Macedonia [antikvár]

Prologue The Guide to Macedonia by Dr. loannis Tou-ratsoglou, Ephor of Antiquities, is an itinerary through the Greek land of Macedonia, its history and its monuments. Macedonia's natural beauty and its wealth of monuments make it a favoured land in which to wander, offering the visitor both emotional and intellectual stimulation. With all its diversity, Macedonia never disappoints. Macedonia occupies a particularly important position in the general historical advance of Hellenism. According to a statement in the historian Polybius, this region was the "rampart" of Greece against the invaders from the north, thus enabling the Greeks of the south to develop their classical civilization. Ancient Macedonia, however, also brought about the political unification of ancient Hellenism under the leadership of its king Philip and this enabled his warrior son, Alexander, at the head of the Macedonians and other Greeks, to conquer almost the entire known world within the space of ten years, disseminating Greek culture and the Greek spirit to the ends of the inhabited world. Alexander and his Macedonians, finally, were the exponents of human values that had been born and developed in the Greek world, and the creators of a spirit of ecumenism and intellectual unity, preparing the ground in this way for the spread of Christianity. The new modes of thought, of life and of art, in the form in which they took root in the East, were encountered there by the Romans, who were already familiar with them from their contact with the Greek world of Southern Italy and Sicily. The wealth of discoveries from excavations of recent years in Macedonia, moreover, has shown that in this northern part of the Greek world, there occurred during the 4th century B.C. a synthesis of the artistic currents of the different Greek workshops, and a crystallization of the forms of Greek art, particularly in painting and architecture. The artistic prestige and influence of Macedonia contributed to the formation of the nature of Roman art and Macedonian artistic achievements of the 4th century B.C. served as its models (in the sphere of painting: the similarity of the wall-paintings in the Macedonian tombs and on Macedonian painted stelai to Roman wall-paintings, and in the sphere of architecture: the parallels between the Macedonian house and the Pompeian style of house-villa). Thereafter, Rome brought the work of the Macedonians to completion, transmitting the Greek heritage to the West. The modern visitor, browsing in the rooms of the Archaeological Museum of Thessalonike, and on archaeological sites such as Pella, Dion, Am-phipolis, Olynthos, and above all Vergina with its brilliant royal tombs, can make contact with the impressive Greek civilization of ancient Macedonia. Roman and Byzantine Macedonia have no cause to envy Ancient Macedonia. Thessalonike, co-capital of the Byzantine Empire and one of the largest Medieval European cities, is full of brilliant examples of Byzantine architecture and Byzantine art, which supplement the majestic public buildings of the Roman period that preceded it. Other cultural centres flourished, too - Kastoria, for example, or Beroia, culminating in the unique monastic state of Mount Athos which is still today a "living Byzantium". The Macedonia of more recent times, too, can point to the brilliant archontika (mansions) owned by Macedonian merchants under the Ottoman Empire, at Siatista, Kozani, Kastoria, Beroia and elsewhere, and can offer to the visitor memories of the struggles of Macedonian Hellenism for national liberation. We believe that this brief Guide will form an ideal introduction to this ancient Greek land and will help the visitor to comprehend its cultural message and accord to it the affection it deserves.