What I can see

The Stoa of Idols used to exist at this spot, which had inside it the “Idols” or “Incantadas”, meaning “Spellbound” in the Hispanic-Sephardic dialect of Thessaloniki’s Spanish Jews, who were exiled from Spain in 1492 and came here as refugees.

What I can't see

The Incantadas were sculptures of the Roman colonnade of the Stoa of Idols, which probably decorated the main entrance of the Roman Agora. According to Professor Aristotelis Mentzos, the portico (Greek: stoa) was perhaps part of the luxurious imperial hot-bath complex. This included a Corinthian order colonnade and, above it, squared columns with statues of Maenad, Dionysus, Ariadne, Leda with Zeus as a swan, Nike, Aura, Dioscurus and the abduction of Ganymede. The building survived in the courtyard of a 19^th century house of the Jewish quarter, and had impressed many travellers. However, the “Caryatids of Thessaloniki” as they were known, were dismantled by the French Palaeographer Emmanuel Miller with permission from the Ottoman administration, and are now on display in the Louvre. Miller’samateurism and the poor organisation strategy on behalf of France caused the total destruction of the monument. After that and after the inhabitants’ violent reaction, the Ottoman state tightened the conditions of antiquities acquisition and began to deal more seriously with their protection, although they were still used as means of developing international relations. Casts of Incantadas are displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, while the municipality is persistently claiming their return to Thessaloniki.

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