Apolymanteria

In 1922-1924, more than 270,000 refugees arrived in Macedonia. Most left their homes in Asia Minor by sea and arrived in Thessaloniki by ship. Immediately after disembarking, the refugees had to find accommodation in the city centre (houses, hotels, squares, streets, markets, churches, and other public places). Within a short time, the port and the city centre were packed with impoverished people. The local authorities decided to use Kalamaria as the principal landing place since there was plenty of free space, accommodation facilities in the various camps and basic infrastructure for disinfecting and guaranteeing the refugees to prevent the transmission of diseases in the city. Typhus, after all, was on the rise at that time and served inadvertently as an incentive for the development of Kalamaria. The Public Disinfection Centre (Apolymanterio) was the initial reception area for refugees disembarking from ships. The refugees used green soap to wash their hair and bodies before getting a haircut to remove lice. There was great emphasis on the disinfection of clothes, although their return to their owners proved quite problematic, and many refugees lost what little clothes they had managed to bring with them.

After disinfection, the refugees moved on to the wards. These were in the shacks left by the allied troops after the First World War and in tents without heating. The refugees were clean but at the same time exhausted, hungry, impoverished, with few possessions and afflicted with various diseases. Fear of famine and disease resulted in a ban on the movement of refugees to Thessaloniki, forcing most to adapt to the new circumstances of life in Kalamaria.

The demolition of the Apolymanteria in 1965 resulted in the complete transformation of the area.