Historical Archive of Macedonia

The Historical Archive of Macedonia is housed in the old Russian Hospital.

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What I can see

This building originally housed the Russian hospital, then a maternity hospital and nowadays, the Historical Archive of Macedonia. It is located at a higher level than that of Papanastasiou Street and its architecture is luxurious. This kind of luxury is also found in hospitals of other communities of the time (e.g. Jewish, Italian), which shows their competitive attitude. The building has 2 floors, its main facade is dominated by the vertical axis of symmetry, while the attention is drawn by the 6 semi-columns of Corinthian order, the grand staircase, the decorative stripe with spiral reliefs and the classical and Renaissance elements. Architecturally, it followed the new sanitary requirements of the time, according to which hospitals had to be peripteral or with wings, so as to limit the transmission of diseases. The spaces are developed around a central atrium and the operating room, a semi-cylindrical volume with arched reliefs, can be seen on the north-east side. The opening of Papanastasiou Street destroyed the fence and today, a concrete wall hides the building to a large extent.

What I can't see

The Historical Archive of Macedonia houses part of the General State Archives and collections of Ottoman and Greek archives concerning all aspects of social and political life of the city from the 19th century to the present day. The physical archives are developed in linear shelves with a total length of more than 1.5 km, while most of them have been digitized. The objectives of the archive are the supervision, rescue, collection, classification and indexing of archival material of the municipalities of the regional unit of Thessaloniki, with the aim of being useful to researchers and the public. It cooperates with the General State Archives, the Church of Greece, monastic institutions, religious organizations and individuals. In addition, it publishes journals and independent publications and participates in research projects with Greek and foreign scientific entities.

Info

Address: 21 Papanastasiou St.
Postal Code : 54639
Phone: +30 2310 855255
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://gak.thess.sch.gr/

Bibliography

Ζafeiris Ch., (2014), Θεσσαλονίκη, η παρουσία των απόντων, η κληρονομιά Ρωμαίων, Μουσουλμάνων, Εβραίων, Ντονμέδων, Φράγκων, Αρμενίων και Σλάβων, [Thessaloniki, the presense of the absent, the heritage of Romans, Muslims, Jews, Doenme, Franks, Armenians and Slavs], Thessaloniki: Epikentro

Historical Archive of Macedonia, (d.u.), Ιστορικό– Αρχεία– Συλλογές– Δραστηριότητες, [History- Archives- Collections- Activities]

http://gak.thess.sch.gr/

Last visit 21/6/2023

Kolonas V., (1997), Η αρχιτεκτονική από το 19^ο αιώνα έως τον 20^ο αιώνα, [Architecture from the 19^th to 20^th century], in Liontis K., (1997) (επ), Αρχιτεκτονική της Θεσσαλονίκης, [Architecture in Thessaloniki] in Epta Imeres, Kathimerini, p. 12- 15

Collective Work, (1985-6), Νεώτερα Μνημεία της Θεσσαλονίκης [Modern Monuments of Thessaloniki], Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Northern Greece

Open House Thessaloniki, (2017), Historical Archive of Macedonia, OHTH

Open House Thessaloniki, (2018), Historical Archive of Macedonia, OHTH

Location

Timeline

Modern and Contemporary era (1912 - )

1922 It came under the Greek government and housed a maternity hospital until 1975, when it was abandoned.

1994 Its new use, as the Historical Archive of Macedonia, begins.

Ottoman era (1453- 1912)

1907 It was built with money from the city’s Russian community and Russia and housed the Russian Hospital. After the Bolshevik Revolution, it operated as a hospital for Greek refugees from Russia.