59th
PRIMARY
SCHOOL
OF THESSALONIKI
THE
HISTORY OF OUR SCHOOL
The area,to which our
school belongs, is found in the center of Thessalonika and it is called
Kallithea. Kallithea quarter is out of the ancient
walls of the town and it is called like this because of the good view this
area has.
During the Turkish domination
the area to which our school belongs, had 800 acres and it was called "Mevlechanes"
by the Turkish dominators. In this place there was a Turkish monastery
which passed into history with the name of "Monastery of the dancing Dervissi"
or "Monastery of Mevlevi". In some documents of 1819 it is shown
clearly that the monastery had been there for 150 years. The monastery
owned an estate in which there were small houses.
Some refugees from Bosnia and Crete were settled there in 1908-09. Later,
after 1927, our primary school was build in the same place where the monastery
was. In 1937 a chapel called "The revealed Virgin
Mary"was build in the yard of the primary school by refugees. The refugees
had carried a holy ancient icon of Virgin Mary to this chapel from their
place, Malgara of East Thrace.
In 1950 works for a new
church next to the school started and the church was finally completed
in 1961.The holy icon of Virgin Mary was carried into this church.
We thank the pupil of
the sixth class Chris Eleftheroglou and the clerk of the Municipality of
Thessalonika Eftyxia
Hatzigogou for their efforts to discover the history of our school and
generally of the
area.
The translation was
made by the teacher of English of our school
Maria Anagnostopoulou-Arabatzoglou.
An old woman , 90
years old , testifies about the history of our school and the area.
By the pupils of
the sixth class
Eftyxia Aslanidou
Sotiris Bissiklis
The refugees had already
come from Asia Miror when the 59th primary school and the small chapel
in
the yard of the school
were built about 1935. The refugees had brought an old holy icon of Virgin
Mary
and they put it in the
small chapel. Later, in 1961 a big church was build next to the primary
school and
the holy icon was carried
there.
It is considered probable
that during the second world war the primary school had been under the
requisition of the German
army.At first they used the school as a hospital and later as a place where
they
rationed food to hungry
people.
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