 Beginning in 1912, most of the Muslims
left the quarter. The Greek State took over the area and gave
permission to Christian refugees from Thrace and Anatolia,
who had settled in Thessaloniki in the years 1914-1916,
to build small houses.11 This quarter identified with the
area today known as Kallithea- lies to the right of the tekke,
outside of the wall, behind the road which connected the
monastery with the hills to the east. The whole area belonged
to Mevlevihane, along with property in the Harmankoy area
(nowadays Kordelio),12 the dye shops at Hippodrome13 and
perhaps the revenues of the Saint Demetrius Church (then
Kasimie Mosque).14
3.1.2 The western Islamic cemetery
The fenced Islamic cemetery (to the left) ran from the
nowadays Saint Nestor Street to Panaghia Phaneromeni
Street.15 Although the graveyard abuts on the monastery
(tekke), the photograph proves that they were two
separate, individually fenced areas. Moraitopoulos notes
that the place to the north of the road is full of graves.16
By road he means Langada Street, at the left side of the
photograph. The graves and the road are also mentioned
on the older known map of Thessaloniki, which dates to
the 18th century.17 Unfortunately, we know nothing about
their history, although the name of the gate leading to
the graveyard (New Gate) reveals that, for unknown
reasons, this entrance closed after the conquest of
Thessaloniki (1430) and was opened again sometime in
the 16th or the 17th century. This cemetery is one of the
two major extra muros Islamic cemeteries. The other one
(not included in the picture) was outside the eastern wall.
The gate diametrically at the opposite site of the New Gate
remained closed for many years as well and was opened
in 1874. Perhaps the western cemetery (New Gate) was
newer than the eastern one and its use may be related to the
establishment of the Mevlevi Monastery in the beginning
of the 17th century.
 Torrents junction

Camp in modern Polichni

Cemetery Mevlevi tekke

3.1.3. The surrounding area

Two maps printed in the 19th century pinpoint the ruins of
a mill and a hill named Mount Saint Paul, both of which
are depicted on the upper part of this picture.
The buildings scattered at the background are on the
same line of latitude with a military camp (nowadays called
Pavlos Melas, not included in the picture). Considering
all the above, the area depicted in this picture must be the
suburb that we nowadays call Polichni. In 1917 Polichni was
a large farm known as Kara Hussein [:the dark-skinned
Hussein], after the name of one of its earlier owners.
The depicted establishments may be either a British army
camp or the fire victims camp that was organized by Captain
Whatson, both of which were located in Kara Hussein farm.

1 Demetriadis

, 386.
11 Ibidem
2 Mirmiroglou,

313. 12 See Vakoufaris
, 141-230, for

registrations No 3457-4024 from
3 Many

topographic

elements

have

been published by Karademos- the 882/1 Esas (basic Ottoman tax cadastral) of village Har-
Yerolympos
, 88, 137, 142, 146, 164, 177 (the last dated

to

1938; mankoy, for the year 1907.
the tekke had been demolished). 13 Aletheia, 13.05.1908 .
4 Moutsopoulos, 1990, 13-39, for the relevant bibliography. 14 Dwight, 220.
5 Vakalopoulos, 179-180. 15 According to a British map dated to 1909, published repeatedly;
6 Moraitopoulos, 26 . recently by Lazaridis 1996, 141.
7 Stavroulakis, 71; Gregoriou & Hekimoglou, 208. 16 Moraitopoulos.
8 Gregoriou & Hekimoglou, 208; see also on page 206. 17 See the volume Thessaloniki 2300 years, 95, where the map is
9 According to Stavroulakis, 76, the tekke was demolished be- dated to 1732. Cf. Thessaloniki
in

the

maps,
where the

same map
tween 1927 and 1930. is dated to 1784.
10 Balkans
Newspaper,

13.11.1922
.

31
 Section No 3.2. The upper and the lower areas of the city
The Upper Castle (in Turkish Kala-i-Bala) appears at small and orientated along the east-west axis, as most of
the right end of the photograph; to the south of this castle, the mosques are.
there are the Monastery of Vlatadon and the Church of the
3.2.3. The Saint Demetrius Church
Taxiarchs (then known as Iki Serife Mosque, named after
In 1492 Sultan Bayazid transformed the Byzantine church
its two-galleried minaret); in the centre of the photograph,
of Saint Demetrius into a mosque and named it Kasimie3
we see the Saint Demetrius Church, the Fetiye Mosque,
(Kasim is the Islamic equivalent of Saint Demetrius). Ever
the Prophet Elijah Church and the Pismaniye Mosque.
since its conversion the building went through several
At the lower right end appear the Church of the Virgin
reparations until it was completely destroyed by the 1917
(Acheropoietos) and the Church of Saint Nicholas.
fire.
3.2.1. The Upper Castle
3.2.4. The Fetiye Mosque
The fortified land, on which the Upper Castle sits, is
In 1430 an unidentified Byzantine church or monastery -
characterized by very low building density. The 1906 tax
perhaps the Monastery of Prodromos or the Church of the
survey mentions 177 houses, a number rather big when
Virgin- was converted into a mosque by Sultan Murad II.4
compared to what actually appears on the photograph.
This mosque was known as Fetiye, i.e. the Conquerors
The Popara Zade Mosque can be detected by its minaret;
Mosque.5
we notice that this mosque has a different orientation than
the other mosques of the city (it is oriented on the axis 3.2.5. The Prophet Elijah Church
of Egnatia Street, not towards the east-west axis),1 an In the 15th century an unidentified Byzantine monastery,
indication that it was built on the foundations of an older perhaps the Akapniou monastery,6 dedicated to the Christ,
Christian church. Additional evidence in support for the was converted into a mosque, known as Serai Atik Djami,
existence of an older church is that Popara Zade Mosque i.e. the Old Palaces Mosque.7 In 1913 the mosque was
owned wakf estate which was possessed by the Christian transformed into a church, which was named after Prophet
Community2: a plot which abutted on the Orthodox Elijah.8
Cathedral Ensemble (where later on a house for the elder
3.2.6. The Pismaniye
was built by the Orthodox community). Eventually, Popara
The Pismaniye [:the Regrets] Mosque was established in
Zade was replaced by the Saint Anargyroi Church.
the 16th century by a local governor.9
3.2.2. Vlatadon Monastery, Taxiarchs Church
3.2.7. The Church of the Virgin (Acheropoietos)
The Vlatadon Monastery can be distinguished from
The Byzantine Church of the Virgin Acheropoietos was
surrounding buildings because it is protected by high
transformed into a mosque by Sultan Murad II in 1430.10
stone walls.
At the right side of the foreground, in the middle of a 3.2.8. The Saint Nicholas Church
circular street lay-out, we see the two-galleried minaret of Saint Nicholas was a modern church (1864), built on the
the Iki Serife Mosque (Taxiarchs Church). The building is site of an older one.11

1 In Thessaloniki the predominant orientation of churches follows 5 Demetriadis, 309.

the Roman planning system, i.e. the axis of Egnatia Street; 6 Papazotos, 121-127.
Papageorgiou, 30-31, 38. 7 Demetriadis, 301-303.
2 In wakf estate the possessor is a different person than the owner. 8 Makedonia, 18.7.1913.
3 Demetriadis, 292-294. 9 Demetriadis, 315.
4 Anagnostes, 129b. According to the local tradition, the mosque 10 A
 nagnostes, 129b.
had previously been the Saint Nestor Church. 11 Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou

1994a, 132-174.

32
 Castle

Vlatadon

Iki Serife
Prophet Elijah

Aladja Imaret

Hamam

St Demetrius

Pismaniye
Fetiye Ali Pasha

St Nicholas

Virgin Church

Suleiman
Hamam

33
 Section No 3.3. The north-western part of the city
3.3.1. The Government Building 3.3.3. The Yusuf Pasha Mosque
The Government Building, still in public use, consists of The Mosque of Yusuf Pasha was orientated along the east-
177 rooms. It was built in 1895 on the site of an earlier west axis. It was registered in the list of public buildings
administrative building and was not damaged by the fire ruined by the fire.3 It was also known as Yilan Mermer,
of 1917. In 1955 an additional floor was added. i.e. the Marble of the Snake,4 a strange name which can
be explained by the presence, on the site, of a Roman
3.3.2. The Saint Catherine Church
monument depicting a snake.
An unidentified 13th century church was transformed into
a mosque by Yakub Pasha (early 16th century) and was
named after him.1 In 1912 the mosque was converted once
again into a church, dedicated to Saint Catherine.2

1 Demetriadis, 303. by the Doctor Demetrius Rizos, to identify the retrieved mosques
2 The

retrieval

of

the

Byzantine

churches

, which

had

been

con- with the corresponding Byzantine churches. No relevant archive
verted into mosques


by

the

Ottoman

Muslims
,
took place when material has been found. For the cadastral registers of the Greek
Thessaloniki was occupied by the Greek Army. Our

information Community of Thessaloniki, see Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou
comes
from

the

newspapers

of November and December 1912 & Hekimoglou1995, 370-406 .
(especially Nea Aletheia); no scholar work has been published on 3 Demetriadis, 474.
this matter. It seems that the Greek Community of the city, which 4 Demetriadis, 327 and 346.
was the legal owner of the churches assigned to a committee chaired

34
 St Catherine

Mustafa

Saatli

Government Building

Yusuf Pasha
Leo
Soph

Kara Hadji
os

35
 La
nga
da
Str
Regie

us Str
Egnatia

l
Tanta
Vardari Sq St Kyriaki
Monasteriou Str

Railway

tober
h Oc
26t

Rai Old Custom Office

lwa
y ex
ten Quarantine
sion

Section No 3.4. The industrial and railway premises near the port
3.4.1. The Tophane
The Tophane was built in the 16th century to reinforce the
Defense of Thessaloniki; its name betrays that originally it
served as the artillerys [:top] headquarters [:hane].
3.4.2. The Burmali Mosque
In the 15th century an unidentified Byzantine church
was transformed into a mosque and was given the name
Burmali Mosque after the decoration of its spiral [:burmali]
minaret. According to the local tradition, the Byzantine
church was dedicated to Saint Kyriaki. The building was
demolished in 1925.1
3.4.3. The Port
The Port of Thessaloniki was constructed in 1900.2 It
consisted of three piers, one of which was connected through
a railway to the citys train transportation system for the
merchandise to be directly loaded and unloaded. There
were also stores for petroleum and other merchandise.3
3.4.4. New and Old Custom Offices
The Old Custom Office, as well as the Quarantine Hall
next to it, were built in the 1870s. In 1899-1900 the sea
along the coastline was filled in to extend the land for
the construction of the new Port facilities. As a result,
the Custom Office was not a coastal building any more.4
In 1911 a New Custom Office was erected, next to the
coastline, between the two piers.
3.4.5. The Londja Mosque
The word Londja means guild. The Londja mosque,
also named Kadi [Judge] Kemal after its founder, was
located in the timber merchants market. Perhaps it was the
mosque of the timber merchants guild. Although it is not
included in a list of the citys mosques dated in 1906,5 it is
mentioned in the list of the buildings destroyed by the fire
of 1917.6 In all probability it was out of use by 1906 and
was being repaired between the years 1906-1917.
3.4.6. The Ladadika quarter
Beginning in the early 19th century, the area to the west
of Londja Mosque is mentioned by the sources as Ladadika
(olive oil market).7

36
 a nk
anB Catholic Church
Malta tom
Ot

Ladadika

Londja

New Custom Office

3.4.7. The Catholi Churh 3.4.8. The Ottoman Bank

The Church of Thessalonikis Catholic community was
built in 1897 on the location of an older and smaller
Catholic church.8 It was designed by the Italian architect
Vitaliano Poselli.9 In 1913 there were approximately 1,000
Catholics in Thessaloniki.
The Ottoman Bank was established in Thessaloniki in
1867. In the early 20th century the bank, on behalf of the
State, collected the annual revenues of Macedonia.10
3.4.9. The Malta Han
The Malta Han was a famous inn, reported in the sources
as early as the 18th century. It was named after the slave-
merchants from Malta, who sold prisoners as slaves in
Thessaloniki.11

1 See Anastassiadis & Hekimoglou, 54-57, for the relevant biblio-
graphy and photographic material.
2 Hekimoglou Danaciolu,, 69 and on.
3 The short railway extension between the station of the Eastern
Railways and the Port was constructed in 1910; Gounaris, 60.
4 Hekimoglou Danaciolu, 79-81.
5 Demetriadis, 331.
6 Demetriadis, 474.
7 For Ladadika, see Yerolympos -Kalogerou et. al.
8 Papastathis 1974,, 395; Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou
-Panaghiotopoulou
Panaghiotopoulou 1989,
491 and on; Hekimoglou 2001b, 139-144.
9 Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou 1989, 495.
10 For the presence of the Ottoman Bank in Thessaloniki see
Karatzoglou; also Hekimoglou1993..
11 Hekimoglou 2001a, 175-188.

37
 Section No 3.5. The coastal Jewish quarters
3.5.1. The Salhane quarter
Salhane literally means slaughter house. The quarter was
named after a poultry slaughter house, which operated
in the area. As time went by the area was upgraded and
the Stein Stores building was erected on the site. To the
north of the Stein Building there is the domed structure of
Yehudi Hamam (The Jewish Bath).
3.5.2. The Yehudi Hamam or Pazar Hamam
The Yehudi Hamam1, i.e. the Jewish Bath, or Pazar Hamam,
i.e. the Bath in the Market, was built in the middle 16th
century.2 It was the only public bath in the city situated
close by the sea.
3.5.3. The Yeni Havlu [: New Yard] quarter
The quarter was named after a yard (havlu in Turkish, avli
in Greek), in all probability, the open space surrounded
by destroyed buildings between the Stein Building and the
Pazar Hamam. The Mayor (Mallorca) Synagogue, which
was located in this quarter, was at the corner of Venizelos
and Old Tsimiski streets. It was established in the late 15th
century by the congregation (kehal) of the Jews from the
Spanish island Mallorca.3 The building of the synagogue
was not fully destroyed by the fire and soon, after some
repairs, housed 39 fire hit families.
3.5.4. The Premises of the Chief-Rabbi Office
The premises of the Chief-Rabbi Office (Bas hahamhane)
and the Talmuth-Tora School were located in a small square,
to the north of Pazar Hamam.5 About forty homeless
families found a shelter in the ruins of the Talmuth-Tora
after the fire.6
1 See Hatzitrifonos, for an analytical approach to this bath.
2 Lowry 2009, 47.
3 Demetriadis, 171, 369-370.
4 Hekimoglou 1990, 40.
5 Demetriadis, 170.
6 Hekimoglou 1990.
7 Demetriadis, 76, 263.
For a map of the establishment see
Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou & Hekimoglou 2004, 176-177;
38
3.5.5. The Saint Theodora Church
Saint Theodora7 was located to the west of the Saint
Nicholas Street. The ensemble of Saint Theodora comprised
of a church, a school and some houses; all of them were
destroyed by the fire.
3.5.6. The Findik quarter
The Findik [:hazelnut] quarter8 was located to the north of
Saint Theodora. The main market in this quarter was the
flour market (Un Kapan) on the eastern side - which was
destroyed by the fire.
3.5.7. The Bedaron quarter
The Bedaron [Beth Aaron: Aarons house] quarter9 was
to the south of the Saint Theodora Church. The school
of Alliance Isralite Universelle was the quarters main
building. About 170 fire victims found shelter in the
schools ruins.10
3.5.8. The Ez Haim quarter
The Ez Haim [:the tree of life] quarter11 was located
between the school of Alliance and the quay. The quarters
synagogue was destroyed by the fire.12
3.5.9. The Aguda quarter
The Aguda quarter13 was located to the east of the Saint
Theodora Church; it was totally destroyed by the fire. In
all probability the quarter was named after a place in
Portugal, from which Jews had relocated to Thessaloniki.
for a list of the plots and the property relations in the area,
ibidem, 207-209.
8 Demetriadis, 168.
9 Ibidem, 170.
10 Hekimoglou 1990.
11 Demetriadis, 171.
12 Nar, 112.
13 Demetriadis, 166.
 Un Kapan
Egnatia
St Theodora

Aguda
Chief-Rabbi
Mayor

tr
sS
ola
Hamam

ch
Ni
St
Str Alliance
os Havlu
nizel
Ve
Stein
Ez Haim

39
 Photograph No 4. The central business district [Vue aerienne de Salonique]
This air photograph was taken from the sea at a point not far from the centre of the city. It shows the area between
Saint Nicholas Street, Egnatia Street and the Port; it will be examined in two sections: the western side and the business
district.

40
41
 Section No 4.1. The western side
This section includes a very interesting depiction of
the old port quarter, consisting of Salaminos Street (to the
left), the Londja Mosque, the Morihovo Square, and the
Doxis Street (parallel to Kountouriotis Street).1
4.1.1. The residence of the Allatini family
The residence of the Allatini family was erected in 1862.
The Allatini were among the richest families in the
Ottoman Empire.2 The members of the family possessed
factories a flour mill and a brick production plan-, banks
and other companies.
4.1.2. The Banque de Salonique
The Banque de Salonique was established in Thessaloniki
in 1888 and relocated in Istanbul in 1908. The share capital
was owned by Austrian and German banks. The branch of
Thessaloniki functioned until WWII, in a building erected
in 1910 in the yard of the Allatini premises.
4.1.3. The Egnatia Street
The Egnatia Street runs parallel to the sea. Back then it
connected the western entrance of Thessaloniki to the
eastern one. Until early in the 20th century it was simply
called the wide road because it was the wider street in
the city.
4.1.4. The Frangon (Franks) Street
Beginning in the 17th century, a number of merchants
from Western Europe (mainly Italy and France) settled in
Thessaloniki. They resided in an intra muros quarter, close
to the port. The area was named the Franks quarter after
the appellation given to all Westerners by the locals.
4.1.5. The Egypt Street
The Egypt Street was named after the Turkish expression
Misir Charsi. Charsi means market, whereas Misir has
a double meaning: corn and Egypt. In actuality, Misir
Charsi was a Corn Market, but it was misinterpreted as
Egypt Market and consequently as Egypt Street. This road
suffered no fire damages.
1 See

Hekimoglou 2001a
, 167-168
for
the
rich
bibliography
on
this
area.
2 Trakasopoulou-Tzimou,

161, 165; Hekimoglou 1991a, 51; for the
Allatini family see Hekimoglou 2004a, 290-295; Gregoriou 2008.
3 Hekimoglou 1992b.
4 Demetriadis, 330-331.
42
4.1.6. The Emporiou Square
The Emporiou [: trade] Square is located to the north of
Egypt Street. It is just a small plot of land right in front
of the citys gate that opened to the port, the Yalu Kapu
gate [:beach gate]. The citys fortification and the gate were
torn down in 1874. The edifices at the right side of the
square were damaged by the fire.3
4.1.7. The Morihovou Square
The Morihovou Square is located to the west of Egypt Street.
Before the filling of the sea, it was a coastal open space for
unloading the boats. It was named after a mountain near
Florina.
4.1.8. The Mosque of the Pier
That Mosque was located at the southern part of Egypt
Street, by the pier.4 In 1874, when the sea was filled to
extend the land, the old pier was abolished and the mosque
was not on the coast any more. The building was not
damaged by the fire.
4.1.9. The Bedestan market
The Bedestan (or else known as Bezesteni) is a domed
commercial building, erected in the 15th century (prior to
1478).5 Its stoned walls, about one and a half meters thick,
resisted the fire. Its name derives from bezzaz han [:cloth
market].
4.1.10. The Telalika market
To the west of the Bedestan market stood another market
that was destroyed, the Telalika.6 Not much is known
about it. After the fire 55 families found shelter in its
ruins.7
4.1.11. The Cit Saul
The Cit Saul (Sauls city) 8 was a 19th century arcade
named after its owner, the Jewish banker Saul Modiano
(died 1883), the second wealthiest businessman in the
Ottoman Empire. The fire damaged a part of the arcade
which was never restored. The photograph shows the
original shape of Cit Saul.
4.1.12. The Saint Menas Church
The basilica of Saint Menas9 was built in 1851-52 on the
site of a burnt church or of a monastery. The church itself
was not damaged by the fire. However, the south-western
side of the ensemble, which was owned by the Greek
Community, was destroyed.10
5 Lowry 2009, 47.
6 Demetriadis, 329.
7 Hekimoglou 1990, 40.
8 Zarkada-Pistioli, 132-139.
9 Mantopoulou-Panagiotopoulou 1996.
10 Hekimoglou 1992b.
Egnatia
Bedestan

Allatini
Cit Saul
Banque de Salonique

St Menas
Catholic Church

n Str
Frango
V. Hu

s Str
Veroia
go Str

u Sq
orio
Emp
K
at
ou
Eg

Londja
ni
yp

St
t

r
St
r

Morihovou
Mosque

43
 Section No 4.2. The citys business district
This section includes the same elements with the 4.2.7. The Ali Pasha Mosque
already commented Section No 3.5. However, the present The Ali Pasha Mosque5 was a contemporary mosque that
photograph is clearer and is taken from a different was built at the site of an older mosque, which, before that,
focal point; therefore some buildings may be seen more was a church. Because it was registered as early as 1478
distinctly. in the cadastral of Thessaloniki we assume that the first
Ali Pasha Mosque was in fact a church transformed into a
4.2.1. Old Tsimiski Street - St Menas Road
mosque, one of the many that underwent such conversion
As with many other streets in Thessaloniki in 1917, the Old
after Sultan Murad had conquered the city (1430).
Tsimiski Street, was abolished by the new city plan, with
However, in the 1917 photograph the mosque appears
the exception of its western part. The preserved part of the
orientated along the east-west axis and not along the axis
street ends at its intersection with Venizelos Street and is
of Egnatia Street, appropriate for a church; therefore, in all
named Saint Menas Road. See also Section No 11.4.
probability, a new building must have been built at some
4.2.2. The Venizelos Street point to serve as mosque.
The analysis of cadastral sources dated to the late 19th
and the early 20th century proved that the street originally
4.2.8. The Suleiman Mosque
The Suleiman Mosque, which dates to the middle 17th
known as Charsi (i.e. Market) and later as Venizelos,
century, was destroyed by the fire of 1917. Early in the
was the border between two areas, that differed on the
20th century archaeological excavations revealed that the
following social factors: (a) the property relations (to the
mosque was built on the ruins of a 9th century Christian
west of Venizelos street the land was owned by waqfs and
church.6
to the east by private owners); (b) the use of the place
(a commercial district extended to the west of Venizelos 4.2.9. A camp in the Port
Street; a mixed housing and business district to the east).1 A camp not reported by any of the periods sources- is
established at the first pier of the Port.
4.2.3. The Bank

of Athens
The building of the Bank of Athens was not damaged by 4.2.10. The Saint Theodora Church
the fire and was used by that bank until 1926. See Section No 3.5.
4.2.4. The National Bank of Greece 4.2.11. Talmud Tora, Chief-Rabbi Office
The premises of the National Bank of Greece, right across See Section No 3.5.
from the Bank of Athens, were totally destroyed at about
midnight of August 5th.2
4.2.12. Hamam
Section No 3.5.
4.2.5. Coastal buildings
The luxurious belle epoque hotels of Thessaloniki, like
4.2.13. Olympos Palace
See Map No 2.
Olympos Palace, Hotel of England3 and Splendid Palace,
appear to be heavily damaged by the fire. 4.2.14. Splendid Palace
See Photograph No 9.
4.2.6. Liberty Square
In 1908, after the Neo-Turk Movement, the southern part 4.2.15. Fetiye Mosque
of the Charsi street (nowadays Venizelos Street), which See Section No 3.2.
led to the promenade and was so wide that looked like a
square, was named Liberty Square. Six years after the fire
4.2.16. Saint Demetrius
See Section No 3.2.
(1923), the block of burnt buildings, along the promenade
to the west of the Charsi-Liberty Square street, was 4.2.17. Virgin Church
finally demolished. After an unsuccessful attempt to erect See Section No 3.2.
a Post Office in that place, the land was left open and took
the name Liberty Square.4

1 Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou & Hekimoglou 2004, 27-30. 2008, a collection of papers which was published long after the
2 Hekimoglou 1988. compiling of the present study.
3 Gregoriou 2003, 61-65. 5 Demetriadis, 339.
4 For extensive bibliography and new elements, see Gala

-
Georghila 6 Demetriadis, 324-25.

44
Saint Demetrius Ali Pasha Mosque

Fetiye

Virgin Church

Suleiman Mosque

Saint Theodora

Talmud Tora Synagogue

Chief Rabbi Office

et
Hamam ki Stre
simis
Old T Alliance school
Bank of Athens i s k i Street
sim
Old T

National Bank of Greece

Ve
n iz
el
os
St
re
et

Splendid Palace
Li
be
r
ty
Sq

Hotel of England
ua

Olympos Palace
re

A camp in the Port

45
 Photograph No 5. Franks Street [Vue aerienne de Salonique. Quartier

Franc]
Photograph No 5 is thematically identical to the lower part of photograph No 4, but it was taken the day after the fire.
The buildings on the plot nowadays known as Liberty Square are ruined. The smoke in the centre of the photograph covers
the Saint Menas block and its cluster of buildings, the core of which, including the church, survived the fire.

46
47
 Map No 2. The central business district [Quartier des affaires]
The map presents the same area as photograph No 5.
The quarters which were destroyed by the fire are depicted
in black; the locations of organizations and businesses are
pointed with white lettering.
The Stein Store building escaped the fire and stands on
the site even today, whereas the neighboring edifices were
completely destroyed. Abutting against the Stein was the
first-class Hotel of England.1 At the same block were the
premises of Messagerie Maritime (a navigation company)2
and the Club des Intimes (a social club for the bourgeois
class).3 The area of the modern Liberty Square included
the Flocas patisserie, the Olympos Hotel, luxurious by the
standards of that time,4 and the Post Office.5 The grand
clothing stores Orosdi Back6 and Tiring, which were
located on Venizelos Street, were also destroyed.
Three buildings were reported as undamaged in the
cluster of Saint Menas Church: the church itself, the
premises of the Orient Bank (owned by the Christian
Community) and the premises of the Bank of Athens
(owned by the Jewish Community). Paradoxically, the
map does not include the Kyrtsis building, which stood
just opposite to the Bank of Athens and housed the
premises of the National Bank of Greece; this building
was completely destroyed.8
At the northern side of the same cluster the premises
of the Ionian Bank appear to be destroyed. Diagonally
opposite to the Ionian Bank there was a commercial building
(Katouni Han) owned by the Christian Community, which,
until 1911, housed the Mytilene Bank.9 It too appears to be
destroyed, as well as the Ottoman Bank (see also 3.4.4). The
Catholic Church, situated between those banks, escaped
the fire.

1 Hekimoglou 2001c, 32-33. Consumers. The Orosdi-Back Saga, Istanbul 2007.

2
Ibidem,

34. 7

Tiring apparel store
was established


in

Thessaloniki

in
the year
3 Molho 1988; Molho 1995. 1867
. In November 1910 Tiring relocated from the Franks quarter
4 Gregoriou 2003, 67 and 69-73; this study was published after the to 56, Venizelos Street, in new luxurious premises. It

was

one

of
compilation of the present paper. the

greater
apparel stores
in European Turkey and perhaps the
5
Hekimoglou

2001c, 30-31. first building with elevator in Thessaloniki.
Totally damaged by
6 For the long history of the Orosdi-Back company, which now the fire, Tiring left Thessaloniki.
deals with real estate activities and is based in France, see Uri M. 8

Hekimoglou
1988.
Kupferschmidt, European Department Stores and Middle Eastern 9

Hekimoglou
2002.

48
49
 Photograph No 6. From Lebet to Saint Sophia [Vue aerienne de Salonique]
This photograph gives an impressive view, not only of the greater part of the city but of the north-west area outside
the walls as well. Since many of the burnt buildings appear demolished, the photograph must be dated to June or July 1918.
In June 1918, the Municipality was being criticized for delaying to clear the ruins. Thus, in the meantime, many owners had
already knocked their burnt houses down by their own means, in order to remove and sell the building material.1 We shall
examine the photograph in three sections.

1 Makedonia, 3.6.1918, 9.6.1918.

50
51
 eet
a Str
g ad Lebet tumulus
L an
Camp, Sykies
Pavlos Melas Camp, Rodochorion
army barracks Camp, Varna
Camp, Neapoli
da Str

Eski Delik
Cemetery Mevlevihane
Langa

Yeni Delik

Section No 6.1. Outside the northern wall

This section includes the area where today are the
suburbs of Sykies, Neapolis and Polichni as well as a part
of the suburb of Stavroupolis.
6.1.1 The Langada Street
Langada Street is considered to be a part of the Roman
Via Egnatia, connecting Thessaloniki with the East. The
street was named after Langada, a small town 20 km to the
northeast of Thessaloniki.
6.1.2. Military camps
The military camp, nowadays called Pavlos Melas, was
established in 1881, in a 40-acres area. The camp was used
originally by the Ottoman Army and after 1912 by the
Greek Army.
Other military camps, established by the Allied
troops, are shown at the uninhabited area to the north
of Thessaloniki. After WWI, these camps were used by
the refuges from Turkey and became the nucleuses for
the formation of the modern suburbs Sykies, Varna,
Rodochorion and Neapoli.
6.1.3. The Lebet tumulus
According to archaeological findings, the Lebet tumulus
was inhabited during the 3rd and 2nd millennium B.C.1
6.1.4. The Eski Delik gate
The Eski Delik (Old Hole) is a gate at the northern side of
Thessalonikis fortification walls. In Greek it was known as
Portara, i.e. big door.2 Unlike the gates at the eastern and
the western side of the walls, gates at the northern were a
disadvantage to the Defense system. It remains unknown
when and why the gates at the fortifications northern side
were opened. A road leading from the Eski Delik gate to
the fields outside the wall, toward the north, is reported in
a map which dates to 1851. Therefore, we assume that the
gate exists at least since that date.
6.1.5. The Yeni Delik gate
Yeni Delik (New Hole) was an unofficial gate at the north-
west corner of the citys walls.3
6.1.6. The Mevlevihane
See Section No 3.1.
6.1.7. The Cemetery
See Section No 3.1.

1 Tzanavari & Lioutas

2 Demetriadis, 106.
3
Demetriadis, 30, 114.

52
 Rgie

s Str Yusuf Pasha

German School p ho
Burmali So
Leon
Franks Street

Hamza Bey

Emporiou Square
Chios St
Londja

The Port

Section No 6.2. The western side of the city

6.2.1. The Rgie Co-intresse des Tabacs1 6.2.5. The Chios Street
The factory of the company Rgie Co-intresse des Tabacs The diagonal Chios Street5 ran across the demolished
was located close to the north-western walls the city, where eastern wall to Emporiou Square.
nowadays a suburb named Xerokrene is situated.2 Until
6.2.6. The Emporiou Square (Trade Square)
1914 Rgie had a monopoly on the tobacco industry in the
See Section No 4.1.
Ottoman Empire as well as in some ex-Ottoman regions, like
Macedonia. A published report on the Jewish Community 6.2.7. The Burmali Mosque (or Saint Kyriaki
of Thessaloniki, dated to 1924, testifies the construction Church)
of some hundreds stone-made houses, resided by 1,000 See Section No 3.4.
families.3 A local source dated to 1932 described the area
6.2.8. The Yusuf Pasha Mosque
as following: The quarter () consists of 1,280 families,
See Section No 3.3.
all Jewish, who settled there after the great fire of 1917.
In general, the residents are workers and poor tradesmen, 6.2.9. The Leon Sophos Street
usually peddlers, who work in the city.4 A synagogue See Photograph No 2.
named Sukat Salom was located in that quarter.
6.2.10. The Saint Demetrius Street
6.2.2. The Franks Street The street which joined the western New Gate (Yeni Kapi;
See Section No 4.1. See Section No 3.1) to the eastern Telli Kapi was named
after the Church of Saint Demetrius. Some of the most
6.2.3. The German School
important religious and administrative buildings were
The German School was situated near the citys walls,
located on that street.
toward the end of Franks Street. The school was established
by a team of German residents of Thessaloniki, mainly 6.2.11. The Hamza Bey Mosque
merchants. It was demolished for the widening of Vardari Hamza Bey Mosque is a 17th century building, which was
Square. In about 1935 the edifice of the Italian School was erected on the foundations of a 15th century mosque. It
erected on the same plot. was not damaged by the fire of 1917.
6.2.4. The Port 6.2.12. The Londja Mosque
See Section No 3.4. See Section No 3.4.

1 For this area see Hadars study, published long after the compilation 3 Hastaoglou-Martinidis, 159.
of the present paper. 4 Ghavrielides (1932), 513.
2 See Hekimoglou

2001
c
, 12-13
, for a picture of this factory. 5 Hekimoglou 2001a, 163-165.

53
 Virgin
Suleiman Acheropoietos

tr
cholas S Poulia
St Athanasios
Alliance school a i nt Ni
S
Old T
simis Aragon
Italia Synagogue ki Street St Sophia

Str
Virgin Eleoussa

les
Salom St Sophia

har
hamam

gC
Sayas Cathedral

Section No 6.3. The Old Tsimiski Street (See also Section No 11.4.)
6.3.1. The Alliance School
See Section No 3.5.
6.3.2. The Italian Synagogue
There were three synagogues named after the corresponding
Jewish congregations of Italian origin: Italia, Small Italia
and Italia Salom. The first of them was destroyed by the
fire of 1917. There is no information for the other two.1
6.3.3. The Aragon Synagogue
The Aragon Synagogue, named after a Jewish congregation
of Spanish origin, was reported as destroyed by the fire.2
6.3.4. The Virgin Eleoussa (the Merciful)
The small domed church of Virgin Eleoussa was the sole
remnant of a Byzantine monastery dedicated to the Virgin.
This church was destroyed by the fire of 1890 and was
replaced by a simple basilica, which was half-burnt in
1917.
6.3.5. The Sayas Cotton Mill
The Sayas Cotton Mill employed 470 workers in 1912; its
annual production was 650 tones. It was owned by the
Sides et Cie Company. The factory was destroyed by the
fire of 1917.3
6.3.6. The Orthodox Cathedral
The Orthodox Cathedral, built in the late 17th century,
was totally destroyed by the fire of 1890. It was rebuilt
and inaugurated on April 21st, 1914.4 The church was not
damaged by the fire of 1917.
Kin
6.3.7. The Poulya Synagogue
All over the burnt place from the coast to the Saint Sophia
Church the only synagogue which seems to have suffered
repairable damages was Poulia; in the month after the fire,
64 homeless people took shelter in that synagogue. It was
located on the site through which nowadays passes the
Kastritsiou Street.
6.3.8. The Suleiman Mosque
See Section No 6.1.
6.3.9. The Saint Sophia hamam
The bath next to Saint Sophia Church was erected in the
early 16th century.5
6.3.10. The Saint Athanasios Church
Saint Athanasios, an early 19th century church not
distinguished in the photograph, was the parish church of
the most important Christian quarter of the city. As all
other parish churches of Thessaloniki, Saint Athanasios
was built on the ruins of an earlier monastery.6
6.3.11. The Saint Sophia Church
The Byzantine church of Saint Sophia was the Orthodox
cathedral of Thessaloniki until 1524, when it was
transformed into a mosque.7 The transformer, the vizier
Maktub Ibrahim Pasha, established a very rich wakf8
to support the preservation of Saint Sophia, which as a
mosque maintained its original name.
6.3.12. The Virgin Church
See Section No 3.2 for Acheiropoietos.

1 Demetriadis, 154, 156, 168, 369-370; Papastathis 1978, 156. 8

At least 35 plots; see Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou & He-
2 Papastathis 1978, op. cit. kimoglou 2004, plots Nos 5/11, 7/4, 7/14, 69/7, 69/18, 69/22, 101/1,
3 Hekimoglou 2001c, 40. 101/3, 101/7, 101/8 , 101/9, 101/10, 101/15, 102/1, 102/2, 102/3,
4 Mantopoulou-Pnaghiotopoulou 1985, 25-41. 102/4, 102/5, 102/7, 102/8, 102/9, 102/11, 102/13 , 102/17,
5
Demetriadis, 418-419. 102/18, 102/19, 102/20, 102/23, 103/1, 103/2, 211/6, 268/1, 318/8,
6
For the relevant bibliography, see Hekimoglou 2001a, 223-254. 318/9. Besides, the wakf was the owner of the plot of the German
7
Demetriadis, 288-292. School, in Vardari Square.

54
Photograph No 7. The Liberty Square
[Place de la Libert et rue Vnizelos]
The photograph was taken from Liberty Square, in
front of the Stein Store (only part of it appears at the front
right side). At the right side, the building which exceeds
the site line, is the Parnassus Hotel.1 Some advertisements
of Nestos cigarettes cover the faade of the ground
floor. Next to the hotel, further back in the street and not
shown in the picture, there was the Orosdi Back shop (see
Map No 2). Right across from Parnassus, at the left side
of the picture, stand the ruins of the Tiring Store. French
and British officers inspect the damages. They are rather
heavily dressed for the warm temperature of Thessaloniki
in the summer. A French officer with binoculars is
watching something in Kalapothakis Street (the narrow
street to the right).

1 Gregoriou 2003, 106.

55
 Photograph No 8. A popular cinema [Cinema Path]
At the left end of the photograph appears part of
the premises of Messagerie Maritime. Then follows a
narrow street and, at the centre of the photograph, the
cinema Path. Path had been a theatre, which was
transformed into a cinema. It was very popular among the
French soldiers. The building seems to be totally destroyed
by the fire. The hotel to the right of the cinema, named
Imperial Hotel,1 was also completely burnt.

Photograph No 9. The Splendid Palace Hotel

[Les Quais. Hotel Splendid]
The hotel Splendid Palace1 was totally destroyed by
the fire. It had just started operating in 1907 and was, as
an advertisement indicated, a colossal and magnificent
building, the greater in the city It includes 40 rooms,
single, double and for families; It also has a reception hall,
a dancing hall, a marriage hall, a library, a piano and, even,
a bathroom. [It is furnished with] marvellous luxurious
furniture. A barber-shop on the ground floor offered its
services to the hotel residents.

1 Ibidem, 57-59. 1 Hekimoglou 2001c, 35-36; Gregoriou 2003, 94-97.

56
57
 Photograph No 10. The promenade [Les Quais. La Metropole]
This photograph depicts the burnt buildings on the promenade between the streets of Saint Sophia (to the left)
and King Charles (to the right; nowadays Lassani Street). At the left, the domes of the undamaged Cathedral Church
(Metropolis) stand out from behind the front building.

58
59
 Photograph No 11. The eastern side [Vue aerienne de Salonique]
This photograph, very rich in topographic information regarding the eastern side of the city, was taken the same day
as photograph No 6. We shall examine it carefully in four sections, the section of Hamidie Street, of Hippodrome, of Saint
Sophia and of Old Tsimiski Street, respectively.

60
61
 Section No 11.1. The Hamidie Street
The eastern part of the intra muros city and in
particular the Hamidie Street, the Municipal Hospital,
the cemeteries, the Red Cross Hospital and the Idadiye
building (a preparatory school for civil servants; today
part of the University and known as the Old University)
are constructions that bear witness to Thessalonikis
modernization during the last years of Sultan Abdul
Hamids reign. 1
At the right, there is the long Hamidie Street (nowadays
known as Ethnikes Amynes: National Defense) that
connects the White Tower with the Castles, cutting across
Egnatia Str. Walking up along the right side of the Hamidie
Street, as we leave behind us the small square with the
Fountain on Egnatia Str., we meet the Idadiye and, next
to it, the League of French Ladies camp, a humanitarian
organization, situated on the Hercules sports club field
(nowadays part of the University of Thessaloniki).2 To
the north of the camp there is the Jewish cemetery that
included 800,000 graves.3
1 Yerolympos,
111-124.
2 Hekimoglou 1995, 469-489.
3 Salem.
4 For a photograph of the interior see Hekimoglou & Danaciolu,
64.
5 Astreinidou & Theologidou.
62
Should we continue walking northward, along the left
side, we would come upon Islahane (an Islamic school, with
a mosque and a hamam) and then upon the Protestant and
the Armenian cemeteries. At the right side appears the
Orthodox cemetery of Evanghelistria and next to it the
Bulgarian cemetery, which, in 1913, was incorporated to
Evanghelistria.
The Municipal Hospital (nowadays known as Saint
Demetrius) was built in 1904. Its impressive building
dominated the area. Until 1912 its luxurious upper floor
served as a residence for the regional governor, while
only the first floor was used as a hospital.4 At the back
side of the premises, a marvellous garden, an example of
imaginative landscape architecture, was created for the
governors pleasure and, hence, it was named Pashas
Garden.5 Only a few buildings existed at the north of
Pashas Garden. The land to the right of the castle was to
become later on the Municipality of Saint Paul.
 Pashas Garden

Municipal Hospital
Armenian Cemetery

Protestant Cemetery
Bulgarian Cemetery
Islahane
Orthodox Cemetery

Jewish cemetery
Red Cross Hospital
Camp of the
French Ladies
eet
e Stridi

Idadiye
Ham

Fountain Sq.
treet ie S
amid H

63
 Section No 11.2. Intra Muros
The citys eastern walls were demolished in 1874. They
run along Philikis Hetairias Street, which is the first parallel
to the left of the National Defense Street. The intra muros
area includes some interesting sites, like the quarters of the
White Mosque, of Nea Panaghia and of Hippodrome.
11.2.1. The Kara Ali Mosque
The Kara Ali Mosque1 was a small building, orientated, as
all mosques, on the east-west axis. It was a typical mosque,
its only particularity being its proximity to a church.
11.2.2. The Nea Panaghia Church
See Section No 12.1.
11.2.3. The White Mosque
The White Mosque (Akche Mesdjid) was situated on the
southern part of the plot nowadays known as Navarino
Square, on the ruins of the Galerius Maximianus palace
ensemble (early 4th c.). The neighbourhood was preserved
as it appears on the photograph until the construction of
the square in the 1960s.
1 Demetriadis, 327.
2 Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou 1994b.
3 For the dependencies of Chilandar in Thessaloniki in Byzantine
era, see Mirjana Zivojinovic, 467 and on; Kissas, 102-104.
4 Demetriadis, 304; Gregoriou-Hekimoglou, 110.
64
11.2.4. The Hippodrome Square
The narrow Hippodrome Square, a remnant of the Roman
hippodrome, was the only distinguishable open space in
Thessaloniki before the fire. Some constructions in the
middle of the square -on the line of Nea Panaghia- exceeded
and altered the street line.
11.2.5. The Saint Constantinos Church
The church of Saint Constatinos, built early in the 19th
century, is distinguished by its bell-tower.2
11.2.6. The Saint Savas Church
The Saint Savas Church belonged to a dependency of the
Chilandar Monastery which was located at the northern
side of the Hippodrome.3
11.2.7. The Saint Panteleimon Church
Saint Panteleimon was initially the catholicon of a
Byzantine monastery, which was converted into a mosque
in the early 16th century. The mosque was named Ishakiye.4
Sometime during the second decade of the 20th century it
became a church once again.
 Rotunda

St Panteleimon

St Hypatius

St Savas

Hippodrome Sq

White Mosque

St Constatinos

Phil
ikis
Kara Ali Nea Panaghia
Het
airi
as S
tr

65
 Section No 11.3. The area of Saint Sophia
This section includes a mosque, yet to be identified by
the historians, the Orthodox Cathedral and an old church.
11.3.1. The Deba Hayredin Mosque (?)
Unlike the surrounding edifices, a burnt building adjacent
to the Saint Sophia bath is orientated along the east-west
axis. This is an indication that the building was a mosque,
perhaps the Deba Hayredin Mosque.1 The absence of this
building among the list of citys mosques2 calls for some
explanation. In all probability it was already destroyed and
out of use before the fire of 1917.
djacent to the Saint Sophia bath stand the ruins of
a burnt building which is orientated along the east-west
axis and therefore we assume it must have been a mosque.
It might be the Deba Hayredin Mosque [the Mosque
dedicated to tanner Hayredin] whose location historians
are trying to pinpoint.3 This is one of the three possible
locations. Anyway, in all probability, the mosque was not
in use when it was destroyed by the fire of 1917 since,
already in 1835, it was not mentioned in the list of the
citys mosques.4
1 Demetriadis, 144 & 337, had correctly suggested the existence of a
mosque in the specific plot, but erroneously located Deba
Hayre
din mosque extra muros, although he had identified a Deba Hay
redin quarter near Saint Sophia.
2 Ibidem; see also the list of the burnt mosques, in p. 474; Deba
5 Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou 1985.
Hayredin lacks from that list too.
3 Demetriadis, 144 & 337, had correctly suggested the existence of a
mosque in the specific plot, but erroneously located Deba
Hayre
66
11.3.2. The Orthodox Cathedral (see also 6.3.6)
The Orthodox Church ensemble consisted of the church,
which was designed by architect Ernst Ziller (1837-1923),
the Italian School, the Bishops residence, the premises of
the Agricultural Bank and the vicarage.5
11.3.3. The Iki Lule Mosque
The Iki Lule (Two Fountains) Mosque was built on the site
of a Byzantine church, which by the middle 15th century
Governor Old Kasim Pasha converted into a mosque. The
same Governor established also a tekke, a school and a
cemetery.6
11.3.4. The Ali Pasha Mosque
See 4.2.7.
11.3.5. The Panaghouda Church
According to archival material a church dedicated to
Panaghouda existed at this site at least by the 18th century.
Early in the 19th century that church was destroyed by a
fire and in its place a new building was erected. The new
building escaped the 1917 fire.7
din mosque extra muros, although he had identified a Deba Hay
redin quarter near Saint Sophia.
4 Ibidem; see also the list of the burnt mosques, in p. 474; Deba
Hayredin lacks from that list too.
6 Demetriadis, 36, 129, 326, 380. The 1478 cadastral located the
mosque in Saint Demetrius quarter; Lowry 1981, 273.
7 Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou 1989, 296.
 Ali Pasha

Iki Lule

Panaghouda
Church
Greek
High
School

St Sophia hamam
Debag Hayreddin

Italian School
The Cathedral House for aged
Metropolitans
residence

67
 Alliance School
Old
Fish-
market
Section No 11.4. The Baru quarter
This section depicts the Jewish Baru quarter,1 a region
that extended from the Old Fish-market to Panaghia
Eleousa2 and which, according to the 1913 census, had a
population of 6,295 inhabitants.3 The Old Tsimiski Street
passed through the Baru quarter, from west to east (see
the comments on Section No 6.4). That particular section
of the Old Tsimiski Street was known as Kapanadja, i.e.
1 Demetriadis, 167-168.
2 Hekimoglou 1987, 89; Panaghia Eleousa was a church; Old Fish-
market had been in the site of the Splendid Hotel. Those two
buildings marked the limits of Baru quarter.
3 Hekimoglou 1996, 335.
68
Old T
simis
ki Str
eet
Italia
closed or covered, an etymology deriving perhaps from an
older roofed market (Kapan), which, however, had ceased
to exist by 1880.4 In this picture, Kapanadja is located
between the Alliance School and Saint Sophia Street. We
also note the ruins of the synagogues Italia, Aragon, Salom
Sayaz and Ezrati, as well as the Panaghia Eleousa Church.
4 No roofed market in that area is included in maps dated to 1880s.
Another possible etymology might derive from the fact that
Kapanandja did not reach the eastern wall, but stopped 200 meters
before it, being literally the closed road.
 tr
aS
hi
So
int
Sa
Aragon

Old Ts Panaghia Eleousa

imiski
Street

Salom Sayaz
tr
aS
hi
So
int
Sa

Ezrati
Cathedral

69
 Photograph No 12. The Nea Panaghia Church and the Hippodrome
[Vue aerienne de Salonique. La Tour Blanche]
This photograph shows the coastal area from the Port to the White Tower. We will elaborate on the buildings on the
right side.

70
71
 Section No 12.1. A vanished market
Until the late 18th century, the depicted area had
been the site of a rich manufacturing tradition in textiles.
It specialized in the production of luxurious bath towels for
the Sultans palace as well as woollen cloth for the army.1
Of all these nothing was left in the late 19th century except
for some dye-houses and 50 looms for weaving towels.2
12.1.1 The dye-houses
At the northern side of the Hippodrome Square there
was a number of workshops, where the dyers (boyadji)
dyed cloth. Ever since the 16th century the methods
for colouring cloth in the Ottoman Empire were much
advanced; the technique was kept a secret, in spite of the
efforts of the French spies to steal them. Beginning in the
1830s the dyeing industry fell into decline, along with the
entire textile industry in the Ottoman Empire.
12.1.2. The Guraba Hospital
The Guraba Hospital was an older type of municipal
hospital which operated under military administration.3
The adjacent -shaped building, which appears surrounded
by one-storey constructions, was perhaps a military
warehouse.
1 Hekimoglou 1996, 86-117.
2 Hekimoglou & Danaciolu, 20.
3 Hekimoglou & Danaciolu, 26, 44, 123.
72
12.1.3. The Nea Panaghia Church
This is a good photograph of Nea Panaghia Church and
the surrounding buildings. The church was erected in 1727
on the site of an abolished monastery. At the time of the
monastery the surrounding buildings, in all probability,
served as cells for the monks.4 The ensemble consisted of
an interior patio which was surrounded by four wooden
houses, three one-storey and one two-storey. 5
Two things call for further explanation regarding the
history of Nea Panaghia. First, it stands nearby the Kara
Ali Mosque, an unusual proximity for two buildings of
different religion. Second, the church, despite its simple
and humble appearance, is also known by the Turkish na-
me Kebir Manastir [:Massive Monastery].
Various explanations have been suggested for the above.
According to one of them, the Turks originally used the
name Kebir Manastir to refer to another adjacent
establishment which eventually, over the years, was torn
down.6
According to another hypothesis the name echoes the
existence, in the early Ottoman period, of a massive
monastery ensemble, one part of which, at a later day was
converted into a mosque, while the rest remained property
of the monastery. In 1727 the Church of Nea Panaghia was
erected on the monasterys property.
4 Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou 2000, 46-60.
5 Ibidem; see also Tsourka-Papastathi, 445-463.
6 Mantopoulou-Panaghiotopoulou 2000.
 Dye-houses

White Mosque

e
om
dro
pp
Hi
et
tre

St Constantine
S
os
an
rm

Kara Ali Mosque

Ge
n
tro
Pa
a ion
al

Nea Panaghia
dP
Ol

Guraba Hospital

73
74
 Photograph No 14. Transportation
[Automobiles franaises transportant des sinistres]
A French lorry, driven by a British soldier, provides
transportation to fire victims and their belongings. The
vehicles gear box and hand break are located on the vehicles
exterior side to the left of the driver. As the tramway line
indicates the photograph was taken somewhere in the
beginning of King George Avenue. The mystification of
the photographic procedure erases momentarily the pain
of the loss from the face of the fire victims.

Photograph No 13.
[Bagages des sinistrs au pied de la Tour Blanche]
Fire victims with their belongings -mattresses, chests
and chairs- are gathered in front of the White Tower.

75
 Photograph No 15 [Famils fuyant en mer]
Fire hit families have found shelter for themselves and
their belongings on fish-boats that anchor off the citys
coast.

Photograph No 16. Saint Demetrius

[glise byzantine de St Demetre]
The interior of the burnt Byzantine basilica of Saint
Demetrius.1

Photograph No 17. Saint Demetrius

[glise byzantine de St Demetre]
The interior of the burnt Byzantine basilica of Saint
Demetrius.

1 There is a massive bibliography on Saint Demetrius Church; see

first Xyngopoulos 1969.

76
77
 Photograph No 18. An 11th century church [Panorama pris de la rue Egnatia]
The Church of the Virgin of the Coppersmiths, a building of the 11th century,1 escaped fire by miracle, although it was
located in the centre of a totally destroyed quarter.

1 There is a long bibliography on this church; see first, Xyngopoulos

1918.

78
79
 Photograph No 19. The arcade of the Aladja Imaret [Rfugis sous les arcades de lglise St Sophie]
Victims of the fire found shelter at Aladja Imaret, a mosque built in 1484.1 The soldier who captioned the photograph
thought erroneously that St Sophia was depicted.

1 Lowry 2008, 71, 76; Lowry 2009, 47; both studies were published
long after the compilation of the present paper.

80
Photograph No 20.
A barber practicing his profession in the ruins [Barbier dans les ruines].

81
 Photograph No 21. Dried fruits [Marchant de fruits secs]
Nuts and dried fruits on sale; food was not plenty in Thessaloniki either before or after the fire of 1917.

82
Photograph No 22. Mars Field [Sur le Champ de Mars]
Fire victims of Jewish origin, as evidenced by their characteristic garments, have gathered with their belongings in the
Mars Field, i.e. the open space in front of the Third Army Corps. Armys headquarters appear on the background, at the
right side. British officers inspect the place. In the following days a camp will be established on this site.1

1 It is very interesting that the same place served as a camp after
the earthquakes of 1978.

83
 Photograph No 23. King Alexander [Visite S. M. le roi Alexandre de Grce]
King Alexander visited Thessaloniki on June 30th, 1918, to participate in the celebration of the French National
Holiday. After a tour at the war front, he returned to Athens on July 14th (by Julian calendar).1 This is the terminus ante
quem for the compiling of the hand-made album we present.

1 Makedonia, 30.6.1918, 1.7.1918, 14.7.1918.

84
Photograph No 24. Untitled
The photograph was taken from Valaoritou Steet, looking southwards. On the middleground
stands the burnt catholic school for girls, known as The Sisters of Mercy; On the background, behind
the schools building, appears the cupola of the Catholic Church.

85
 Photograph No 25. Untitled
The photograph was taken just after the fire, from the roof of a building located in the center of the city. The
photographer was standing facing southwards.

86
Photograph No 26. Untitled
The photograph was taken from the roof of a building located in the centre of the city. The photographer was standing
facing north-eastwards. At the right side of the background we notice the Eptapyrgion.

Photograph No 27. Untitled

The photograph was taken from the same roof as with the previous one, perhaps in the Franks area. The photographer
was standing facing eastwards.

87
 Appendix 1
Speculation and fantasy
The fire of 1917 was the subject of speculation and
fantasy. A typical illustration of this is the fanciful
fabrication of M. S. Chaneles, Professor of Criminal
Science in the Faculty of Law of Rutgers University, New
Jersey, who read a paper titled The Destruction of the
City of Thessaloniki in 1917 at the tenth International
Congress on Social Defense in Thessaloniki in 1981. (An
abstract was published in Cities and Criminality: General
Reports and Synopses of National and Individual Reports
of the X. International Congress on Social Defense,
Salonica, September 28th - October 2nd 1981, Preparatory
volume, 60-61. The same abstract was published in the
proceedings: La Ville et la Criminalit, Milan 1983, 157-
158). With no reference to sources or literature, he asserted
the following:
The fire that destroyed the city of Salonica in August
1917 was a criminal event of enormous magnitude.
The fire was a deliberate act of arson against the
city and its innocent civilian population. It was carried
out by officers and troops of the Great Britain, France,
Serbia, Russia and Italy. The armies of these nations were
occupying the independent nation of Greece against the
wishes of the Greek government and against the wishes of
the Greek people.
Until June 1917 Greece maintained strict neutrality
in the armed conflict between the Allied and the Central
Powers. The Allied Powers had forced the abdication of
King Constantine by means of a criminal blockade of
foods, which brought mass starvation and suffering to the
Greek people. On the abdication of Constantine, the Allied
powers installed Venizelos as the puppet ruler against the
wishes of the Greek people, and Greece entered the World
War on the side of the Allies.
The fire was carried out by means of aerial bombardment
from French and British aeroplanes, shelling from Allied
battleships laying at the anchor in the Gulf of Salonica
and from dumping gasoline on homes and businesses.
After a ten day period the fire caused the destruction of
10.000 homes, 20-30 synagogues and hundreds of major
businesses.
88
Other indicators of destruction include: 100,000
homeless, 54,000 wounded or severely burned, 20,000
missing and presumed dead, 15,000 dead. Of the citys
1917 population of 180,000, about 160,000 were Jewish.
A few days after, the fire insurance companies, mainly
British, paid 200,000,000 dollars in indemnities to the
Venizelos government subject to the control of British and
French.
Also, a few days after the fire, Winston Churchill
demanded that Venizelos seek passage of a law in the
Greek parliament to confiscate all Jewish-owned property
in Salonica. The law was passed and 80% to 90% of all
property of the city was criminally expropriated.
Military necessity cannot explain the savage criminal
destruction of Salonica in 1917. There was virtually no
combat against the Central Powers. British, French, Italian
leadership wished to leave Salonica entirely. Russia was
leaving the war following the Czars abdication and Serbia
was secretly seeking a separate peace with Germany in
March 1917. A main explanation of the destruction of the
civilian population was to eliminate resistance to Venizelos
in a post-war democratic election.
In spite of powerful Allied support, Venizelos was
decisively defeated.
One key criminal element in the destruction of Salonica
was the active involvement of a clandestine army of 50,000
American mercenaries under the leadership of American
Colonel E. W. Ryan, an army officer and secret agent of
the U.S. State Department.
On the request of the Organizing Committee of the
Congress, a 5-pages duplicated pamphlet by Ch. K. Pa-
pastathis was published and distributed to meet the afore
mentioned oddities (see Appendix 2).
 APPENDIX 2
The Ch. K. Papastathis pamphlet on:
Sol Chaneles, The Destruction of the City of
Thessaloniki in 1917. Cyclostyled text of Communication;
18 pp; no place or date of publication. [Summary in English
and French. Title: The Destruction of Salonica (1917):
The Urban Crime of the Century, Cities and Criminality.
General Reports of the X. International Congress on Social
Defense, Salonika, September 28th - October 2nd, 1981,
Preparatory Volume, pp 60-61.]
At the 10th International Conference on Social Defense,
organized in Thessaloniki from 28.8.1981 to 2.10.1981, Mr.
S. Chaneles, Head of the Department of Criminal Justice,
Rutgers University, made a communication that had been
anticipated with great interest by the public of the town
where the Conference was taking place. It was natural
that it should arise interest, because the communication
referred to the destruction of Thessaloniki by the great fire
of 1917. There are quite a few present-day inhabitants of
Thessaloniki, who have witnessed that fire in person. At
the same time, subsequent generations have heard a lot
that is told by the older people. Everybody was expecting
a communication based on meticulous research in the
archives and on international bibliography put together
after an irreproachable scholarly comparison of the sources;
and bringing forward new material about that destruction,
which constituted a landmark both in the town planning
and the general development of the town. Unfortunately,
the communication fell short of everybodys expectations. It
was not a matter of certain mistakes, or some unsuccessful
judgment, both forgivable perhaps. The communication of
Mr. Chaneles is an imaginary tale that injures the truth.
Instead of stating events, it has a hypothetical side-scene
of international intrigue and introduces fantasy where
historical sources ought to be.
Before we proceed to the examination of the com-
munication, it might be useful to recall the historical
framework of that period in what concerns the town of
Thessaloniki.
As it is well-known, when Austro-Hungary declared
war against Serbia in 1914, pan-European conflict ensued.
The Greek Government of Eleftherios Venizelos, faithful
to the international commitments of Greece, decided to
enter the war. King Konstantinos reacted against that
decision and dismissed the Government. At the elections
the Greek people followed in their great majority the policy
of Venizelos. Despite the verdict of the Greek people, the
King insisted on his own line. The situation was breeding
great dangers for the national aspirations of Hellenism;
hence, Venizelos was compelled to revolt and create the
so-called Government of Thessaloniki. Armies of Entente
were already here from France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia
and Serbia, under Sarrail, the French General. The State
of Thessaloniki took part in the war. In the summer of
1917, King Konstantinos relinquished his throne. The
Government of Venizelos moved its seat in Athens. A few
weeks later, on the 18th of August 1917, the great fire of
Thessaloniki broke out and reduced to ashes practically the
whole central area of the town. As a consequence a great
number of inhabitants became homeless and incalculable
financial damages and needs were caused. The cause of the
fire is well known. It started accidentally in the kitchen of
a refugee house in the western part of Thessaloniki and
spread out to the neighboring houses. The vardar wind
which happened to blow during these days, as well as the
narrow streets, the wooden houses, the scarcity of water,
the fact that there was almost no fire brigade, were of great
help to a kitchens fire to destroy a large town.
All these have been verified through the investigations
of the Greek Government and the Allies General Staff.
Testimony was also born by international bibliography and
tenths of thousands of eye-witnesses, many of whom are
still alive today.
Mr. Chaneles, on the contrary, attributes the fire to a
combination of aerial bombardment, artillery fire and
arson, which had been planned by Commander-in-Chief
Serrail, Winston Churchill, the British Navy, the Serbs,
the Italians, the Russians, the Americans, and finally,
Venizelos. He then reaches the conclusion that it had been
in everybodys interest to burn down the town and that US
Colonel Ryan was the one to direct the operation of arson
in person.
89
 A conclusion of this kind -especially, as there is no
reference whatsoever to any archival source- would
cause scepticism, at least. Thessaloniki was the base of
operations for the Entente at the Balkans. As a result of
the destruction of the town, numerous problems emerged
that were of a military, political and economic nature.
Moreover, the Greek Government had to face almost
unsolved problems concerning the thousands of homeless
inhabitants. A whole book could be written if one had to
refute in detail all of Mr. Chaneles inventions, that he uses
in order to put them forth as historical data; for example
the scout figures of CIA, international spying, betrayal
against Entente by its own diplomats and generals. All
these are presented in strange correlations and they can
create surprise and wonder; as for instance the death of US
diplomat Christopher O Shaughnessy in Budapest after the
events of 1956. Here I must admit inability to follow Mr.
Chaneles logic. Therefore, I will confine myself to present
a rudimentary bibliography about the fire, so everyone who
would be interested could consult it. E.g. E. A. Gardner,
Salonica and the Great Fire, Chambers Journal 1937, pp
253-8; J. Saias, Salonique en reconstruction, Athnes 1920;
A. Palmer, The Gardeners of Salonica, London 1965; H.
Collinson-Owen, Salonica and after, London 1919; W. T.
Wood - A. J. Mann, The Salonica Front, London 1920;
Ch. Papastathis, A Memoir on the Fire of Thessaloniki in
1917 and the Relief Afforded to the Victims (in Greek),
Makedonika 13 (1978) pp 143-171.
I would also like to point out a few instances in the
communication, which, although they may be considered
more detail, show off the wrong premium of Mr. Chaneles.
Characteristically, he writes:
(1) Page 5: At the time of the fire Thessaloniki had a
civilian population of about 180,000. This number included
160,000 Jews There were in addition, about 20,000
inhabitants, mainly Catholics, Muslims, Protestants
The total population (without the armed forces) were not
180,000 but 270,000; as Joseph Nehama, the great Jewish
historian of Thessaloniki, rightly mentions in his Histoire
des Isralites de Salonique, vol. VI-VII, Thessalonique
1978, p 765. The Jews did not exceed the 70,000 people at
that time, as it is mentioned by another Jewish historian,
M. Molho, in his In Memoriam, Thessalonique 21973,
p. 17. Catholics numbered 1,000 at the most, while the
only Protestants were the American Missionaries of the
90
American Farm School, considered by Mr. Chaneles as
agents of the Bulgarians. The Moslems were about 15,000,
as most of them had abandoned Thessaloniki after the
Balkan Wars of 1912-13, taking refuge in Turkey. The
rest of the population were Orthodox Greeks - and this
majority is ignored by Mr. Chaneles.
(2) Page 4: here are some empirical indicators of the
extent of the destruction 20-30 Synagogues 4 Catholic
Churches 100,000 homeless, 54,000 wounded or severely
wounded, 20,000 missing and presumed dead, 15,000
dead.
Truth sounds somehow differently: 16 Synagogues,
1 Catholic Church, 3 Greek Schools and 2 Orthodox
Churches, of which one was the Church of Saint Dimitrios,
a real museum of Byzantine architecture and painting
(here Mr. Chaneles forgets again the Orthodox Greeks),
70,000 homeless, 300 wounded, 0 missing and presumed
death, 6 French soldiers dead. I should appreciate it very
much if Mr. Chaneles could give us the source of his last
two categories, for I have not been able to find any data
anywhere that would affirm the truth of his statement.
(3) Page 4: A second fire is mentioned. There has been
no second fire.
(4) Page 6: The Law authorized confiscation of all
property owned by the Jews of Thessaloniki. It is absolutely
untrue. There was not such a law ever published. There have
been expropriations in order to implement the new plan of
the town, indemnities were paid, and not only for Jewish
buildings. On the contrary, a decree was published on the
2.10.1917 giving permission to the Jewish Community to
have all their buildings restored. Mr. Chaneles could have
consulted the valuable collection of Mr. Triantaphyllidis,
Decrees that Are in Force with Respect to the Town Plan
of Thessaloniki (in Greek), Thessaloniki 1928, where he
would have found all the laws and decrees of the Greek
State in favour of the owners of buildings, most of which
were Jewish.
It is sad that Mr. Chaneles does not seem to know even
elementary subjects in the history of Thessaloniki, before,
during and after the fire. We hope that a further study
of this interesting topic will lead him to revise completely
what he has already stated with little thought or judgement
in his communication.
Ch. K. Papastathis
 SOURCES
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BIBLIOGRAPHY-ABBREVIATIONS
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[
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General EPHIMERIS
TON

VALKANION.
To Phos.




. [To Phos
Administration of Macedonia Archive]. . [
Balkans
Newspaper
]. [The Light] newspaper].

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 CONTENTS
Introductory Note ......................................................................................................................4

Foreword for the English edition ....................................................................................... 11

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 12

Fires and fire insurance market in Thessaloniki ......................................................... 17

The photographs ...................................................................................................................... 23

Appendix 1 ................................................................................................................................ 88

Appendix 2 ................................................................................................................................ 89

Sources
-
Bibliography-Abbreviations ................................................................................ 91

95