What I can see

Navarinou Square is one of the city’s liveliest squares and has the special privilege of being located next to an archaeological site, the Galerius palace complex. It is a meeting point for socializing, where students have coffee or visit the square broader area’s bars by night, which mostly play alternative music. This part of town is also famous for its ouzo taverns and for its restaurants, which serve ethnic cuisines. In the surrounding streets and in particular on Alexandrou Svolou Street, one can admire interesting graffiti. Finally, the square has a sculpture of a little boy (a work by the artist Nikolas) and a playground.

What I can't see

During Ottoman times, at the square’s location, there was the Achtse Metzit district or else Axametzit, as it was called by local children. Even during those early years, it was a meeting point for Christians, Muslims and Jews, who lived together in harmony. Agas Turks used to gather here for “gkaive” and to smoke the hookah. The Agas-bred cows were kept in their yards and their milk supplied the neighbourhood’s houses as well as the Arvanite bakeries. After the war between Greece and Turkiye and the exchange of populations under the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the Turks moved to Turkiye and Greek refugees, mainly from Izmir, took their place in the neighbourhood.

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