Νοσοκομείο Αγ. Δημήτριος και πρώην Φθισιατρείο σε πρώτο πλάνο (Ψηφιακή συλλογή φωτογραφιών Ε. Γιαβάνογλου) /
Hospital St. Dimitrios and Former Sanatorium (Digital photo collection of E. Giavanoglou)
Νοσοκομείο Αγ. Δημήτριος και πρώην Φθισιατρείο
Hospital St. Dimitrios and Former Sanatorium
In 1902-1903, on the initiative of the mayor Houlousis Bey, in the area between the sanctuary of Apostle Paul and the cemetery of Evangelistria, a new hospital, Hamidiye, later Balediye, began to be constructed with the assistance of the Greek community. The construction began in 1902-1903 and the hospital was inaugurated in 1904. Together with the Hirsch Hospital, they were the largest hospitals in the city at the turn of the century. After 1912 it was named the Municipal Hospital and today it is called “St. Demetrius”. With the population exchange that followed the Asia Minor catastrophe and the arrival of a large number of refugees in Thessaloniki after 1923, the latter were placed by the Greek authorities in the areas outside the city walls in small settlements. Presidential Decree No. 18/18.01.34 proceeded to significant rearrangements of the municipalities and formed the basis for the development and determination of new communities. The large number of refugees and the need to establishment and health care created numerous problems for the indigenous population. Naturally, the refugees were faced with a range of diseases as a consequence of their hard living conditions and the lack of sanitary infrastructure.
Νοσοκομείο Αγ. Δημήτριος και πρώην Φθισιατρείο
[Πηγή: Κ. Νίγδελη (2016), Δήμος Νεάπολης-Συκεών «Ο μεγάλος Καλλικρατικός Δήμος»]
Hospital St. Dimitrios and Former Sanatorium
In the community of Agios Pavlos, behind the precinct of the Municipal Hospital, a special unit (Phthisiatrion) was created to treat patients with tuberculosis, a disease known as consumption. Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs and had a high mortality rate in those years. In a Memorandum from the residents of the community of Ag. Pavlos to the General Governor of Macedonia (dated 7/4.6. 1937), they persistently demand the removal of the Phthisiatrion from the area as a “source of death of this burdensome disease of tuberculosis, which has become a scourge of the poorer strata of society, [……..] mainly the houses of the poor breadwinners, who, being deprived of bread, are certainly unable to meet the colossal costs of the disease”. The residents of the area are insisting on the removal of the Flithsiatrion as a matter of social welfare, in respect for the health of the residents, especially the children, as the most vulnerable group who were directly at risk from exposure to the tuberculosis germ and who could quickly be led because of it ‘to the cemetery of Evangelistria, which is only a few metres away’.
[SOURCE: K. Nigdeli (2016), Municipality of Neapoli-Sykies “The great Kallikratian Municipality“]
