33. Mansion of D. Chasirtzoglou – Lyceum of Greek Women of Xanthi
Brief documentation:
he Chasirtzoglou Mansion was built in the late 19th century by Dimitrios Chasirtzoglou, a textile merchant, who lived there until 1914, while on the ground floor of the building he kept his fabric shop. The attic of the building had an auxiliary character.
The building was passed into the possession of the Bank of Athens in 1925 and its ground floor housed its branch in 1954. The building has also housed the District and Prefecture of Xanthi, the Post Office and the Municipal Library and the Chess Club of Xanthi. Now the restored building, which belongs to the Municipality of Xanthi, houses the Xanthi Branch of the Lyceum of Greek Women. Here take place the various lessons of the Lyceum, events, while on the first floor there is an exhibition, the Museum of the History of Greek Costume, open to the public mainly during the Old Town Festivals.
The mansion is a two-storey building with eclectic elements, at the intersection of Venizelou and Agiou Georgiou streets, visible from Vasileos Konstantinou street. The exposed carved granite stones and the red bricks of the exterior walls create elaborate lintels and frames in the large windows of the building. Within its backyard there is a second, smaller auxiliary building. The first floor is accessible internally from the ground floor and externally from the enclosed courtyard, through an imposing staircase. The building included extensive painting decoration with frescoes, which can be found both in the residential area and in the shop that existed on the ground floor.
Category of thematic interest: ARCHITECTURAL/HISTORICAL/CULTURAL/FOLKLORE INTEREST
History:
The mansion was built in the late 19th century by Dimitrios Chasirtzoglou, who was professionally involved in the family textile trading business of his father Kyriakos Chasirtzoglou. The exact date of construction of the building is not known. D. Chasirtzoglou lived in this building with his family until his death in 1914. One of the two sons of the family, Euripides Chasirtzoglou, served as Mayor of the city from 1925 to 1934, while the other son, Aristos, worked as a journalist in the newspaper "Macedonia" of Thessaloniki.
In 1925 the heirs of Dimitrios Chasirtzoglou sold the building to the Bank of Athens, which from that year until 1953 housed its local branch on the ground floor. From 1934 to 1941 the first floor of the building housed the District of Xanthi, while from April 1945 the Prefecture.
In 1955 the building became the property of the Greek State and in the following years it hosted inside the Post Office of the city, on the ground floor, and the Municipal Library on the first floor. During the 1980s the first floor of the building housed the offices of the Chess Club of Xanthi. In the early 1990s the building became the property of the Municipality of Xanthi and was used as the roof of the local branch of the Lyceum of Greek Women. In 1995 the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace declared the Chasirtzoglou Mansion as a listed building of category A, thus placing the building in absolute protection. During the period 2007-2008, restoration works were carried out by the architects Maria Doussi, Michalis Nomikos and the construction of the project by the construction company MEDUSA SA.
Elements of architecture:
The Chasirtzoglou mansion is located at the junction of El. Venizelou 4 and Ag. Georgiou. It is a two-storey building of eclectic character, with ground floor, first floor and attic, which is located at the junction of Agiou Georgiou and Eleftheriou Venizelou streets. It consists of two independent buildings, one main and one auxiliary of smaller size in the backyard. The ground floor of the main building housed the fabric store of Dimitrios Chasirtzoglou, while the first floor was used as the family's residence. Between the first floor and the wooden roof of the building there was an attic, which functioned as an auxiliary space for the daily needs of the house.
On the back side of the main building there was a smaller auxiliary building, which consisted of two floors and was used for the needs of the servants. Between the two buildings there was a communal courtyard, which was used for the various daily functions of the house. The entrance to the courtyard of the building is through an imposing gate located on the side of Agiou Georgiou Street. From there, through a majestic staircase, access is made to the residence located on the first floor of the building. In the central area of the residence there was a spacious hall around which the rooms were organized. A very important peculiarity in the construction of the building are the four stone columns located on the ground floor, which were placed to hold the main metal beams of its roof, as well as the upper floors. Two of them are made of carved granite stones, while the remaining two are made of full-length granite columns.
Description of other elements:
he exterior of the building is dominated by intense decoration with bricks and carved granite stones, which form the window frames, elaborate arched lintels and the coronation of the masonry of the floor, which is particularly elaborated with special pieces of bricks, which are combined with corbelling bands, also made of solid bricks. The building included extensive painting decoration with frescoes, which are located both in the residential area and in the shop that existed on the ground floor.
Purpose - Use: Residence, Commercial space, Cultural site
Characterization: Preservable, Institution of the Ministry of Culture, Decision DILAP/C/393/7562, Government Gazette 236/89
Dating (period): ΤLate 19th century
Year of construction: Late 19th century
Location of the monument: 41.14133318787194, 24.887007994551823
Bibliographic references:
• Thomas Exarchou, The mansions on Eleftheriou Venizelou Street, Municipality of Xanthi, Xanthi 1999
• Dimitris Mavridis, Houses of Xanthi, Holy Metropolis of Xanthi and Peritheoriou – DEAX, Xanthi 2009
• Dimitris Mavridis, Angelophylaktos Xanthi, Holy Metropolis of Xanthi and Peritheoriou, Xanthi 2007
• Argyris Plessias, "Old Post Office of Xanthi (Lyceum of Greek Women)", Thrace Technika, 25 (2010), p. 10 – 13
• Katsari-Vafiadis, J. Ed. 2023. "History and recording of the neoclassical buildings of the traditional settlement". Xanthi: Municipality of Xanthi, p. 143
Address: Agiou Georgiou 1
Visitable: No