Museum of the Macedonian Struggle (Thessaloniki)
The Museum of the Macedonian Struggle ( Greek Μουσείο Μακεδονικού Αγώνα Θεσσαλονίκης ) in Thessaloniki is located in a classical building that was built in 1893 according to the design of the architect Ernst Ziller . The modern and contemporary history of Greek Macedonia is presented in the six halls on the ground floorclearly shown. The visitor gets an overview of the social, economic, political and military developments that have shaped the presence of Hellenism in the region. This gives the visitor the opportunity to get an idea of the rebellious movements during the Ottoman rule and learns a lot about the rapidly changing society in the southern Balkans and their efforts to find a balance between tradition and modernization.
The building
On August 23, 1890, a great fire destroyed the southeastern quarters of the center of Thessaloniki. Among the destroyed buildings was the modest seat of the Greek Consulate General. It was next to the relatively unknown Church of St. Demetrius, which was also destroyed by fire. Both buildings and the property belonged to the Greek Orthodox community of Thessaloniki.
With the settlement sum from the insurance company and thanks to a donation from the Athens banker Andreas Syngros , as well as the help of the Greek government, an adequate sum was soon collected to rebuild the buildings of the Greek community. One of them was the new church, which was now dedicated to Saint Gregorius Palamas, and right next to it was a beautiful neoclassical building designed by Ernst Ziller, suitable for a consulate. From the talks between Andreas Syngros, the leaders of the Greek community and the Greek consul Georgios Dokos it had emerged that the consulate should be on the same property in order to ensure the secret cooperation of the parishioners with the consulate. In September 1892 the foundation was laid and in August 1893 the work was finished. The Greek community rented the building to the Greek state in 1894 as the seat of the Greek Consulate General.
The term of office of Lambros Koromilas (1904–1907) was of immense importance for the Macedonian struggle, as he organized the secret service for the Greek struggle in Macedonia between the individual Greek consulates - which were called "headquarters". The "headquarters" of Thessaloniki worked closely with the other "headquarters" in Macedonia and ordered operations. It consisted mainly of officers from the Greek army who maintained contact with local agents and armed gangs. They also had connections with the “national committees” made up of residents of Macedonian villages and towns. The consulate building regularly housed fighters who entered the consulate grounds unnoticed via the bishopric through a side door.
The importance of the role of the Greek Consulate at this time is confirmed by the statements made by the protagonists of the Macedonian struggle. The later general Konstantinos Mazarakis-Ainian, who was working as a “special official” in the consulate at the time, reports in his memoir: “My work began in the consulate. I worked there from morning to night. I met people who came from within the country. A small door in the courtyard connected the site to the cathedral. Through them one could escape unnoticed by the Turkish guards in front of the consulate. It was the office for information and advice on the resistance against the Bulgarians… ”.
Alexandros Zannas , descendant of one of the most important Greek families in Thessaloniki, campaigned for the Greek national struggle as a teenager. In his memoirs he wrote: “... We were very good friends with everyone who worked there. I usually saw them almost every day, as the secret courier service in Macedonia usually came to our house and my brother or I brought the mail to the consulate ... The domestic letters were delivered by various railway employees ... and handed over to Tsapoulas, a man from ours Village who owned the coffee house across from the train station. My sister, a primary school teacher, picked her up from him and brought her home ... Then we delivered her to the Greek Consulate ... ”.
The successful activity of Lambros Koromilas alerted the Ottoman authorities, who demanded his departure in 1907. Nonetheless, the “headquarters” continued its task in the following years. During the period of the Young Turks (1908–1912), when the national struggle was led by political representatives, the Greek Internal Organization was careful to operate in secret and showed itself only to selected functionaries.
Greece's victory in the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) led to the union between Macedonia and the Greek state. Since the services of the consulate were no longer in demand, the building was used for other purposes. In 1915 the “ Agricultural Bank of Macedonia” was housed on the ground floor and in the basement . From 1917 it housed the "Greek National Bank" for three years, whose branch at the time was destroyed by the great fire that broke out in the center of Thessaloniki that same year. In 1923 the 23rd elementary school was housed in the building. During the German occupation of Greece (1941–1944) , the Red Cross distributed food to the starving urban population in the basement. Shortly before the end of the Greek civil war (1949), the basement served as a holding cell for political prisoners for a few months. In the following decades, the building housed a girls' school, an evening school and, from 1970, the 43rd elementary school.
The museum
In the 1930s, the idea of founding a museum for the Macedonian struggle arose. The “ Macedonian Brotherhood ” (1940) and later the “ Society for Macedonian Studies ” played an active role in founding this museum. When the building was classified as unsafe to house a school after the severe earthquake of 1978, the association of "Friends of the Museum for the Macedonian Struggle", founded in 1979 in Thessaloniki, asked the government to use the building as a museum to use. After the restoration of the building, the "Museum for the Macedonian Struggle" was opened in 1980. It was officially inaugurated in 1982 by Konstantinos Karamanlis , the Macedonian-born President of the Hellenic Republic and son of a Greek-Macedonian freedom fighter.
Since 1999 the museum has been run by the “Foundation of the Museum for the Macedonian Struggle”. In this century, in addition to its exhibition and publication activities, the foundation initiated new educational programs and technically innovative applications.
The museum is open Tuesday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on weekends from 11 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. Admission is free.
Traditional Macedonian costume from Alexandria
Farmers tools
Church relics
Military equipment and an edition of the newspaper "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ" (Makedonia)
Clothing of a Greek-Macedonian freedom fighter (Makedonomachos)
The exhibition
The presentation of the historical background in the first two rooms helps visitors to understand the unconventional nature of the Macedonian struggle. Its various aspects, constitutive elements and protagonists are presented in the thematic units of the permanent exhibition of the museum and in particular in the rooms dedicated to the Greek-Macedonian freedom fighters ( Makedonomachi Μακεδονομάχοι) and their actions, the high and lower-ranking clergy, the key role of the Greek Consulate General in Thessaloniki and dedicated to the symbolic figure of Pavlos Melas . This is followed by short units on the Young Turks Movement (1908), which marked the official end of the armed phase of the Macedonian struggle against the Bulgarian gangs, and on the Balkan Wars (1912-13), which ended the Ottoman presence in Macedonia. A short documentation informs the visitors about the later historical developments. In the basement, four dioramas familiarize visitors with everyday life in Macedonia at the beginning of the 20th century. The exhibition on the first floor includes military relics from the Balkan Wars that belonged to the Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian and Ottoman armies. Visitors will also find a collection of handcrafted models of military vehicles and artillery used by the Greek army. Documentaries on relevant topics are also shown.
The Research Center for Macedonian History and Documentation
In 1988 the museum established the Research Center for Macedonian History and Documentation (KEMIT) to promote historical studies on Macedonia and the Macedonian Question in particular. This facility, which has a specialized library, digitized sources and extensive archive material (national and international, public and private), is used by both pupils and students. The archives of the center cover a period from 1770 to 1912.
It also has an image archive that contains photos of people, towns and villages in Macedonia in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Coordinates: 40 ° 37 ′ 50.9 ″ N , 22 ° 56 ′ 37 ″ E
Web links
- Official website (German, Greek, English)
- Museum of the Macedonian Struggle on the pages of the Greek Ministry of Culture (Greek, English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Χρίστος Ε. Λαμπρινός, "Πότε εκτίσθη το Ελληνικό Γενικό Προξενείο Θεσσαλονίκης" (Christos, E. Labrinos, "When the Greek General Consulate of Thessaloniki was built") Macedonika , vol. 19, 1979, pp. 401-407.
- ↑ Κωνσταντίνος Μαζαράκης-Αινιάν, "Μακεδονικός Αγώνας - Αναμνήσεις", Ο Μακεδονικός Αγώνεinos , Thessalonikiμnosian Institute γώνεinos, ποημin Studies , Thessalonikiμύinos, Thessalonγμνεin Institute , Thessalonikiμakosian γώνεin 1984γώμύin Studies , Thessalonikiμakinosian Αγώνεin Institute , Thessalonikiμakinosian Αγώνεin . 182
- ↑ Αλέξανδρος Ζάννας, "Μακεδονικός Αγώνας - Αναμνήσεις" Ο Μακεδονικός Αγώνας, Απομνημονεύματα (Alexandros Zannas, Makedonikos Agon, Memoirs), Institute for Balkan Studies , Thessaloniki 1984, p. 113