Xanthi in the interwar period

In the “Biographical Note in First Person” published in the Melbourne Festival programme in May 1980, Manos Hadjidakis writes: “Ι was born on 23rd October 1925, in the old town of Xanthi, not in the other one, which was built later by the internally displaced migrants. The coexistence [of people] in that time, a copy of the Belle Epoque with authentic Turkish minarets, gave color and content to a kaleidoscopic society from all corners of Greek lands that happened to find itself living in a borderland and dancing Charleston in the public squares”. It was the Ιnterwar period when Xanthi, having emerged from the adventures of the Balkan Wars and the First World War, was experiencing a new prosperity thanks to the flourishing cigar industry while retaining the essence of previous eras. The photo depicts the bustling central square at the time when people were dancing ‘Charleston in the public squares.’

Creator: probably Athanasios Volidis (1926-28)
Source: Manolis Choumas’ private collection