Thessaloniki 1922: Monuments and Refugees

The Ministry of Culture and Sports presents a different aspect of the Asia Minor Disaster: how refugees were temporarily resettled in religious monuments, where they sheltered, when they were forced to leave their homes.

The exhibition has two sections. The first, Refugees in the monuments of Thessaloniki, uses a wealth of illustrated material, post cards and newspaper cuttings, to provide an image of the city following its liberation during the crucial decade of 1912-1922, when the monuments of the city provided settlement areas for many refugees from the Balkan countries (1912-1917); from the great fire of Salonica in 1917; and from the Asia Minor Disaster (1919-1922), which was the culmination of that period of time.

The second part of the same section presents the Asia Minor Campaign and, specifically, the departure of refugees from Eastern Thrace, as well as their long trek to Thessaloniki. The section is completed with settlement in the city, particularly around the citadel, where a series of temporary constructions and houses was built onto the Byzantine fortifications of the city as well as in churches, in particular the church of Acheiropoeitos.


Duration: 9 September - 31 December 2022.

Sunday 08:00 - 20:00
Monday 08:00 - 20:00
Wednesday 08:00 - 20:00
Thursday 08:00 - 20:00
Friday 08:00 - 20:00
Saturday 08:00 - 20:00