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and this, in turn, led to shortcomings in the legal framework, with much arbitrariness occurring due to both the lack of institutions and of efficient monitoring. Urban growth eventually exploded in Athens and a limited number of the larger cities, leading them to monopolize the interest of the government, which made intense efforts to improve life and introduce modernity. In the provinces, however, reconstruction remained dormant and led to the creation of a sharp distinction between the significant, large urban centres and the backward, often still rural small towns. The chasm between the expanding Greek cities and the destitute provinces deepened in the course of the 1950s, producing a specific pattern of expansion.3 Athens dominated political and scientific debate and was an inevitable pole of attraction for research and planning.4 It received significant funds for its growth and attracted investments and migration. The imbalance between the capital and the small towns was intensified by the fact that the Greek government had become highly centralized, with decision-making, fund management and authority being located in Athens. A defining element in the growth of contemporary Athens was the construction delirium that started in the mid-1950s. Following a long period of poverty and urban decay, in order to rejuvenate the economy and to replenish the missing housing stock, the Greek government encouraged the building sector and thus caused a boom in the industry. This was most evident in the frenetic construction of a unique structure called the “polykatoikia,”5 which became the most widespread housing form in contemporary Greece. Such apartment blocks replaced build3
4 5
It has been postulated that this pattern of centralization can be observed in more southern European countries. See Martin Baumeister, “Die Hydra der Moderne. Masseneinwanderung und Wohnungspolitik in Madrid unter der Franco-Diktatur.” In Informationen zur modernen Stadtgeschichte – Städte in Südeuropa 1 (2009), Berlin: Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik 2009, 47–59. See more in Olga Moatsou, Polykatoikia, 1960–2000: Entrepreneurial Housing, from Athens to Rethymno, (Lausanne: École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) 2014), Chapter 3.1. The term refers to a multi-storey building of apartments operating under the condominium system and translates into “multi-residence.” The post-war polykatoikia was interwoven with private initiative and remains in collective memory as equivalent to shameless speculation practiced by uneducated individuals. See also: Ioanna Theocharopoulou, Urbanization and the emergence of the polykatoikìa: Habitat and identity, Athens 1830–1974, New York: Columbia University 2007; O. Moatsou, Polykatoikia, 1960–2000, Lausanne 2014; Yannis Aesopos, “Die ‘Polykatoikia’ als Modul der modernen Stadt. Entwicklung des Appartamentenhauses in Athen,” Bauwelt 29 (2004), 14–21; Nikos Kalogeras, “I astiki polykatoikia kai i synecheia tou modernismou stin Ellada” [The Urban Polykatoikia and the Resumption of Modernism in Greece], Design + Art in Greece 29 (1998), 36–46.
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Fig. 1: The evolution of urban centres in Greece between 1961 and 1991, showing Athens as the indisputable centre. Source: Guy Burgel, Zakharias Demathas. La Grèce face au troisième millenaire: territoire, économie, société. 40 ans de mutations. Athens: Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 2001, 45.
ings in the old city, whose former neoclassical cityscape has since been nostalgically praised.6 6
The reason for the collective emotional recollection of the lost past in contemporary Greek society can be traced back to the raising of buildings, notably the polykatoikias, during the construction boom of the 1950s. In short, the entrepreneurs behind the polykatoikias relied on a unique legal and economic framework, known as the antiparohi, as well as the prevalence of condominium ownership, which did not require having sufficient funds or expertise in order to erect a building. More can be found in: Moatsou, Polykatoikia, 1960–2000, 165.
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2. Tale of a Town In order to place the focus on the small towns of Europe, a closer look into the development and identity perceptions of a Greek town is hereby offered; the example taken is the town of Rethymno on the island of Crete. Once part of the Venetian Regno di Candia and subsequently of the Ottoman Empire, contemporary Rethymno is an amalgam of several identities. First of all, the inhabitants embrace their local traditions; at the same time, they consider their city to have a unique European inheritance due to the presence of Venetian elements. Furthermore, they accept foreign influences, as the remains of the Ottoman period testify. Moreover, Rethymno is nowadays a popular tourist destination. Consequently, its actual domestic fabric exhibits a rudimentarily modern cityscape extending around the initial settlement, the Venetian and Ottoman core called Old Town, which was listed in the 1970s.7 As already mentioned, while Athens and a few other large cities went through significant growth in the post-war era, the Greek provinces, and thus Rethymno, remained abandoned and impoverished until well into the 1960s. A closer look at its history and into the creation of historical layers in its urban tissue is hereby offered.
2.1 A Long History in Brief The island of Crete passed from the Byzantine Empire into the control of the Republic of Venice in 1204 when Constantinople was taken over by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade. During the years of the so-called Regno di Candia that lasted until 1669, a number of Venetian nobles took up residence in the city in order to monitor trade and to control the Cretan population. In the early 14th century, the island was divided into four prefectures and the town of Rethymno became the capital of its homonymous prefecture, as well as the seat of the island’s governor. A prosperous phase of Venetian rule was marked by the arrival of Venetian architect Michele Sanmicheli in 1538 and the erection of a large number of residences, churches, shops and fortifications,8 and the introduction 7
8
This part of the town will be referred to as Old Town, with the capital letters indicating that historic settlements in the centre of southern European cities are a unique characteristic; also, in the Greek vernacular, it is recognizable as a reference to the old part of a town. In contrast, modern districts are simply referred to as the new town. Overall, Rethymno presents perhaps the largest preserved Venetian residential area built in the Renaissance to be found outside of Italy, Michael Herzfeld, A Place in History: Social and Monumental Time in a Cretan Town (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press 1991).
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