Communities No Longer Present: Traces of Ottoman Turkish Habitation in Western Thessaly, Greece (15 min)

Presenters

Robin Rönnlund, Swedish Institute at Athens

Abstract

Ottoman western Thessaly was an exceedingly multicultural society with Christian and Moslem communities found side by side across the vast plains of the region. As a consequence of the Convention of Constantinople in 1881, however, the area was annexed by the kingdom of Greece, which prompted the gradual yet complete exodus of the Moslem population, culminating by the aftermath of the 1897 Greek-Turkish war. At the outbreak of WWI, all western Thessalians were Christian. The nearly 500 years of Ottoman rule, however, had left traces in the landscape. Today, 143 years since western Thessaly became part of Greece, scattered remains of Ottoman Turkish habitation are still to be found all over the region. Abandoned villages, cemeteries, mansions, military installations, baths, and mosques tell us the story of those who have left, of communities no longer present. Belonging to a somewhat uncomfortable part of Greek history, these remains are rarely studied and have only recently attracted scholarly attention. In this paper, I summarize the archaeological remains of Ottoman Turks in western Thessaly, hoping for a stronger future interest in this fascinating yet highly threatened cultural heritage.