A striking image of Syntagma Square in Athens. apparently taken in the late morning of the summer of 1921 has recently resurfaced in glorious color.
The photograph, which has been retouched to add color by Greek artist Christos Kaplanos was apparently taken at the time when Greece was still reeling from the Asia Minor disaster of 1922.
Social media cases are commencing on two more things that stand out in the photograph like sore thumbs to modern onlookers the first being that of dress code of the time was much more formal and elegant.
Almost all men seated at Syntagma Square, drinking their coffee are wearing beautifully tailored suits. Secondly. it is hard to notice that there are only a few women among hundreds of men.
Clearly, it was the time before women's liberation in Greece. In any event, it was a photograph of a lost time in Athens, a time when life was a great deal slower and elegant.
It was a time when Athens and other Greek cities were trying to cope socially and economically with the enormous influx of refugees from Smyrna, Pontus, and elsewhere in the Greek world.
The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, signed at Lausanne, Switzerland on January 30th 1923 involved at least 1.6 million people, namely 1.221.986 Greek Orthodox from Asia Minor. Eastern Thrace, the Pontian Alps, and the Caucasus and 400.080 Muslims from Greece.
Despite the influx of refugees the political and social means, gastronomy and entertainment which had already begun to evolve earlier managed to blossom further during the mid-1920s.
The integration of Pontiac and Constantinople refugees brought along novel ideas on gastronomy, entertainment and the social liberation of women. However, new technological discoveries that changed the everyday life of Greeks, were also introduced to society. These included such concepts like electricity and home appliances as well as the telephone, cars, and cinema among others,
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