What I can see

The marble bust is of Vassilis Tsitsanis, one of the greatest composers, songwriters and singers of folk songs and Rebetika, of the previous century. These songs are even nowadays widely popular in Rebetika taverns, restaurants, concerts and other cultural events. The bust rests on a stone pedestal, referring to the Hellenistic and Byzantine city walls.

What I can't see

Vassilis Tsitsanis, from Trikala (central Greece), is the artist who made rebetika popular in lounges with his work being continued later by Manolis Chiotis. Father of the rebetika was Markos Vamvakaris (1905-1972), who refined the rebetika during the interwar period and used oriental musical scales. His songs were banned as they were considered subversive, provocative and of “lower masses”, who were under the influence of hashish. To avoid censorship, which was still very intense even after the war, Tsitsanis started using more westernised scales, without giving up his rebetiko identity. The result was that from an utterly marginal music genre of an opium den, rebetika climbed into the higher classes and became popular in the broader population.

Info

• Address: Dimitriou Poliorkitou St.

Bibliography