Patrick Comerford
I have been recalling in recent weeks how I have come across a collection of photographs of a dozen modern sculptures in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki and how I realised I had written little about these sculptures over the years.
Rather than leave these photographs and memories in forgotten files on my laptop or in the cloud, I started an occasional series of blog postings on some of those modern sculptures I have rediscovered in Thessaloniki. Over these few weeks, I am inviting you to join me in a minor odyssey of recovery and discovery as my mind wanders through the streets of Thessaloniki, looking at these sculptures again.
The sculptures I have looked at in recent weeks include the monumental statues of Aristotle, Alexander the Great and Eleftherios Venizelos, the Jewish Memorial by Konstantinos Lentaris at the Aristotele University of Thessaloniki, the bust of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis in front of the White Tower, the Monument for the Jewish Holocaust on the edge of Eleftherias Square, ‘The Woman of Pindos’ by Kostas Domboulas in Fanarioton Square, ‘The Stumbling Stones’ or ‘Stolpersteine’ by Gunter Demnig, and the ‘Marathon Runner of Peace’ or ‘Monument of Peace’ commemorating the peace activist Grigoris Lambrakis (1912-1963), at the junction of Ermou street, Eleftherios Venizelou street and Spandoni street.
A marble monument by an unknown sculptor at the Royal Theatre of Thessaloniki honours Sokratis Karantinos (1906-1979), the first artistic director of the State Theatre of Northern Greece and a prominent theatre director and critic. He was involved with the foundation and the early years of the National Theatre of Northern Greece (NTNG), and was its first artistic director (1961-1967).
The monument was erected on 30 October Avenue by the Municipality of Thessaloniki in 1989. The pedimented upper part of the monument is in the style of a relief marble funerary stele, with a relief carving of a theatre stage in the middle.
The inscriptions on the sculpture include a dedication to Sokratis Karantinos and a poignant verse by the Nobel Prize winning poet George Seferis:
Θυμότανε κανείς γέροντες δασκάλους που μας άφησαν ορφανούς
One remembered old teachers who left us orphaned
This haunting quotation is from the closing stanza of ‘The Last Day’, a powerful poem written by Seferis in Athens in February 1939. The line expresses a profound sense of spiritual and cultural abandonment. For Seferis, the ‘old teachers’ (or elders/spiritual leaders) represent the guiding authority of tradition, wisdom, and moral stability. By leaving the younger generation ‘orphaned’ they left them without direction in a broken world.
The poem was written on the brink of World War II and during the oppressive Metaxas dictatorship and captures a pervasive sense of powerlessness, impending doom, and total annihilation. The line highlights a deep disappointment with the previous generation, whose cowardice, political missteps, or silence left ordinary people completely vulnerable to the oncoming historical catastrophe.
In the context of Greek theatre history, Karantinos was universally revered by generations of actors and colleagues as a δάσκαλος (dáskalos), a master or teacher. The choice of this specific line highlights the profound sense of loss felt in the theatrical community in Greece when Karantinos died in 1979.
Sokratis Karantinos (Σωκράτης Καραντινός) was a theatre director, theatre critic, drama teacher and actor. He was born in Athens, the son of the owner of the Olympia Theatre and theatrical entrepreneur Nikolaos Karantinos, and a brother of the architect Patroklos Karantinos (1903-1976). He was raised in Athens and spent part of his childhood in Constantinople (Istanbul). After studying in Germany, France and Austria, he returned to Greece in 1933 and became the director the New Drama School. At the time, he also worked as a journalist and theatre critic.
During and after World War II, Karantinos worked with the Athens Theatre, the National Theatre, the Attica Stage and the Greek National Opera. He then became director of the Theatre School of the Athenaion educational association, professor at the University of Athens, first artistic director of the National Theatre of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki (1961) and director of the Drama School of the National Theatre.
As a theatre director of the NTNG, he staged more than 15 theatrical productions. He became artistic advisor and director at the Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC) in 1972 and remained there until 1974.
He died in Athens on 2 June 1979.
The name of 30 October Avenue (Λεωφόρος 30ης Οκτωβρίου, Leoforos 30is Oktovriou) recalls 30 October 1944, when the city was liberated from occupying German forces. The Royal Theatre of Thessaloniki (Βασιλικό Θέατρο Θεσσαλονίκης) on 30 October Avenue is the main winter stage for the National Theatre of Northern Greece. It is located at 2, 30 October Avenue in White Tower Square in Thessaloniki and has seating for 721.
The Royal Theatre continues to be the main stage of the Theatre and remains one of the main pillars of Thessaloniki’s cultural life. As well as theatrical performances, the theatre also hosts concerts, festivals and other cultural events, keeping the cultural tradition of the city alive.
In this series:
1, Introduction (21 September 2026)
2, Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis, Aristotelous Square (22 September 2026)
3, Alexander the Great by Evangelos Moustakas, Alexander’s Garden (23 September 2026)
4, Eleftherios Venizelos by Giannis Pappas, Plateia Dikastirion (24 September 2026)
5, The Jewish Monument by Konstantinos Lentaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (25 September 2026)
6, Admiral Nikolaos Votsis by Georgios Dimitriadis, in front of the White Tower (1 October 2026)
7, The Monument of the Jewish Holocaust by Nandor Glid, Eleftherias Square (2 October 2026)
8, ‘The Woman of Pindos’ by Kostas Domboulas, Fanarioton Square (8 October 2026)
9, ‘The Stumbling Stones’ (‘Stolpersteine’) by Gunter Demnig (9 October 2026)
10, ‘Marathon Runner of Peace’, the monument to Grigoris Lambrakis by Vasilis Doropoulos, Ermou Street (14 October 2026)
11, The Monument of Sokratis Karantinos, 30 October Avenue (22 October 2026)
Next: Citizens’ by Manolis Tzompanakis, Aghias Sophias Square
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