Postwar Ano Poli

However, the number of the newly-arrived Christian refugees was much higher than the available houses and, at first, several families were housed in each building, usually one to a room. At the same time, the newcomers erected new, makeshift houses, occupying practically every single empty land plot in the area, all the way up to the city walls, even using the walls themselves as part of the architecture of these makeshift dwellings, which became known as ‘kastroplikta’ (castle-stricken).

According to Hastaoglou, ‘In Ano Poli the refugees settled within the already established urban fabric. Besides legally settling in exchangeable properties acquired through auctions, a large number of destitute refugees occupied all kinds of open spaces, constructing small dwellings in the yards of old houses and in vacant land abutting the walls. This way of settlement led to the extreme segmentation of the finite amount of urban land that was available, resulting in the creation of minuscule land plots, some smaller than 40 square metres, which were covered with tiny dwellings. Whether terraced or detached, the houses submitted to the existing topography and demanded the full extent of their tenants’ imagination and ingenuity to transform into actual living spaces. These dwellings can be viewed as the last expression of an authentically traditional vernacular architecture due to their improvised construction and the fact that they were made using materials that could be found in the vicinity; mud and reeds, wood, and parts of old buildings. The practice of “plucking” stones from the walls also dates back to this time.’   

In the decades after the Second World War and particularly during the military dictatorship (1967-1973), new multi-story buildings were erected mostly in the southern part of Ano Poli. A large number of the area’s residents moved out to new apartment buildings in other parts of the city, while newcomers from nearby prefectures, internal migrants and, in general, people from lower socioeconomic strata moved into Ano Poli, transforming the area’s buildings by making conversions and adding extensions. In 1979, Ano Poli was declared a traditional settlement and, in 1980, special terms and restrictions were introduced to prescribe construction in the area so that it meets specific architectural standards. Despite a series of changes in the area’s building use codes and population composition, Ano Poli remains to this day a residential area which houses newcomers to Thessaloniki.