Refugee houses near the walls in Sykies

A number of 1922 refugees from Eastern Rumelia, Eastern Thrace, and Rodochori and Aravissos in Cappadocia settled on the outside of the western walls of Ano Poli, in the Municipality of Sykies (today known as Municipality of Neapoli-Sykies). Initially, the refugees were housed ‘in old Turkish houses and all sorts of makeshift shacks made of wood, tin or corrugated iron, with no windows or lighting’. Later, some of these makeshift shacks were converted into permanent dwellings which still survive today on the slope between the walls and the intersection of Mesolongiou Street and Venizelou Street.

According to K.M. Nigdelis: ‘A 1922 law [GG, Α 237/17.11.1922] was an attempt to tackle the problem of housing, with single- or double-storey adobe buildings, inelegant constructions made in the eastern philosophy, with the ever-present oda, the larger room where guests are received, painted in colours that could hide the dirt. Others were housed in makeshift structures made out of wood, tin or corrugated iron, with no windows or lighting. These structures, wrapped in tar paper to keep out the humidity and the cold but lacking any other comfort, housed the first refugees for a long period of time. According to reports, there were also several reed constructions, which were later built with bricks made of mud and straw. And yet these are houses of love, clean and decorated with gusto and imagination, emanating a sense of warmth, of protection after the storm. Instead of a precious vase, there is a flower, where there would be a sofa, there is a potted plant, and the handmade woven fabric hangs in the place of the expensive painting. The toilets are shared and the water is taken from the municipal water pump’.

Since the end of the 2000s, the Municipality of Sykies has created the institution of the ‘Cultural Neighbourhood’, preserving several of these refugee houses and establishing a refugee museum, an information centre, a painting workshop, an environmental education workshop and a youth centre (see item ΧΤΤ014f). Over the past five years, tours around the refugee neighbourhood have been organised with the participation of current refugees from nearby reception facilities.