M. Karaoli St.

In this late 19th-century postcard, the area depicted is where M. Karaoli Street ends today in Xanthi. In the center of a wide-open space, paved with cobblestones, according to the traditions of the time, a public fountain is erected. In the background, the imposing tobacco warehouses of Xanthi stand silently, witnesses to a booming economy. This seemingly ordinary space will, in the future, take on a different role: it is here that the bust of Alexandros Baltatzis will be placed, in the square that will bear his name. The mind associations are inevitable. They commence from the tobacco cultivation and its process in the warehouses, and they lead to Baltatzis, the man who dedicated his life to the struggle for the sake of farmers and the development of the agricultural cooperatives, leaving behind an indelible imprint on history.