King George 1st
Marble bust of king George I, at the scene of his murder.
Modern and Contemporary era (1912 - )
1913 George was assassinated. It had been attempted again in 1898.
1915 The sculpture was made.
Ottoman era (1453- 1912)
Byzantine era (331 AC- 1453)
Roman era (30 BC- 330 AC)
Hellenistic era (322- 31 BC)
Classical era (478-323 BC)
Archaic era (800-479 BC)
Geometric era (-1100- 800 BC)
Prehistory (-1100 BC)
What I can see
The marble bust on a marble base and pedestal of King George I is a work by Konstantinos Dimitriadis and is located at the spot where George was assassinated in 1913. It is the oldest outdoor sculpture of modern Thessaloniki and George is depicted as serious, but not steely, and his clothes have light folds. The bust is of classicist logic, it is considered a very good monumental sculpture, it belongs to the good examples of neoclassical Greek sculpture and is one of the artist’s first works. George (1863-1913) was born in Copenhagen as a Danish prince. After the eviction of King Otto from Greece, he was elected by the Greek parliament and had the support of the great powers, as he was related to the royal houses of the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Norway and Denmark. The United Kingdom ceded the Ionian Islands as a gift to the new king.
What I can't see
George was known for his authoritarian behaviour, often testing the limits of constitutional legitimacy, and his interventions, which were primarily aimed at benefiting his dynasty, led to unstable governments and political uncertainty. He was often fascinated by the idea of a royal coup. He was openly accused for his gerrymandering methods by many politicians of the time and Harilaos Trikoupis, with his famous article “Who’s to blame?”, was among them. After the country had descended into social and political chaos, he was forced to retreat and accept the Principle of Declared Confidence, that is, the government’s confidence vote by the majority of the parliament, which forced the king to appoint the leading party to form a government. George, in cooperation with other Balkan countries, declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1912 and the Balkan Wars began. He was murdered during a routine walk. The murderer Alexandros Schinas was initially accused by many as an “infected anarchist”, “crazy” or an agent of the Turks or Bulgarians. Thus, there were reprisals against the city’s Muslims, Jews, and Bulgarians. The Bulgarians left the city and Jews had a hard time. Many of them claimed that they preferred the Ottoman occupation and immigrated to France and the USA. The murderer was interrogated, but nothing leaked from the interrogation. The files were burned on the ship to Athens. It is most likely that he acted for German interests, as George was Anglophile, while the successor Constantine was Germanophile. The interrogation took place only in the presence of the crown prince Constantine/Konstantinos and shortly before Schinas committed suicide or was murdered, he was visited by George’s widow, Queen Olga, together with Prince Petros. The aim of the Germans was to destabilize the Greek presence in Thessaloniki, which had been handed over to Greece by the Turks a year before.
Info
- Address: Vas. Olgas Av. & Ag. Triadas St.
Bibliography
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