In the neighborhoods of Agios Vlasios and Agios Georgios
The route is about 2 km long, lasts about 60 minutes and is of moderate difficulty. In it, the visitor will discover the influence of the Greek Orthodox community on the urban fabric of old Xanthi.

Focusing on the two Orthodox churches of Agios Vlasios and Agios Georgios, two homonymous districts were developed, with buildings of rich tobacco merchants, who benefited the two churches respectively. These neighborhoods were inhabited by members of the rising class of tobacco merchants, who built large mansions such as the Michaloglou Mansions, the Karabetsis Mansion with its painted exterior decoration and the majestic Mansion of Hilmi Pasha.

The development of these districts around religious and at the same time social centers, in a multicultural regime, led to the diverse urban landscape that the visitor will encounter. The route starts from shops that existed in the commercial part of these districts, passes by mansions, such as the mansion of Hamdi Bey, and ends by highlighting various points around G. Ladas or Antikas Square.

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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