Dancing in squares and gardens!
The route is about 3 km long, lasts about 80 minutes and is of moderate difficulty.

Following it you will meet some of the cultural associations that are active in the old town of Xanthi and have dance groups and rich cultural activity throughout the year!

It will also accompany you to public places and squares, where small feasts are set up during the Old Town Festivals, so it is advisable to follow it in late August-early September. It will also accompany you to mansion gardens or amphitheatrical spots, where you can rest your gaze, while admiring the natural environment within the urban landscape or the beautiful panoramic view of the city and the plain of Xanthi!

23. Antikas Square – Gabriel Ladas Square

Brief documentation:

The official name of the square is Gabriel Ladas Square and it was named in honor of the homonymous former Mayor of the city (1959-1964). This square, however, is known to the people of Xanthi as Antikas Square.
This square is a meeting and entertainment point at the beginning of the old town of Xanthi. During the last decades of the 19th century it was called Balık Pazar (meaning fish market). It was formed as a square in the late 1960s.
It was named after Ioannis Efstratiou, also known as Yiangos Antikas, who had his barber shop in the square and was particularly loved by the youth.
Antikas was born in 1882 and was a patriot in Xanthi during the Bulgarian occupation, showing self-denial and love for the place. He died in 1913 under the torture of Bulgarian Danev because he refused to betray Greek patriots. These Greeks had killed in front of the barber shop of Antikas, before the beginning of the Bulgarian occupation, the Bulgarian Hadjigeorgiev who had allegedly come to the city to organize a Bulgarian committee in the area.
Antikas Square is a central point of the old town of Xanthi and a predominantly commercial area.
The bust of Antikas in the square was constructed in 1968.


Category of thematic interest:  ARCHITECTURAL / HISTORICAL INTEREST


History:

The official name of the square is Gabriel Ladas Square and it was named in honor of the homonymous former Mayor of the city (1959-1964). This square, however, is known to the people of Xanthi as Antikas Square.
This square is a meeting and entertainment point at the beginning of the old town of Xanthi. During the last decades of the 19th century it was called Balık Pazar (meaning fish market). It was formed as a square in the late 1960s.
It was named after Ioannis Efstratiou, also known as Yiangos Antikas, who had his barber shop in the square and was particularly loved by the youth.
Antikas was born in 1882 and was a patriot in Xanthi during the Bulgarian occupation, showing self-denial and love for the place. He died in 1913 under the torture of Bulgarian Danev because he refused to betray Greek patriots. These Greeks had killed in front of the barber shop of Antika, before the beginning of the Bulgarian occupation, the Bulgarian Hadjigeorgiev who had allegedly come to the city to organize a Bulgarian committee in the area.


Elements of architecture:

Antikas Square is a central point of the old town of Xanthi and a predominantly commercial area.


Description of other elements:

The bust of Antikas in the square was constructed in 1968.


Purpose - Use: Public space


Characterization: Government Gazette 612B/30-4-1976 and Government Gazette 661/Β/17-5-1976, Government Gazette 1097/14.12-1995


Dating (period): Second half of the 1960s


Year of construction: Second half of the 1960s


Location of the monument: 41.1419648319607, 24.887343456494108


Bibliographic references:

•    Ladas Gabriel, "The martyrdom of Yankos Antikas as it is narrated by old Xanthians. Mr. Gabriel Ladas", Thracian Chronicles, vol. 29 (1972), pp. 27-28 


 Address: Gabriel Ladas Square


Visitable: Yes

 

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