Street names in cities often seem to exist only to guide lost travelers, however the story behind street names reveals a past that reflects their true meaning as well as the history of the city itself.
Street names give character and life to the place they refer to and often serve the meaning of a historical landmark for a city. They reveal the politics, culture and ideologies of cities and also provide a common language for the city and its inhabitants.
The placement of 450 smart street name signs with historical information using QR-Code and NFC (Near Field Communication) labels in the historical center of the city is an initiative of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and D. MASOUTIS SA.
D. MASOUTIS SA in the context of Corporate Social Responsibility and its active presence in Thessaloniki wishes to express its interest in the city and the citizens by donating all the necessary equipment for the study, design, construction and placement of the smart street name signs in order to facilitate residents and visitors.
The purpose of this is first to have the needful street signage in the city, for residents and visitors and then to get familiar with the history of the streets we pass every day.
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Mitropoleos st is named after the Church of Saint Gregory Palamas, that is the metropolitan church of the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki. The metropolitan church was built in 1891-1914 based on the designs of the architects Ernesto Chiller and Xenophon Paionidis.
Saint Gregorios Palamas (1296 –1359) was an Orthodox monk, theologian, and intellectual leader of Hesychasm. He was appointed Archbishop of Thessaloniki and was canonized a saint of the Orthodox Church. His feast day is on November 14 and on the Second Sunday of Great Lent. In Thessaloniki the metropolitan church is named after him.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian physicist, astronomist and professor at the Universities of Pisa and Padova. He discovered the law of the isochrone swings of the pendulum and he proclaimed that the Earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the Sun that is the centre of our planetary system.
Vaios Michael (1513-1589) was Belgian, Theologist and interpreter of the Bible.
Nikolaos Vaglamalis founded in 1868 in Thessaloniki the Greek printing house named “Macedonia”, that was later renamed as “Hermes”. The origins of the Vaglamali family, according to folklore tradition, went back to the Byzantine times. Numerous important books were printed at his printing house.
Georgios Averof (1818-1899) was a national benefactor, born in the town of Metsovo, Epirus. He was a merchant in Alexandria, Egypt and he donated significant part of his property to national and charitable projects, such as the (Metsovian) National Technical University of Athens and the regeneration of the Panathenaic Stadium.
Vasileios Avdellas was born in Stromnitsa and he was an officer of the Greek Army. During the Bulgarian Occupation of Drama in the World War II, he was a member of the Pan-Hellenic Liberation Organisation (PAO). He was murdered in 1944.
Elitsavet Kastritsiou together with Theagenis Harisis and Marigo Karanikola founded the first Greek Girl’s School in Thessaloniki in 1845. She was a pioneer of feminism and with her legacies she maintained three girls’ schools, a textile school and a hospital in Ioannina, a girls’ school, a boys’ high school and many charitable institutions in Thessaloniki.
Dimitrios Katounis was born in 1794 in Galatista, Halkidiki. He was a wealthy merchant and great benefactor of the Hellenic Orthodox Community of Thessaloniki. He died in 1884.
Lysimachos Kaftatzoglou (1870-1932) was a diplomat, jurist and national benefactor. He bequeathed part of his property for the construction of a Pan-Hellenic Heroon in Thessaloniki. Eventually, his donation was used for the construction of the homonymous stadium.
