Lesser Larissa

NOVEMBER 3, 2020 : We spent the night in Litochoro at the foot of Mt. Olympus. Our apartment was across the street from a military base, and we woke up to the sound of the 6:00 AM bugle playing reville for the soldiers.

In spite of the early rise, it still took us till 10:00 to get organized and leave. Our destination was the city Larissa, only an hours drive away. Google Maps showed only one possible route using the toll highway. We got on the highway and after a few kilometers, there was a large sign, that after the next exit the highway is closed. We tried to re-route Google, but it kept returning us to the highway. Not really knowing what to do, we decided to just follow a truck that also got off the highway – figuring he too was going in the same direction we were. This all turned out to be a good thing – the alternate route took us through a stunning narrow mountain pass that we would not have seen otherwise.

Eventually Google Maps kicked in with an alternate route, not on the highway, and we returned to following the navigation system instead of the truck.

Larissa is a relatively large city, with over 170,000 residents. During the war, some of the Jews from Larissa hid in the surrounding mountains and thus survived the holocaust. They returned after the war, and there is an active community in Larissa until today.

We reached the city, parked in a parking garage and made our way to the synagogue. The center of Larissa is nice pedestrian only zone with wide streets lined with shops – mostly clothing, but also some jewelry stores, shoe stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. Most seemed to be local brands, but some international names, such as H&M, were there as well. Many people were out shopping.

On our way to the synagogue, we stumbled upon an ancient amphitheater smack in the middle of the city. So Greece.

We found the synagogue behind a wall with a locked gate and a closed guard booth nearby.  

The Jewish Community offices were in the neighboring building, so we went there to ask about visiting the synagogue. The woman who spoke with us, took us to the window by her desk that looked down on the synagogue. She showed us that the synagogue is now being restored and being a construction zone, we cannot visit. We should return in two years when the restoration should be done.

In the same complex as the synagogue was also a Jewish School. A few years ago, lacking enough students to keep it going, it closed its doors. Today the community pays the tuition for the Jewish students to study at a private school and hires a Hebrew teacher to work there. We asked if the community is growing or shrinking, and she said definitely shrinking. There is a high rate of intermarriage, and in the first generation, they teach the kids both traditions. However, the next generation does not usually continue to do so. Today the community is about 200 people. They have set up a synagogue for worship in a neighboring building while the historic synagogue is restored. The people who make up the community are Greeks, descendants of those that survived the war and stayed in Larissa.

We told her that in Larissa we also want to see the monument for Anne Frank. She told us that this is an important memorial, because every January they bring groups of non-Jewish children to see the memorial and teach them about the holocaust.

We also asked about visiting the Jewish cemetery. She said it is only open on Tuesdays. The community hires the caretaker to come once a week.

In the square, in front of the Jewish Community Center, is the city’s Holocaust Memorial. In 1982, the square was renamed the Square of Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust. The Jewish community and municipal authorities erected a Holocaust memorial there in 1987. The bronze sculpture depicts a stele and a woman whose head is bowed in mourning next to it.

Before coming to Larissa, I researched what to do in the city. Someone wrote a post about the top 10 things to see in Larissa and we were not too far from Alcazar Park, which was on the list and so went to have a look. The park was not really special. Landscaping was not spectacular. The small lake in the middle was empty without any water. If this was top 10, then the city does not have much to offer.

Another destination on the top 10 list was the Hippocrates Memorial. Hippocrates is considered to be the father of modern medicine. Many graduates from medical schools still take the Hippocratic oath – an oath of conduct attributed to Hippocrates. He spent the last 10 years of his life living in Larissa and to commemorate this, a memorial statue was erected next to the park. It too looked neglected with peeling paint and broken marble.

From the memorial, we walked to the other side of town to see the Anne Frank Monument. This too was disappointing – it is situated in a park that is mostly paved over. In front of the memorial is a large shrub obscuring the writing on the monument. Only when you get very close and peak around the bush, you can reading the writing. Another neglected place.

On our way back to the car, we did some grocery shopping. Next to the health food store, I finally found something to love about Larissa. My favorite place in Larissa is a bakery full of traditional Greek baked goods and pastries. A few days ago, I studied a blog about the 10 pastries you must eat in Greece, and I recognized many of them there. Best of all, behind a glass partition, were three elderly women making and folding filo dough into wonderful creations. It was mesmerizing to watch them. The name of the bakery was written only in Greek, so I unfortunately cannot even name it.

Our last stop in Larissa was the New Jewish Cemetery. We knew that we would not be able to enter, but now that we have a ladder, we would hopefully be able to see above the wall. The cemetery includes recent graves, but also has a section in the back, with graves that were transferred from the Old Jewish Cemetery before it was built over. With the help of the ladder, we were able to see a little.

It was already late enough to check-in, so we went to our apartment and did the usual – dinner and working on blogs. Since it was still relatively early, we watched a lecture about Paul of Taurus, or Paul the Apostle, as he is more commonly called. When doing research for Wandering Jew, his name keeps appearing in many of the towns in the area. For example, in Veria, they told us Paul preached to the Jews there.

From the lecture, I learned that Paul in many ways can considered to be the father of Christianity. Born a Jew, he lived a Jewish life until one day on the road to Damascus he had a vision that Jesus was the Messiah. He then preached Christianity, wrote many of the scriptures of the New Testament, and made decisions that were accepted to answer questions like If a Jewish person believes in Christianity, then is he also obligated to still keep the Jewish commandments? Paul’s answer was no. He traveled to Turkey, Greece and Italy to spread the words of Jesus.

All in all, it was not a spectacular day.  On the other hand, Larissa is the only place we visited so far, aside from the big city Thessaloniki, that managed to maintain its Jewish community. Larissa is a town to live in, not a highlight for tourists. Glad to be moving on tomorrow.