The Great Fire of 1917

If you ever wonder why central Thessaloniki looks planned while the Upper Town looks accidental, there is a single answer: the fire of 1917. In roughly 32 hours most of the old city burned, and everything you see today between Egnatia and the sea was designed from scratch afterwards.

What happened

The fire started on the afternoon of Saturday 18 August 1917 in a district near the Upper Town. It was summer, the Vardaris wind was blowing, the houses were timber and the city was full of Allied troops. There was not enough water.

When it was out, the toll was:

• 9,500 buildings destroyed
• more than 70,000 homeless — around 52,000 Jews, 11,000 Muslims and 10,000 Christians
• the commercial, administrative and religious heart of the city, along with synagogues, churches, schools and archives

The decision that changed everything

The Greek government took an unusual decision: it banned rebuilding on the old plots. Rather than put the city back as it had been, it would be designed anew.

The French planner Ernest Hébrard, already in Thessaloniki with the Army of the Orient, was put in charge. His plan divided the city into zones — administrative, commercial, industrial — introduced wide axes, and placed at its core a great Place Civique opening from the seat of government down to the sea.

That square is today's Aristotelous. Its arcades echo the Rue de Rivoli in Paris.

What the city gained, and lost

Thessaloniki got perhaps the only Greek city centre built to a single coherent plan: broad avenues, neoclassical frontages, a view onto the gulf.

But it lost its old form, and something heavier. Owners of burnt plots were compensated in bonds rather than land. Many could not return, and the Jewish community, which had lost the bulk of its housing, was scattered into new settlements on the edges of the city.

Five years later, the arrival of the refugees of 1922 would change the city's make-up again.

Where you see it today

• On Aristotelous Square, literally the centre of the Hébrard plan.
• In Ano Poli, the one district that escaped — which is why it still has cobbled lanes, timber houses and overhanging upper storeys.
• At Agios Dimitrios, which burned and was rebuilt; its present form is the result of that restoration.
• In the difference you will notice yourself the moment you climb above Olympou Street: from there up, it is a different city.