Histories, Spaces and Heritages at the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Greek state

This project explores the historical trajectories of urban space from the Ottoman Empire to the modern Greek State. The histories and/or ‘stories’ of this shifting urban space are studied in their intersensorial dimension, highlighting the dynamic interplay between materiality and its multifaceted conceptualizations. Starting from the 19th century, Ottoman urban space, which traditionally comprised bordering and/or overlapping social and spatial units (parishes, neighborhoods etc.) that formed a dense network of public buildings and spaces (mosques, churches, marketplaces, shrines, cemeteries etc.), was already in a process of intensive transformation. This major change that Ottoman urban centers experienced was a result of the reforms and the broader modernization programme that was implemented by the Ottoman state. In the post-Ottoman world the abovementioned spatial units have been erased or only partially preserved and developed into contemporary lieux de memoire, heavily influenced by key concepts of modernity, such as ‘antiquity’, ‘monument’, and ‘cultural heritage’. Although, in their current status, ‘Ottoman monuments’ merely constitute fragmented traces of the past, they often turn into fields of ideological and political debate, both on a local and trans-local level, highlighting the active role of recent past in influencing the current public sphere.