Thessaloniki Lazaristes Monastery

Location: Stavroupoli

Lazaristes Monastery is a unique complex and important place for Thessaloniki. Its modern buildings house events of the local most important institutions, including the Region of Central Macedonia, the Municipality of Pavlos Melas, the National Theatre of Northern Greece, the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, and the Museum of Modern Art-Kostaki Collection.

The Monastery has areas covering approximately 20,000 sq.m. It has a fully supported theatre hall with 657 seats and a smaller one with 200 seats. Concerts and theatrical and musical performances are hosted in the yard during summer, mainly in the framework of the namesake Lazaristes Monastery Festival has been taking place every summer since 1992. Moreover, a 150-seat open-air cinema is found on the third story of the new part of the monastery. Lastly, there is a 100-space parking lot for the convenience of visitors.

Historical Background

Lazaristes Monastery was built in 1886 by the monks of the Order of Saint Vincent de Paul, who became widely known from the order's headquarters in the Saint-Lazare Church in Paris. The Lazarists, as they were called, first appeared in Greece around the end of the 18th century. Their main objectives were the education of the clerics and the spread of Catholicism, in addition to taking care of the poor.
Around the middle of the 19th century, the Lazarists undertook to carry out the conversion of the Balkan Slavs to Catholicism. Their actions got a foothold in Bulgaria, so the monks became very active around the middle of the 19th century; they cared for Bulgarian families and educated Catholic Bulgarian priests. In this context, the Catholic Church developed a building program in Western Thessaloniki.
In 1861, an Orphanage for orphans of Catholic Bulgarian families was built in Zeitenlik, an area 2 km outside Thessaloniki. It was intended for orphans from the region of Thessaloniki and was named Saint Vincent de la Macedoine. In 1866, the parish priest of Thessaloniki founded the first small seminary in the same building, which operated until the spring of 1914.

Since then, the building has changed various uses according to the needs of the time. The highlights include:
• 1916: During the First World War, the building became a hospital for the French Army. After the end of the war, the building housed refugees from the great fire of 1917 that destroyed two-thirds of the city center. Note that part of the building was always kept by the Lazarist monks.
• 1922: With the Asia Minor Catastrophe, a few Catholics, mainly Armenians, came along with the refugees. It is reported that around 1930 about 500 people were living in Zeitenlik.
• 1941 The building was requisitioned by the Germans for the needs of the occupation army. During the Civil War (1946-1949), there were battles around the building because the National Guard Defence Battalions were housed there. After the Civil War, a few more Catholic families came from different parts of Greece and lived there, along with the remaining refugees.
• 1978: The monastery was considered dilapidated due to the destruction caused by the earthquakes. Subsequently, it was abandoned. Two years later, in 1980, the building was declared a listed building due to its historical and architectural importance.
• 1983: The complex was purchased by the Greek State and was designated as the Cultural Centre of Western Thessaloniki and it was included in the program of projects carried out by the European Capital of Culture Organisation "Thessaloniki 1997".
• 1996: The restoration and extension works to the original building began.
The complex of Lazaristes Monastery was completed in 1997 and gradually became available to the public, holding theatrical performances, concerts, exhibitions and other events ever since.