JOURNAL "SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, CULTURE, TRADITIONS"...... Volume 1a/2019

THE ‘KASTROPLIKTON’ RESIDENCES IN ANO POLI (UPPER TOWN) OF , . STATUS AND PROSPECTS OF PRESERVATION DOI: 10.26341/issn.2241-4002-2019-1a-3

Christina – Zoi Kefala Civil Engineer TE MSc in Historic Conservation, Oxford Brookes University

Nikolaos Samaras University of Thessaly, Greece [email protected]

Abstract The refugees, who came to Thessaloniki after the Minor Asia Catastrophe in 1922, according to the Treaty of Lausanne, were settled either in the abandoned Muslim residences or in new ones built in any free plot in Ano Poli of Thessaloniki. Due to the lack of space, some residences were developed along the Byzantine Wall of the City even in contact with it, using the Wall as part of the residence, making it impossible for the visitor to gain access to it, or even to see it. Since 1931, the project of the designation of the City Wall began and a Presidential Decree (Gov. Gazette 406Α΄ / 04.12.1931) was published and it was suggested the creation of a green belt alongside of the Wall. With the implementation of the Presidential Decree, about 900 houses are partially or fully demolished for the construction of the green belt. After that, the buildings of this zone are characterized as demolished and called "kastroplikton" and nowadays are divided in three categories, those that are still inhabited, those that have been abandoned and those that have already been collapsed due to lack of maintenance. Because of the designation of the City Wall, which had already been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, new presidential decrees and a lot of studies of the local authorities were published. Nowadays, according to the new general urban plan of the City which is about to be approved, a lot of expropriations will be implemented. This paper deals with the proposal for preservation and reuse of a larger number of “kastroplikton” building and not to be demolished according to the current legal status. The thought of this proposal is that a larger number of buildings should be preserved so as to constitute an ‘ensemble’ and a testimony of a historical residential complex, lived in the collective memory of the city, while the proposed use is the one that has been over the years: the residence, so that the area keeps the characteristics of a neighborhood, with life and movement 24 hours per day.

Keywords: preservation; restoration; re-use; ‘Kastroplikton’; Ano Poli Thessaloniki; refugee residences;

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Chapter 1 - Historical, geographical information and legal framework

1.1. Historical and Geographical Information of the Area

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki is an ancient city as was founded in 315 BC. by King Cassander and is one of the few cities in Europe that has been operating as an urban center for more than two thousand years. It retained its importance both during the Roman Empire and Byzantium, when it was also a Contracting State, and during the as a major trading port. Its geographical position had an important role in the economic development of the entire southern Balkan Peninsula. However, the richness and prosperity that its position ensured enticed the conquerors who tried to and conquer it occasionally.

FORTIFICATIONS Thessaloniki always was surrounded by fortifications and the first of them were constructed after its foundation. The Walls that still exist were built in 390 AD, in the reign of Emperor Theodosius. Over the centuries, additions and improvements have taken place, resulting nowadays its impressive features such as its 7 kilometers length, 5 meters width and 10 meters height.

Figure 1: The fortification of Thessaloniki (source: www.wikipedia.com, 10.10.2018)

Residents After the invasion of the Turks in Thessaloniki in 1430, those who escaped from the massacres left the city. Only 7.000 people stayed. Mourad II, in order to give life to the city again, brought Turkish families from Giannitsa and settled them in the houses of the fugitives. The young Turkish inhabitants, along with the remaining Greeks, the Jewish refugees from Central Europe, the Slavs and the Armenians, lived harmoniously in the first years of the Turkish conquest without discrimination in terms of their profession and religion. But when the city's population grew, with the arrival of the Jews Sephardim, the separation of ethnicities began. The Jews settled near the seaside wall, the Christians gathered around their churches, and the Turks moved and built their houses at “Baire”, which in Turkish means hillside, in - 36 -

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today's Upper Town “Ano Poli”. This separation was maintained until the city’s liberation in 1912. After the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the exchange of populations and properties in 1923, with the Treaty of Lausanne, the houses and the plots were abandoned by the Muslims and inhabited by refugee families who came from Asia Minor.

Figure2: Inhabitants of Ano Poli (source: http://thessaloniki.photos.vagk.gr/el/photos-gr/old- photos-gr/old-photos-people-gr, 10.05.2019)

Nowadays, Ano Polis is inhabited by intellectuals, artists, architects, but the majority of its inhabitants are made up of traditional bourgeoisie and middlemen.

Ano Poli One of the most characteristic areas of Thessaloniki is Ano Poli. It occupies the norther nest and highest part of the old city within the Walls, it was not destroyed by the fire of 1917 and is almost entirely surrounded by the Byzantine Walls of the city. It is built amphitheatrically and overlooks the Thermaic Gulf and the plain. According to surveys, the area was not inhabited systematically during the Roman and Byzantine periods. The systematic inhabitation of the area begins after the conquest of Thessaloniki by the Turks in 1430 and especially after the 17th century. Since then the city was built away from the northern Walls for security reasons. The first residential units, the "Mahalades", were created in the southern part of the settlement and were inhabited by the Islamic Jews "Donmedes". In the beginning, the Turkish residences in Ano Poli were not close to each other, but with the installation of Turkish refugees from Bosnia in 1876, the empty plots got filled with additional residences. New neighborhoods were created (Ahmet Soubasi, Mesoun Hasan, Pinti Hasan, Iqui Sheriffe, Ischak Pasha, Soulaka, Hatzi Mumen, Busha Baba, Eski Seraij, Kasimije, Tsinarli, Hatzi Ismail, Taraktsi, Astartzi, Yakub Pasha, Hatzi Iskender, Yilan Mermer and Kazaz Hatzi Muja), resulting the area being now densely built in the late 19th century. This is how the liberation found the city in 1912. The fire of 1917 did not hit this zone of the city and many fire victims moved there. After the Asia Minor Catastrophe, in 1922, about 92,000 refugees came in Thessaloniki to find a home. The area of the Ano Poli, being a

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Turkish district, was an ideal place for them. The need for immediate housing of the refugees led the state to divide plots and also to allocate any free space in the area.

Figure 3: Picture of the areas that got destroyed from the fire of 1917 (source: Wikipedia, https://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Thessaloniki_Fire_of_1917, 10.10.2018)

The street plan that was imposed in the area in 1931 limited itself to preserve the old roads only with some widening and to construct only a few new ones. At the same time, it created a free space around the Byzantine Monuments and a green zone on both sides along the length of the City Walls. Some of the most characteristic areas of Ano Poli that retain their traditional image are the Kule Café, the area of the church Saint Nicolas Orphanos and Tsinari.

1.2. Architecture - Morphology of the Buildings of Ano Poli The architecture of the Ano Poli residences is not specific and it is not able to be classified with absolute precision in one category. During the Ottoman domination the residences of the area were similar to those found in the wider Balkan area with elements of folk Macedonian and Turkish architecture. Both kinds of residences have many similarities in the layout, the form and the use of spaces. Also, there were many Jewish residences with influences from the neo-classicism of Western Europe, in their decoration as well as in other elements, due to the origin of Jews of the city. The residences were two or three-storey buildings with symmetrical facades. Sometimes fake-pilasters, element of the classical architecture, are encountered. The openings were many and symmetrically positioned, the roof protruding from the rest of the building and covered with roof tiles of Byzantine style. The building materials that were used were mainly the wood and the stone of the area. When the main building material of the residence was the timber, then the skeleton of the building was composed of braided vertical and diagonal elements, the “pagiantes” and the skeletons were called “corestes”. The bearing structure of the building was a combination of wattle and daub or lath and plaster depending on usage. When the main building material was the stone, then the walls were cut off by sticks, the “hatilia”, and the stone walls were the bearing structure of the building.

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Their characteristic morphological element was the sachnisi, the closed protrusions on the floor. They are mainly on the central facade of the building but they can also be met in more than one facade. The reason for their construction was the need of their owners to expand the space and was usually made in the best room of the house, the winter rooms or the official ones. A remarkable construction feature was the way of supporting the sachnisi, made either with buttresses or with small beams arranged in series. Another characteristic morphological element of vernacular Macedonian architecture is the hagiati, a covered open space, an extension of the interior of the house located on the first floor or the ground floor, and it was either part of the wall or protruded from it. In some residences there was a wooden balcony, while in others there were passages leading to communal courtyards, the passageways.

Figure 4: Residencies in Ano Poli (source: Rog. Viollet archive, www.culture.thessaloniki.gr, 10.10.2018)

Inside, the houses had a basic space on the first floor, the living room around which the rest of the rooms were placed. The kitchen was usually on the ground floor and served only for cooking. The toilet was a small room with a pierced lath and was usually out of the house, in the garden. The houses were low-ceilinged with wooden floors, wooden ceilings, wood-carved decorations or simple frames, wooden window frames and a wooden staircase. Life was mainly developed on the first floor when it existed. In those buildings the ground floor was used as a storage place. Nowadays, in those residencies that still survive, conversions have been made to use the ground floor as a home as well. The Turkish residencies were decorated with timber pilasters on the corners of the internal walls, on the sides of the openings; they had timber frames between the storeys and large openings in the external walls, as well as a triangular pediment with carved decorations on their main facade. On the contrary, Macedonian vernacular residences did not have carving decoration, their floor planning was simple and geometric, and on the external walls there were small openings. Jewish residences had a strong neoclassical influence on typology and decoration with a strong element of symmetry. In the part of the wall under the roof, there were embossed decorations on the exterior plaster as well as over the windows. Several houses had

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a yard at the back of the building that used to be a garden and a living room and not a garage as in the Turkish ones.

Figure 5: Building in Ano Poli (source: https://parallaximag.gr/thessaloniki/4-ktiria-thisavroi- pou-agapisame-stin-ano-poli, 30.11.2018)

In some cases, the neoclassic element is more intense than the Turkish one, thus there was no limit of building height, a roof that does not protrude of the external walls and is surrounded by a parapet, coated ceilings, brick walls and embossed decorations on the coated surfaces. The residences that were constructed by Greek refugees after 1923 had mostly only one storey and they were made without any trace of luxury from ordinary and simple materials. However, they were distinguished for their functional structure and imposed by their austerity. A common characteristic of all these residences is the bright colors with which their facades are painted. The most dominant were the yellow, the red and the bluing.

Figure 6: Colorful traditional houses with sachnisi in Ano Poli (source: https://www.blocal- travel.com/street-art/thessaloniki/, 10.05.2019)

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An undoubted characteristic of Ano Poli is that the old traditional urban fabric of the city with the narrow cobblestone streets, the cobbled streets, the small clearings and the squares, and especially with the austerity, functionality and elegance of Macedonian Architectural Buildings is preserved. Most of the old buildings are found mainly in the areas around the churches of the Taxiarches, Saint David, the Vlatades Monastery and the streets of D. Poliorkitou, A. Papadopoulou, Theophilou, Antiochus, Amphitryon, Herodotus, Tsamadou and Saktouris, and they have nothing pompous or luxurious to show. One, two or three storey residences, having their entrance on the street with the sachnisi, or surrounded by kitchen- gardens or internal yards with green and tall fences, narrow uphill streets, often ending on stairs or even dead ends, capture the history of the city and complement the picturesque landscape. During the 1960s, the residential development of Thessaloniki, with the land compensation, had negative effects on the immediate settlement of the Ano Poli. A. Anastasiadis reports in the book "Thessaloniki: Ano Poli", from the Greek Traditional Architecture Series, that based on an on-site survey carried out in 1979, the houses of the Ano Poli are morphologically divided into five categories: A. Buildings of distinct architectural and historical interest with clear typological features of popular Macedonian, Balkan or neoclassical architecture and a significant number of decorations. B. Buildings with less significant morphological features that do not fully specify the time of their construction, have been damaged and have lost the authenticity that once distinguished them, and their decoration is limited. C. Buildings without essential architectural and morphological features, mainly refugee residences that have been altered and modified since the time of their construction. D. New Buildings. E. Blocks of flats. A. Anastasiadis says that the buildings of the 3rd category dominate the area, 76.77%, concentrated in the north-east and north-western part of the Ano Poli. Class A buildings occupy only 1.51% and buildings of category B 4.49%, while categories D and E account for 8.95% and 8.28% respectively. The construction of blocks of flats has been legislatively restricted since the 1980s. The new constructions follow the architectural regulations that have been established. The properties are not squared but irregular in shape, with sharp corners and a small face in the streets. On the contrary, properties with a large face on the street are less extended in the back. Apart from the aforementioned, and the defensive monuments of the Walls, some important religious monuments of the city are also located in the area, such as the church of Saint David (Church of Hosios David), the church of Agios Nikolaos Orfanos, the church of the Archangels, Monastery Vlatadon (Tsaous Monastery ), the St. Catherine, the church of the Prophet Elias, a Byzantine bath of Crispus square at Kule Café, Alatza Imaret in Kassandrou str, the Ottoman Tourbes in Terpsitheas square (Musa Baba), as well as several fountains. Several of these monuments were in danger until recently.

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Figure 7: Monastery of Vlatadon (source: http://www.religiousgreece.gr/mnemeia-unesco, 30.04.2019)

All of the above-mentioned old Turkish and Jewish buildings, the scattered refugee residences characterized as "escorted buildings", as well as the refugee ones along the walls, the “kastroplikton”, the impersonal block of flats of the 60s and 70s, the "neo-traditional" buildings built according to the new regulations, the listed buildings, the complicated road network and the Walls that delimit the area, compose the current image of the Ano Poli. Ano Poli is probably the only part of Thessaloniki's urban complex that has collected so many characteristic elements of its history, elements of architectural, morphological, urban and spatial planning, as well as a particular social and demographic character, due mainly to the refugee origin of many of its inhabitants. Nowadays Ano Poli is a typical example of a standard traditional settlement built in the dynamic urban center of Thessaloniki, which has managed to preserve its historical characteristics, its traditional architecture and its organic urban fabric.

1.3. Legal framework Ano Poli was declared as a traditional settlement by the Ministry of Public Works according to the published Decree of 12.03.1979 and only 48 out of the 132 buildings that were proposed, were designated as pieces of art requiring special state protection, 40 residences in Ano Poli and 8 residences in the area of the walls (perimeter zone) by the Ministry of Culture. At the same time, the Presidential Decree, which includes the special building conditions of the area, was published. At that time the operation of the 4th Ephorate of Modern Monuments of the Ministry of Education and Culture, which was responsible for the preserved buildings of the area, began. This Decree is the result of the situation, which was enforced and was created after the Decree of 29.11.1968, saving the area by cancelling the AN. 385 / 4.6.1968 "on the level of buildings and system of free construction" which let the increase of the heights of buildings throughout the country and hence indirectly increased the existing structure factors. In 1978, with a joint ministerial decision of the Ministers of Culture and Public Works (C 3987/395 / 10.3.1978) a team of officials of the two Ministries was assigned to study the urban planning of Ano Poli. This study was discussed at a wide-ranging meeting of representatives of the State, Bodies, Municipalities, City Members and representatives of the residents. This

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meeting resulted in decisions by the Ministry of Public Works, which set up the Working Group to study the Upper City issue, especially after the 1978 earthquake. The aim of the study was the creation of the Urban Plan, to lay down conditions for construction and morphological data, to create damage repair studies of the buildings in Ano Poli, to give instructions for the studies under submission until the adoption of the Decree of the Urban Plan and the Special Building Regulation. The results of this study were included in the Decree of 17.5.1979 (Government Gazette 313 D '/ 31.5.1979) "On the determination of special conditions and restrictions on the construction of the plots of the RHS. Upper City of Thessaloniki etc. ", where the building sectors and conditions were determined, the allowed uses and restrictions were identified for each area of the area. While this Decree laid down conditions and restrictions on building and uses, it did not alter the planning of the city, which had been applied since 1931 when it was approved by the Decree of 29.11.1931, the Urban Plan of Thessaloniki. The necessity began after the designation of Ano Poli as a traditional settlement. This comes to amend and revise the Decree of 07.10.1980 "On Amendments and Revisions of the Urban Plan of Ano Poli of Thessaloniki and setting of special conditions and restrictions for the construction of its plots" (Government Gazette 611Δ '/ 6.11.1980). This Decree approves the 11 urban maps accompanying it, the street and building lines, and imposes anchorages in certain areas of Ano Poli. At the same time, some of the construction rules of the previous Decree was amended by validating the corrections made on it. According to the Urban Plan, there was an indicative provision for the abolition of the extensive - through - lanes that altered the urban fabric, the abolition of the openings in the perimeter zone and the extension of the green zone - the protection of the walls, the protection and elevation of the surrounding area of the Byzantine monuments. In 1985 the buildings of Ano Poli were re-examined and the number of the listed increased to 50, 3 of which belonged to public services and organizations and the rest to individuals, most of them remained uninhabited. Also, by the Decree of 28.11.1985 (Government Gazette 27D '13.2.1986) "Revision of the urban plan of the municipality of Thessaloniki in the Upper Town", there is a new revision of the Urban Plan of this area. The modification consists essentially in the characterization of the uses of the building blocks of Ano Poli and the identification and delamination of the archaeological sites. Finally, some fountains got listed as monuments as well. In the meanwhile, Presidential Decree 358/1986 (Government Gazette 158A΄/ 10.10.1986) "Determining the competences of the Ministry of " is published and the responsibilities of article 4 of the General Building Regulation, including the protection of traditional settlements, are contained in the Ministry of -Thrace. By this Decree "the responsibilities of designating agglomerations or their parts as traditional and the establishment of terms and limitations of their construction" by the Ministry of Environment and Waters come to Ministry of Macedonia - Thrace for Macedonia and Thrace. Ministry of Macedonia-Thrace through its organization, undertakes the reconstruction of its Services for the effective exercise of these competences. Alongside to the amendment and completion of the Decree of the Construction Rules of 1979 made by Decree 7.12.1999 "Modification and supplementation of the provisions of the Decree of 17.5.1979 of the Council of Europe of the Upper City of Thessaloniki "(Government Gazette 904Δ'/ 21.12.1999) two collective decisions for characterization of listed buildings and elements of the upper city are issued. These are the following: a) 8019 / 29.11.1999 (FEK D' - 43 -

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800 / 15.12.1999) with 106 + 75 + 54 + 8 = 243 buildings by category (I, II, III, IV) + 16 + 12 = 37 buildings by category (I, II and III) plus 4 elements as characteristic of the urban planning of the traditional settlement. Various study groups were set up in 1997, 1998 and 1999. These groups negotiated the modifications of the Upper Town Planning Plan and addressing the traffic problem fragmentally. The final study group handed over to the Ministry of Macedonia - Thrace on 30.11.2001 the study of the proposals for its amendment. This study, with its modification plans and traffic study, was sent to the Municipality of Thessaloniki on 05.06.2002 for approval. Following the relevant signing process, the Decree was published in Government Gazette 396 of TAAPT on 03.09.2007 under the title "Revision of the Urban Plan of the Traditional Settlement of Ano Poli of Thessaloniki and the determination of special additional terms and limits on the construction and use of certain plots and building blocks of that ". The last Decree has been in force since then, although its implementation encounters many practical problems, the main of which are: a) Various expropriations that have not taken place or have been cancelled by court. b) The creation of communal areas with expropriation creates financial burdens to the Municipality. c) New requests for amendments to the current Urban Plan have been submitted by citizens. d) The need of area for school to be built has as a result the need for expropriations which cannot be completed e) The legalization of pre-1923 pre-1955 pre-1973 and pre-Decree editions is unclear and therefore questions are raised to owners, services and professionals. The history of the successive revisions and modifications, as well as the confusion they cause to those responsible who are required to implement or control the implementation of the Decree and to the professionals who interpret the provisions when making architectural studies for Ano Poli, almost lead to deadlock. And the deadlock does not make it easier to protect the traditional architecture and urban planning of the settlement of the area. To preserve the architectural and urbanistic character of Ano Poli, successive presidential decrees and decisions were adopted in 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2007 (Mavromatis M., 2009) which set out both the town planning rules and the rules for reconstruction plots after the demolition of old buildings that were not designated as listed. In December 2005, the Municipality of Thessaloniki submitted to the Ministry of Macedonia, Thrace, the modified Urban Plan according to which the listed buildings were increased to 380.

The Status for "Kastroplikton" In 1931, the project of the designation of the City Wall began and a Presidential Decree (Gov. Gazette 406Α / 04.12.1931) was published and it was suggested the creation of a green belt alongside of the Wall. With the implementation of the Presidential Decree, about 900 houses are partially or fully demolished for the construction of the green belt. After that, the buildings of this zone are characterized as demolished and called "kastroplikton".

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Figure 8: Map of Ano Poli according to the Urban Plan of 1931 (source: Municipality of Thessaloniki, www.thessloniki.gr, 10/09/2018)

Because of the designation of the City Wall, which has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1988, new Presidential Decrees (Gov. Gazette 611 / 06.11.1980, 27D / 31.02.1986, 899 / 10.12.1991, 333D / 29.04.2002 and 396APAP / 03.09.2007) were published. Also, a lot of studies, made by the local authorities, were published as well. In 1980, the Ano Poli Office was established according to the decision of the Minister of Macedonia of Thrace. In 1981, an attempt was made to solve the problem of "Kastroplikton" with a residential rehabilitation in a plot of land that the Municipality of Polichni would lease and DEPOS would build. The attempt was not successful. The new Ano Poli Residents' Association was established in 1995 and expresses the urgent need to revise the 1980 Presidential Decree and re-examine the green zone of the walls. It filed a request to the Municipality of Thessaloniki to suspend demolitions. At a workshop organized by the Association of Architects of Thessaloniki and the Municipality of Thessaloniki the request for reviewing of the green zone of the Walls by the 4th Ephorate of Modern Monuments and Ano Poli Residents Association was expressed. During the period 1996-1997, the Organization of European Capital of Culture of Thessaloniki gave to the Municipality the amount of 2.5 billion for the compensation of the "kastroplikton" residencies. Several owners with their houses from the Central to the Western Portara were compensated. For those who refused to leave their homes, the Municipality proceeds with legal actions of compulsory expropriation. In 1997, the Municipality of Thessaloniki started the demolitions without all the necessary permits. The Ano Poli Residents' Association with the support of 8 professors from the Department of Architecture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki manifested their reaction by sending a relevant document to the European Union and the BBC. The Association of Citizens of Thessaloniki, the Department of Urban Planning of the National Technical University of Athens, ICOMOS, the Association of Architects of Thessaloniki, the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Historical Monuments, the Melpo and Michael Merlié Minority Studies Center, the 9th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, the 4th Ephorate of Modern Monuments, the Thessaloniki Regulatory Agency and the Association of Smyrna of Asia Minor agreed with this view. - 45 -

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Thousands of signatures were collected by journalists, architects, engineers, artists and other citizens. The issue concerned the daily press and the rest of the media. Because of this reaction, the Municipality of Thessaloniki invites the city's bodies to a meeting. In this meeting it was decided to suspend the demolitions and to commission a study in the Technical Chamber of Greece to explore the possibility of maintaining the residential complexes located in the green zone of the Walls. During the same period, two meetings took place, the first one in the Prefecture, where the need to reintegrate the green zone of the walls and to preserve the settlement was proposed, inter alia and the second, in the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace where the Minister decided to set up a special city working group dealing with the processing of all issues of the Ano Poli and in particular the re-examination of the green zone of the walls (1069/4/7/1997). In 1998, a study was prepared by the Municipality of Thessaloniki, which proposed the maintenance of certain residential complexes in the green zone area of the walls, with a parallel modification of the urban planning. The Organization of Urban Planning within the framework of the work of the Special Study Team of the Ministry of Macedonia – Thrace, commissions a group of scientists to study the characterization of the residential complexes in the green area of the walls to be preserved. The Municipality of the city in turn assigns to three professors of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki a land use study which is completed during that same period. The above studies are submitted to the special team of the Ministry of Macedonia - Thrace. At the same time, the Special Study Team is working on modifying the urban planning of Ano Poli. In November 2001, the Municipality did not give up its efforts for partial demolitions and sent a letter to the Ministry asking permission to demolish some "kastroplikton" residences while the processing of the data from the above studies had not progressed yet any of the decisions to be launched in early 2003. At the beginning of 2002, the Ministry of Macedonia - Thrace responded negatively and informed the Municipality that the matter was pending for its Special Study Team. The Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, in May 2002, asked from the Municipality to start the demolition of the “kastroplikton", invoking the need to begin the restoration work of the Walls after securing the fund from the 3rd CSF. The Association of Ano Poli Residents reacts and the Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, convenes an informal meeting at Genti Koule where participated the Deputy Mayor of Architecture of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the Head of the Upper City Office and the architect who is a member of the team assigned by the Regulatory Organization to conduct a study for the “kastroplikton” residences. In the meeting the informal implementation of the Organization of Urban Planning study was agreed, that is to start demolishing those buildings that are not proposed by the study to be preserved. On July 23th 2002, a new memorandum was submitted by the Ano Polis Association to the Municipality of Thessaloniki and the competent bodies asking for the "complete protection" of the settlement (Granada map) according to the international and Greek legislation (Φ.Μ 2039 / GG 61T.A., ATHENS 13-4-1992) and the suspension of demolitions until the elaboration of the studies by the special working group of the Ministry. Nowadays, according to the new general urban plan of the City which is about to be approved, only a lot of expropriations is about to be implemented.

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Figure 9: The New Urban Plan which is about to be published (source: https://www.deltaengineering.gr/, 20/04/2019)

Chapter 2 - Case study

2.1. General Information about “Kastroplikton” Residences The most of these buildings are located in privileged locations, as the Wall is in the higher part of the City and the buildings attach to the Wall. The streets that give access to these buildings are small cobbled and sometimes dead-ends. The buildings are small, no longer than 70 sq.m. and consisted by a kitchen, a living room and couple of rooms. In the most of them the toilet was in the country yard and the last years after a renovation project it was added in the residence. One of the buildings facades attaches to the Wall or uses the Wall as a façade and in many cases the other two facades are in touch to other “Kastroplikton” buildings. The most of them have a small country yard. Their architectural and morphological characteristics are simple and their external walls were painted with vivid colours, such as yellow, white, terracotta colour, etc.

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Figure 10: Colorful “Kastroplikton” residences (source:http://alternatrips.gr/el/makedonia/thessaloniki/i-palia-poli-tis-thessalonikis-san- skiniko-tainias-toy-60, 20/04/2019)

2.2. Relationship of the residence with its surrounding area Tsinari neighborhood One of the “kastroplikton” residence was examined. The specific residence is located in Tsinari neighborhood. Tsinari extends from Olympiados Street in the north (at the height of the current Ministry of Macedonia - Thrace), up to the Wall and west till the neighborhood of Agia Ekaterini. Since the area had many fountains and plane trees (çinar in Turkish) it was named Cinarli by the Turks and remains known as Tsinari until today. In the area, there was the Medreses (Jewish school) with the plane trees, the school with the plane trees and the mosque with the plane trees, known as the mosque of Mu'id Alaeddin. The existence of Murad II's fountain at the junction of Klious and Alexandra Papadopoulou streets is also important. The basin of the fountain was made by the plaque of an ancient tomb, in which some words by a Greek inscription are detected. Nowadays, this fountain is the best-preserved fountain in the city, although it is no longer in use. Just across the fountain there was the café Tsinari with a plane tree in front of it as well. After the exchange of populations, the café was taken over by a Smyrnian, who, apart from coffees and sodas, served ouzo with meze. At weekends a santour player and violin player played nostalgic songs from Asia Minor. In the small square between the fountain and the café, the ladies with their empty cans were waiting for the water to come to the fountain to fill them, since the water was not enough for the whole city and the water company provided it only for some hours. Nowadays it works as a café-ouzo shop Tsinari and is the last example of a traditional typical café of the Ottoman Occupation.

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Figure 11: The café Tsinari and the fountain of Mourad II (source: www.pinterest.com, 30.06.2017)

The fire of 1917 did not reach Tsinari and so the area remained intact keeping its traditional urban fabric with narrow cobbled streets and dead ends. The main streets of the neighborhood with many traditional houses of the so-called Balkan architecture are D. Poliorkitou, Klious and A. Papadopoulou streets. D. Poliorkitou Street connects Ano Poli with the rest of the city and gives the image of Byzantine and Turkish Thessaloniki with the zigzagged cobbled narrow streets. Alongside it, many houses are preserved, listed and most of them are abandoned and with a lot of damages. Many artists, such as the poets George Themelis and Anestis Evangelos, the scholar George Zografakis, the writer refugee of the Asia Minor Iphigenia Chrysochou, the director Yannis Khartomatzidis lived in this neighborhood. The poet George Vafopoulos lived and wrote many poems in D. Poliorkitou Street. N. Christianopoulos, who stayed for many years at 20th D. Poliorkitou Street, wrote: "... the neighborhood is very colorful. It is made up of some folk families, who still drink their ouzo under the vine. Also, someone can see a lot of likeable students who cohabit with their young girlfriends, some blokes who still adore the motorbikes, some foreign intellectuals, uncurable lovers of Ano Poli and several Russian families who remind us of Asia Minor after the occupation. "

Geographical information about the residence The residence is located at the end of Evdoxia Street, a narrow street of 3.50 m width without pavements, which is bounded by the building lines. It is particularly uphill starting from Dem. Poliorkitou Street, almost opposite Peleos Street, and ending at the southern (inner) side of the Byzantine City Wall. In fact, Evdoxia Street is a dead-end as it ends up in the courtyards of two “kastroplikton” residences, the one that was examined and the one of its two attached neighbors. On either side of Evdoxia Street there are houses, with the exception of the ground floor of the building located at the crossroads of Evdoxia with Dem. Poliorkitou Streets, which is used for professional reasons, and the ruins of the old bakery at the opposite corner. Most street buildings are modern. They are consisted of a ground floor and one or two storeys above it, in each one of which are - 49 -

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developed one or two apartments depending on the size of the plot. On their facades they have preserved the architectural and morphological characteristics of the old buildings in the area, with the last floor protruding over the ground floor, applying the morphology of Sachnisi and hagiati. All buildings are covered with a tiled roof.

Figure 12: Topographic diagram of the area. The location of the study residence is in the circle. (source: Municipality of Thessaloniki, www.thessaloniki.gr, 10/09/2018)

Figure 13: View of Evdoxia Street from the balcony of the study residence (source: C.-Z.- Kefala personal photographic archive, 22/06/2015)

The residence located at 10th Evdoxia Street, at the east side of the street, while according to older documents the number of the residence was the 6th instead of 10th, is a typical example of a "kastroplikton" residence. It touches the Byzantine Walls of the city in its northern part, to the west and east of it attached to other "kastroplikton" residences, which are still inhabited, and in the south, it develops its courtyard.

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Figure 14: Floorplan of the study residence in comparison with the neighboring (source: C.- Z.-Kefala personal archive).

Figure 15: The façade of the residence. It is a collage composed by three different photos. In the balcony there is A. Kefala and her husband’s cousin in the middle of 1960s (source: C.-Z.- Kefala personal photographic archive)

Historical information about the residence The construction date of the house is not known, but according to evidence it is dated before 1900. It was inhabited by its Turkish owners and after the exchange of populations constituted an "exchangeable property" of refugees. With the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the compulsory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey was decided, excluding the - 51 -

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Greek minority of Constantinople, Imbros and Tenedos and the Muslims of West Thrace. According to the Treaty, this residence was given to a Greek refugee four-member family, coming from the suburbs of Smyrna, in order to be housed. Apparently, this residence and the fortune of this family back in Smyrna where considered to be of a similar value and suitable to house its four members. According to data found by the office managing the exchanged properties of the National Bank of Greece, the residence was rented to the family for 20 drachmas per month from 1922 to 1929. In 1929 the residence was bought by the tenant with the process of land swapping and auctioning of its sale. In the beginning the residence accommodated the owner's family. From 1945 until 1969 it accommodated his son's family. Until the late 1980s it was rented to another family. Since then, it remains uninhabited. Nowadays it belongs to the great-granddaughter of the first refugee owner.

Figures 16, 17: C. Kefalas, the first Greek refugee owner, in front of his property in 1929 and Property Valuation Act of C. N. Kefalas from the community of Aherlli in Turkey, 20-9-1924 (source: C.-Z.-Kefala personal photographic archive).

Chapter 3- Restoration & Re-use

3.1 Proposal for Restoration The today’s condition of the most building downgrades the value given to them by their position, their view and, last but not least, their history. Their designation as under demolition was the reason why they got abandoned and its currently creating obligations concerning their use and limitations in the restoration work. The manufacturing operations are proposed to be done in such a way as to preserve its typology and its traditional morphological characteristics by using similar building materials with the originals, as far as possible, at least at the visible parts. In many cases the access difficulty to the residences because of the cobbled narrow streets, the limited space due to the small size of their courtyards, the inaccessibility of the one side because of their attachment to the Wall, make the work difficult and expensive. The objectives of the manufacturing operations, taking under consideration the pathology and the proposal for re-use, are the following: • Dealing with the pathology of the masonry that acts as a bearing body of the buildings and their strengthening, with the aim of eliminating the risks to be caused in the present or in the future. - 52 -

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• Dealing with construction problems, to eliminate the factors that are responsible for the damage, and repair the damage they have suffered. The operational development of giving back the use of residence to the building, having taken into account the current needs and requirements. • The aesthetic upgrading of the residence and of the rest of the complex. • The restoration study of these residences shall be carried out taking into account the following principles: • Maintenance, as much as possible, of the neighborhood's historicity, even though there are operations in some neighboring buildings that have changed their characteristics. • Maintaining its historicity and authenticity by preserving several authentic elements and restoring those that have been destroyed, as closely to the original as possible, at least on the facade and the courtyard. • Use as many traditional building materials and methods as possible. When traditional materials and building methods are considered inadequate, modern ones can be used. • The proposed operations are advisable to be reversible without that being necessary as the study residence is not a historic one. • The accession of possible new constructions should be distinguishable from the original. The same will apply to the external constructions that are made later than the original home.

General Principles of Restoration: These interventions concern both the house and the courtyard as well as the buildings in it as they are an integral part of the residence. Due to the specificity of the location of the house, a building permit is not able to be issued for the renovation works. Instead, a small-scale repair permit can be issued, by submitting a dossier with all the technical papers at the Thessaloniki Byzantine Monuments Ephorate in order to be approved by the competent council and then applying for it in the Town Planning Office. The proposals that will be applied will have as basic principle that each intervention will respect and highlight the typological and morphological characteristics of the residence taking into account its static and building organization. The building materials and the ways of construction are integral elements of its character and are historical testimonies not only for the study residence but also for the construction practice of their era. The purpose of the restoration is not to return the buildings to their original condition but to preserve and highlight their basic features whether they were from the initial phase (house and stone fence) or have been incorporated into them during its history. With these criteria, the planning of interventions is done to help future users understand and appreciate the historic and aesthetic value of the home, which is expressed by the specific typological structure and aesthetics of its time.

3.2. Proposal for Re-use After having taken under consideration the location, the history, the use of the rest of the buildings of Evdoxia Street, the functional capabilities of the building and the limitations of the urban design of the city, it is proposed to re-use the building as a residence by retaining its architectural physiognomy and animating its neighboring environment. The difficulty in accessing and finding a car parking position was a critical factor for rejecting its possible new use as a workplace. Its restoration was selected in order to save it from total destruction and give life to the building until it was finally arranged by the state. This is the only way to ensure its safe

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operation, its use, while its character is not corrupted, and the area is relieved from another potential ruin that degrades it considerably. Its use fully respects its character with as few morphological changes as possible. With the proposed restoration and operations to be developed it becomes clear that it can serve modern needs with small changes in the interior, which do not cause any interference in its unique facade.

Conclusion The present study refers to a specific category of residences in Thessaloniki, the one of the refugee residences, the "kastroplikton" of the Ano Poli. Their history and their legislative framework were examined. One of these residences was selected and a proposal for its restoration and reuse was made. Having taken into consideration the economic situation of the country, the rate at which the compensation of "kastroplikton” residences is implemented, but also all international agreements which have been contracted, the Venice Charter, the Amsterdam Declaration and the Convention of Granada, it is proposed a larger part of "kastroplikton” residences to be preserved than what is proposed through the study of the Municipality of Thessaloniki. The attempt to preserve and promote the historic period that the City Walls were constructed does not necessarily mean the disappearance of the later ones. These "kastroplikton" residences are a sample of late vernacular architecture, it is the last residential complex that maintains the image of the capital of the refugees, Thessaloniki, and attributes total architectural quality to the whole area, where the Walls fit perfectly with the humble structures distinguished for their austerity. They also have a special emotional value, not only for the inhabitants of the area but also for all residents of Thessaloniki as well as for its visitors, bringing back memories and folk neighborhood images that are not possible to be met today. Besides, the history of refugee has determined the city's physiognomy forever. In several European cities, areas such as the one under study, are being considered by the authorities are exploited as an opportunity given by their historical memory and identity, turning them into a comparative advantage of the areas. A typical example is the Alchemist Street in Prague and the old town of Granada. An example is also the “kastroplikton” residences located on the external side of the Walls and being part of the Municipality of Sikies, which has proceeded to the creation of a model cultural neighborhood.

References • Anastasiadis, A. (1989). ‘Thessaloniki: Upper Town’, Greek Traditional Architecture, 7, 25-58, Athens: Melissa. • Association of Architects of Thessaloniki (2003). Ano Poli a historical site, calendar 2003, Thessaloniki: Arion. • Kalogirou, N., Hastagoglou, B. (1992). ‘Upper City of Thessaloniki: Intentions and Results of an Urban Planning’, Space and Art Issues, 23, Athens. • Kafkala, K. (2001). ‘In support of a Historic Site: Upper City before and after the Cultural Capital’, Transformations of the Urban Landscape, Thessaloniki: Livanis. • Mavromatis, M. (2009). ‘Upper Town 1978-2009. Evolution of Interventions in the Traditional Settlement of the Historic Center of Thessaloniki’, Technografima, 373, 12-13, Thessaloniki. • Ministry of Public Works (1977). ‘Proposals to the Public Works Council: "Modification of the Urban Plan of the Upper City of Thessaloniki and Determination of Building Terms"’, Athens. - 54 -

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• Ministry of Public Works, Upper Thessaloniki Working Group (1979). ‘Upper City of Thessaloniki, Morphological and constructional details, proposals for new buildings, special studies’, Thessaloniki. • Moutsopoulos, N. (1979). Upper City of Thessaloniki: morphological and constructional details, proposals of new buildings, special studies. Thessaloniki: Ministry of Public Works. • Parthenopoulos, K., Mantziou A., Periventa M., Chaliazis, P. (2010). Traditional settlement of Ano Poli Thessaloniki - Proposals for Upgrading. Thessaloniki: TEE/TCG (http://portal.tee.gr/). • Samaras, N. (2015). Regeneration of Historic Centers and Ensembles, MSc Course in ‘Architectural and Domostatic Restoration of Historic Buildings and Ensembles’, Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly, Trikala. • TEE/TCG Working Group (2010). ‘Upper City Upgrade Proposals’, Technograph, 405, 6- 7. • TEE/TCG Working Group (2011). ‘Upper City Upgrade Proposals’, Technograph, 430, 4- 5.

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