The urban consciousness under foreign domination is a complex issue, especially when the reporting period is the 19th century, the century of great social, ethnic, and economic changes in Europe. The issue is further ...The urban consciousness under foreign domination is a complex issue, especially when the reporting period is the 19th century, the century of great social, ethnic, and economic changes in Europe. The issue is further complicated in the case of the Balkans, during the latter period of Ottoman rule. But how did certain cities manage to emerge from rural or suburban enslaved routine and develop a European urbanity？ An urbanity expressed itself as lifestyle （habits, costumes, entertainment）, as art and as formation of the urban environment and architecture. The State pushed for modernization by the Great Powers, ethnic communities with parent countries seeking to differentiate themselves from their “backward” conquerors, economic opportunities through trade and new visual observations by penetration of European countries and companies： all this would create suitable conditions for an unprecedented urbanization. This shift in the quality of life was clearly expressed in the new architecture, which always continued, as ever, to reflect the cultural activity. The transition from vernacular architecture to historicism and eclectism would capture the most characteristic moment of the beginning of urbanization in northern Greece.展开更多
文摘The urban consciousness under foreign domination is a complex issue, especially when the reporting period is the 19th century, the century of great social, ethnic, and economic changes in Europe. The issue is further complicated in the case of the Balkans, during the latter period of Ottoman rule. But how did certain cities manage to emerge from rural or suburban enslaved routine and develop a European urbanity？ An urbanity expressed itself as lifestyle （habits, costumes, entertainment）, as art and as formation of the urban environment and architecture. The State pushed for modernization by the Great Powers, ethnic communities with parent countries seeking to differentiate themselves from their “backward” conquerors, economic opportunities through trade and new visual observations by penetration of European countries and companies： all this would create suitable conditions for an unprecedented urbanization. This shift in the quality of life was clearly expressed in the new architecture, which always continued, as ever, to reflect the cultural activity. The transition from vernacular architecture to historicism and eclectism would capture the most characteristic moment of the beginning of urbanization in northern Greece.
