Zeitenlik, a “different” outlet in Thessaloniki
Post by reader Stavros Veligrakis
There are many types of tourism, all aimed at relaxation, rest and escape from everyday life. Some have the need to include in their excursions activities to enrich their knowledge or to pay tribute, as everyone feels, to those who gave their lives for a free world and gave their last drop of blood for the next ones. . generations. An attraction and an area of ​​historical importance, preferred by several municipalities for all the aforementioned, are the Allied Cemeteries also known as Serbica or Zeitenlik, about one and a half kilometers north of Vardario Square.
Here are 20,500 fallen transfigured into the world of silence, mostly in uniform, of the Entente Allies who fought on the Macedonian Front during the First World War.
Within a grassy space, which is surrounded by a wall built of stone, with a heavy iron door at the entrance and two inscriptions one to the left and one to the right of the gate, are heroes, n.grasshoppers and sculptures that are the tombs in perfect symmetry.
Upon entering, the visitor will find himself in front of a metal sign-index where the exact location of each fallen person is indicated and a guest book, filled with messages from relatives and other visitors, which have a strong emotional atmosphere from the emotions they strive for. to express through the words “poor”.
The country’s largest military necropolis is divided into five sectors according to the nationality of the fallen, the French sector, the Serbian sector, the Italian sector, the British Commonwealth sector and the Russian sector, honoring the sacrifice of thousands of fallen.
French sector
In the French sector are buried 8,089 fallen, from Metropolitan France, Senegal, Madagascar, Indochina and North Africa.
Serbian sector
7,500 fallen are buried here. The monument-mausoleum designed by the architect Aleksandar stands out Vasic and to whom the bones of Serbian fallen from the Front were transferred. An impressive space full of banners, flags, photos, medals, tributes of relatives, which receives many visitors, official and non-official, as the Serbian cemetery of Zeiten is an important place of memory for the Serbian people.
Italian sector
In the Italian sector of Zeitenlik cemetery are buried 3,000 Italian soldiers who fell mainly on the Albanian Front.
Sector of the British Commonwealth
1,600 Commonwealth fallen and 45 Bulgarians are buried in it. Among them stands out the grave of the British nurse Katharine Mary Harley who helped the Serbian people with her services.
Russian domain
In the Russian sector, which is developing behind the Serbian one, 400 Russian fallen are buried.