Refugee houses in Kalamaria

During the years 1912-1913, populations moved across the territories that today belong to Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria due to widespread conflict, since whichever army was prevailing at the time would persecute and displace civilians from the areas of which they assumed control. A significant number of these displaced people settled in Northern Greece, with a large portion settling in Thessaloniki either straight away or soon after their displacement. This development started shaping both the morphology of the landscape and the demographic composition of the city, with the transformation being particularly noticeable in the Eastern suburbs of Thessaloniki. The large number of refugees flowing into Thessaloniki, which peaked during 1921-1922 with the enforcement of the Greco-Turkish Population Exchange Agreement, increased the local demand for housing [see also GKT010_A_B]. Hence, areas that had previously been undeveloped became places of settlement for the refugees constantly arriving in the city.

One of these places of mass refugee settlement was Kalamaria. Despite the fact that, according to the original urban plan, the area was supposed to be developed residentially to accommodate members of the city’s higher socio-economic strata, the urgent need for undeveloped land to house refugees led to the establishment in the wider area of Kalamaria of some of the largest refugee settlements of Thessaloniki.

According to Mazower, during the years 1920-1921, 20,000 refugees from Caucasus settled on the cape of Karampournou [see also ΧΤΤ018]. Soon after, with the signing of the Lausanne Treaty in 1923, refugees arrived from Pontus, Asia Minor, Constantinople, and Thrace, settling in the refugee neighbourhoods of Kalamaria and Aretsou. In particular, populations from the coast of Asia Minor settled in Aretsou and Nea Krini, which are coastal areas that now belong to the Municipality of Kalamaria, allowing the fishermen among the refugees to continue their professional activities.

However, the living and housing conditions for the refugees who settled in Kalamaria were particularly harsh. Mazower notes that upon their arrival in Kalamaria and even long afterwards, refugees had to live in cramped conditions ‘between half-finished streets and tiny wooden shacks’. In 1926, four-house complexes known as ‘τετρακατοικίες’ (pronounced ‘tetrakatikies’) were erected and soon after, the Refugee Settlement Commission (EAP) resolved to construct single houses, while the Ministry of Welfare commissioned the use of pre-made wooden houses.

The photograph depicts two of the last remaining refugee houses in the area of Aretsou/Kalamaria in 2006, the year when the photograph was taken. Most refugee houses had already been demolished and apartment buildings were erected in their place. The wider area of Kalamaria was constantly being transformed and reshaped. What used to be an area of countryside villas, but also a wetland and a site for Allied army camps during the First World War, became a major refugee settlement site before and after the end of the Greco-Turkish war. After the Second World War, the area turned into a popular seaside summer destination for the residents of Thessaloniki. At the end of the 1980s, Kalamaria was gradually transformed again, growing into a residential area for middle- and higher-income populations, through the practice of ‘antiparochi’: the sale of land to developers in exchange for apartments in the building which would be erected.