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Once upon a time I lived in an apartment (in a modern block) approximately in the same location as the building to the left of this picture (above).
Later, we moved to Panorama, with this sort of view -
if you track left
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Edward Lear, Salonica (detail, from Vlatadon Monastery)
Thessaloniki , with a history dating back to 315 BC, celebrates a Centenary of Freedom
Dromoi Palioi (Anagnostakis/Theodorakis)
Poems by Manolis Anagnostakis (1925-2005) in English, tr, David Connolly (see Thessaloniki, Days of 1969 A.D.)
From The Gulf, by Klitos Kyrou (1921-2006) translated by Kimon Friar:
He stammered a difficult language
The house of commerce was not suitable
As a loudspeaker the corridors impenetrable
Crammed full of bank notes and bills of lading
There was no place where he could stand
He preferred the language of poets...
Sometimes I feel like one of the ghosts, walking the old streets of Salonica, streets which the poets have loved and hated, interminably, without end...
***
From Manolis Anagnostakis, Ta Poimata (Pleias, Athens), "Pente Mikra Themata, III"
UPDATE ON THESSALONIKI 1912-2012 EVENTS
Street in Thessaloniki, Osbert Lancaster
(from Classical Landscape with Figures, London, 1947)
George Ioannou, In an Old Turkish House:
From Ta Chillia Dentra kai alla poimata (Athens, 1982)
I was on the Organising Committee for this September 1981 Conference on the Conservation and Rehabilitation of Traditional Buildings and Urban Complexes:
It made me very interested in traditional Greek architecture, as in Zagori (Epirus)
Another Edward Lear image here
It's distressing to read the negative comments about Salonica made by Edward Lear, Osbert Lancaster and Francis King. For five years I was very happy there. My last big project before I transferred to Prague was to initiate an exhibition of the watercolours and drawings of Walter S. George and others, important copies of the murals, mosaics and frescos of the Byzantine Church of Saint Demetrios, (for the Demetria Festival and the 2300th Anniversary of Thessaloniki). The church was devastated by fire in the Great Fire of 1917. Although some wonderful mosaics were not damaged, these records are of vital artistic and historical importance.
As my successor noted in the exhibition catalogue:
"It is offered in recognition of the high regard and mutual respect which exists between the British Council and the Municipality of Thessaloniki".
It was a true labour of love for all concerned, and a fine example of collaboration between the British Council and the British School at Athens.
With the Mayor
***
From a poem attributed (by Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis) to Simeon of Thessalonica (d.1429; Archbishop of Thessaloniki from 1416/17 until his death):
Saint Demetrios:
Despair not, my birthplace,
beset by tyrants,
from whom deliverance
through me thou seekest to find....
Thessaloniki:
Through thy intercession
from woe was I rescued,
under thy wings
kept safe forever...
Help me, Demetrios...
Hail, Demetrios.
(From 'Thessaloniki and Life", Mother Thessaloniki, Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis, tr. Leo Marshall, Kedros Modern Greek Writers, 1998)
Old Photos of Thessaloniki (slide show)
Mayor Yiannis Boutaris on the future of Thessaloniki
Video on modern Thessaloniki
Update, Greek Reporter, October 26, 2017:
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