Dyrrachio Square and transport to Albania

The square opposite the New Thessaloniki Railway Station has been a meeting place for people arriving from Albania since the early 1990s. Dyrrachio (Durres) Square, formerly Karaiskakis Square, has housed numerous travel agencies which connected Northern Greek cities with various areas in Albania. Besides the travel agencies, the square is also surrounded by hotels and sex shops, since the wider area of Vardaris has been widely known for the red-light district of Bara and the sex trade taking place at the local brothels and hotels. These co-exist with old manufacturing facilities and retail stores selling Chinese products.

During the 2000s and 2010s, the travel agencies of Dyrrachio Square organised trips to several Albanian cities every day, with Tirana being the most common final destination. The routes followed by the buses reflect the various points of origin of the Albanian migrants working in Greece. Today, a limited number of such travel agencies are still in operation, since many migrants of Albanian origin returned to Albania after the Greek economic crisis, while most of the ones who have chosen to remain in Greece now have their own cars. Over the past three decades, the square has also been a point of departure for taxis and private cars transporting people from Thessaloniki to Albania.

Besides being a central meeting place, for years Dyrrachio Square was also a major day labourer pick-up site for Albanian migrants. Especially after 1989, the square’s location across from the New Railway Station, in this particular area of Vardaris, infused this small public space with meaning as a place of encounters, where people of different ethnicities could come seeking sex, food, company, work, or transportation.