Open House- Falling in Love With Your Hometown.

Travelers strive to experience destinations like a local. Open House encourages us in the very opposite - experiencing our hometowns with the fresh and appreciative eyes of a tourist. It's an inspiring approach to everyday urban life.  

For my Thessaloniki Open House agenda, I picked places not ordinarily accessible -  and that's the beauty of it. Of the nearly 70 spaces that had opened their doors, many were offices and residences. Having just visited the city's more officially historic buildings for some articles I am writing, I decided to focus on places that you can usually never see, unless you are really quite ballsy and fresh.

I did start with one big name building that is rarely open to the public- I remember seeing the Villa Petridi in a state of ruin, just after the courthouse off to the right as we would turn to go to Mylos. It was easy to spot- a shamble of a splendid three story Art Nouveau house all by itself among sad looking office buildings from the 70's. The view from the Villa itself was all industrial romance- the high red brick walls of the working harbor and the cranes peeking above. You'd go by the villa and say "Wow they should fix that beauty up!" Now I kind of wish they hadn't. 

Home depot stencils run amok, and a gracelessly interrupted pattern. The floors shone like a diamond. The tales though- imagining the brook running by and the tram lines intersecting, that was nice. A not at all surprising truth-

Ruin is imagination's best companion.

Well, it was nothing but nice surprises after the Villa Petridi:

Some lawyers had generously opened their offices; it used to be an apartment, or perhaps one could say, the apartment.

The corner penthouse of the prime and first of Aristotle plaza's defining buildings was worth seeing. Replete with charming features, like the dramatic bathtub niche:

But of course everyone's favorite was this, the Clark Kent of architectural devices:

(Residents of Thessaloniki who are good at 3D puzzles will know that, logically, on the other side of this bookcase must be Pavlou Zanna screening room of the Olympion cinema. It used to be a theater for live performances, which means that this bookcase covers the opening that was once the family's private box- complete with bedrooms, kitchen, and bath!) 

The terrace was every bit as defined- and refined- as the interior:

The industrial lands to the west have the slaughterhouse, and the waterworks. The slaughterhouse, like the villa Petridi, had been sanitized of all atmosphere (but not of imposing symmetry):

Less sanitized was the guard house:

And best of all was the unsettling collection of busts, stored without name or ceremony at the lot's edge:

Pensive and timeless- to say nothing of eerie:
dismembered figures on the grounds of the slaughterhouse

Why is Poselli such a well-known name in Thessaloniki? These days the mad good pizza, more delicious still for their impeccable taste in choice of name- the architect Vitaliano Poselli, of the Arcade in which the stellar pizza oven is housed, and many of Thessaloniki's most elegant Jahrhundertwende buildings, among them the Catholic Church, of 1897-

This splendid Campanile once towered
over the neighborhood.

- a little piece of the West in our city of the East. (More Poselli buildings soon- a tremendous presence in our urban landscape.)

The 14th C Byzantine Baths of Koule Kafe (a UNESCO world heritage site) were ultra-photogenic. Or at least I can only imagine- photos were sadly prohibited (until the restoration is complete). Like at many sites of historic and archaeological interest in the abundance that is Greece, there was a lot of "stuff" that the rest of the world would probably have in a museum. Here is some of it-

These intricate indentations-
not unlike the muqarnas of the nearby Alaja Imaret-
 seem to anticipate the Islamic architecture
that would shortly be marking the city.

Corinthian fragments like lions' feet.

A curiously modern motif.

The last notable building was commercial- an Art Deco gem with an atrium, metal elevator cage, grand staircase, and huge central common areas:

Design Rorschach test:
Our guide said that rumor has it that this eagle motif
is a remnant of the German occupation.
A lady in the group proposed that, in fact, it also resembles a pair of scissors-
entirely appropriate to our textile district.

And after that, an unexpected treat: from the roof of a soon-to-be Bed and Breakfast, a rare view of the interior courtyard of the "Alkazar" (the Hamza Bey Mosque):

Do you love the variety of marbles in these columns?
Perhaps, like those in Agios Dimitrios, they are "recycled" from
Roman or Byzntine structures.

The two days made for a rich collage of images- spaces both commercial and private, sacred and secular, raw and ornate, and, this being Thessaloniki, several centuries' worth. It was a special occasion, but exploring doesn't have to be: that is perhaps the point of Open House- it wakes you to the architectural variety and beauty that is around you every day. I resolved to be more of a tourist in my home town (and maybe a little more fresh)- an easy resolution.