The Great Fire of Salonica: Birth of a City (2017)

"The Great Fire of Salonica: Birth of a City" is a 62 min. documentary recounting the experiences of people during the destruction of the city in 1917 in Northern Greece. On Saturday, 18 August 1917 Salonica faces the most destructive fire in its history. It destroys 3/4 of the city center, burns down more than 8 thousand buildings, leaves around 74 thousand people homeless, and accounts for 8 million GBP in damages. On top of the ashes, a new city is born. The multi-racial, multi-religious and multilingual Balkan metropolis (where Ottomans, Jews and Christians lived together with more than 300,000 soldiers of the Entente multinational Army at the time of the fire) is redesigned by the decision of the Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos and his government. Based on Ernest Hébrard's plan, it is rebuilt from scratch to assume the urban design it has today. The fire's impact on social, political and economic levels is a decisive turn in city's history.