At the city walls: the narrative of Odysseas Papaioannou

Odysseas Papaioannou’s family arrived in Greece during the population exchange process between Greece and Turkey. They were a family of wool traders who first settled in a Turkish house in Ano Poli (on refugee settlement in Ano Poli, see also GKT002A-B) and later, in 1931, built a new residence in its place on Terpsithea Square, which survives until today.

Prompted by his participation in the area’s everyday life and, more specifically, by his involvement in the Ano Poli Residents’ Association, Papaioannou describes the population flows, conflicting interests, and socio-political risks that shape the society and urban planning process of Ano Poli. His narrative takes place at a time when he was particularly active in the public discourse around construction in the area in his capacity as secretary of the Ano Poli Residents’ Committee. Among his other responsibilities, Papaioannou monitored the processes behind the state decisions concerning the morphology of Ano Poli.

With regards to construction, housing and urban planning in general, Ano Poli in Thessaloniki was designated a traditional settlement by Presidential Decree in 1979 (Government Gazette 197/D/1979). Later that year, a new Decree (GG 313/D/1979) dictated the specific terms and conditions which would govern construction in the area. These Decrees were later revised and amended (for example, GG 611/D/1980, GG 27/D/1986, GG 904/D/1999).

Thanks to the work and interventions of the new Ano Poli Residents’ Association, which was established in the mid-1990s, certain decisions concerning the spatial morphology of the area were amended. As a result, while originally only 45 buildings in Ano Poli were designated ‘heritage buildings’, namely structures worthy of preservation, in a later decree their number rose to 380. A working group organised by the Technical Chamber of Greece/Section of Central Macedonia and led by Konstantinos Parthenopoulos notes: ‘The Ministry of Culture had already designated 40 residences in Ano Poli and 8 houses on the wall zone as works of art in need of special state protection (GG B 680/14.08.1979). To sum up, there are 280 heritage buildings of all categories in Ano Poli, 46 urban planning features under the protection of the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace, and 48 residences designated as works of art and protected by the Ministry of Culture’.      

When it comes to housing, Papaioannou asserts that the people who moved to Ano Poli after the population exchange should be able to remain in the area and those who wish to stay should receive state assistance in order to preserve their homes. It is worth mentioning that the Ano Poli Residents’ Association sought to preserve the houses abutting the wall (‘καστρόπληκτα’, pronounced ‘kastroplikta’ which means ‘castle-stricken’, ‘the houses threatened by the walls’) in the area of Moni Vlatadon in an effort to maintain human presence in the area and protect its residential character, but their efforts did not succeed. Therefore, by focusing on questions of housing and the elimination of human presence in various parts of the city, Papaioannou highlights urban planning and contemporary history issues pertaining to what constitutes a monument and what our options might be when composing our collective memory.