Thessaloniki in the 19th and early 20th century was the coveted city of the Ottoman Empire, the Selanik for the Sublime Porte, but also the “Jerusalem of the Balkans” for the Jews of Europe. At the same time it constituted, together with its Macedonian inland, the “apple of discord” of the Balkan nationalisms, which with the Balkan Wars attempted to resolve the outstanding issues of the Aemos Peninsula. Since 1912, the population ratio has tended to be reversed, as the former multi-ethnic city of a declining empire was transformed into the urban environment of a nation state.

The fire of 1917 adds to the gradual population change the forced transformations that occur in the architectural landscape, which is cut off from the traditional images and past of the 19th century. However, the above changes, no matter how subversive they were in relation to the Ottoman past, would not be able to overturn the population map of the city in such a short time after its liberation.