Kos Town, Kos - The Italian town
|At the end of the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 and 1912, Italy occupied the Turkish colonies in North Africa and the Dodecanese . This occupation would be temporary, and many inhabitants of the Dodecanese wanted a union with Greece. However, the annexation of the Dodecanese Italy was formalized by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
|The island and the city of Cos are called in Italian Coo.
|The Italian presence in Kos for three decades has left an important architectural heritage that has only recently begun to be appreciated. The Italians built a large number of new buildings creating completely new forms of rationalist planning - fascist architecture with elements that emphasized the role of the metropolitan State as a factor of modernization.
In addition, the city of Kos is unique among other cities Islands Dodecanese who knew the Italian occupation, because it had to be almost entirely rebuilt after the devastating earthquake of 23 April 1933, gave to the destruction Italian authorities the possibility of a major restructuring of Kos town, a new city in modern urban planning was built. The city was divided into three construction zones based on criteria of social class: the north, center and south. The northern sector was divided into small houses for the working classes of the city (popolari box), the central area consisted mainly of two-storey houses with shops at the street for the urban middle class in the city (palazzine). Finally, the sector has welcomed the gardened houses of Italian settlers (villini).
Buildings constructed before the earthquake (City Hall, General Hospital "Hippocrates" , Government Palace et cetera) differ from those constructed after the earthquake ( Casa del Fascio , Municipal Market , Archaeological Museum , Casa Balilla, et cetera. .), in terms of their style: the former are exquisite examples of eclecticism while the latter contain elements of rationalism and fascist architecture.
The city also new integration archaeological sites ancient Kos , found under the rubble, and who came to be searched.
|The House of the beam (Casa del Fascio)
| The "Casa del Fascio" (Beam House) was built in the Italian fascist government to serve the local office of the National Fascist Party. La Casa del Fascio was designed in 1933 and built in 1935, it was designed as an instrument of propaganda, located on the central square of Kos, now Freedom Square (Platia Eleftherias / πλατεία Ελευθερίας), it had to a balcony where the speakers - at the foot of an impressive tower - could harangue the crowds. Next was a cinema.
Casa del Fascio is a modernist building typical rationalist architecture fascist.
Today, the "Panhellénion" (Panellenion) is a complex that houses a restaurant and a cinema still probably serving another propaganda.
|The Government Palace (Palazzo del Governo)
|The Government Palace (Palazzo del Governo) is located between Sycamore Square (Piazza del Platano) and Miaouli Promenade (Akti Miaouli), next to the Castle of the Knights . It was built in the years 1927-1928 on the plans of the Italian architect Fausto Di Fiorestano.
It is a building in the modernist style Arabic used in Eritrea and Italian Libya, with a clock tower feature. Place on the Plane, in the angle opposite the castle Neratzia , are the stairs of the palace ceremony, a mosaic pavement incorporates the arms of the House of Savoy, kings of Italy. Inside the building is a courtyard, airy by the sea breeze, and dominated by balconies.
During the Italian occupation Palazzo del Governo housed the administration of the island and the Palace of Justice (Palazzo di Giustizia). It was an important symbol of the fascist authority with the inscription "Legum served sumus omnes" (We are all slaves of the Act), proclaiming the domination of law engraved in the back of the building overlooking the Place Plane-tree of Hippocrates.
Today, the former Government Palace houses the city hall of the city of Kos, the sub-prefecture of Kos, the Palace of Justice and Police of Kos.
|L’Auberge Gelsomino (Albergo Gelsomino)
|The hostel Gelsomino (Albergo Gelsomino) is a building of the Italian period, built in 1929, it now houses the Tourist Office of the city of Kos .
|The Municipal Market
|The municipal market was built after the earthquake of 1933.
|Hippocrates Hospital (Ospedale Ippocrate)
|Hospital "Hippocrates" (Ospedale Ippocrate) is a building of 1928, prior to the earthquake of 1933. It is located on Boulevard Hippocrates (Λεωφόρος Ιπποκράτους).
|The Church of St. Paraskevi (Agia Paraskevi)
|The church of Agia Paraskevi (Αγία Παρασκευή) was built in 1932 and 1933 in a Byzantine style marked as belonging to affirm the Greek world of the island now occupied by the Italians.
|The Archaeological Museum
|The Archaeological Museum of Kos was built in 1936, during the Italian to collect the discoveries made in the wake of the catastrophic earthquake of 23 April 1933. During the work of clearing, Italian archaeologists discovered, repaired and searched a number of ancient monuments of the city of Kos.
It is a small museum, but relatively large for a city like Kos. The Archaeological Museum of Kos is located in a beautiful two-storey building with three entrances surmounted by arches. It includes three exhibition rooms arranged around an atrium (courtyard).
The museum does not have exceptional works but an interesting collection of sculptures of Hellenistic and Roman periods (fourth century BC to the third century AD), mosaics, ceramics, low- reliefs from tombs, altars, votive offerings and statuettes, mainly from Roman houses of the city, the Roman Odeon of Pyli (the sanctuary of Demeter), as well as other sites on the island.
Mosaic of Hermes (second century AD) comes from the house of Europe , it has the god Hermes seated on a rock.
|After the entry point, one enters the museum through an antechamber which leads directly into the atrium of the building. On the floor of the courtyard is one of the main parts of the museum: a beautiful colorful mosaic representing the arrival of the god Asclepius on the island of Kos. The mosaic depicts a male figure representing Asclepius, god of healing, disembarking from a ship by a narrow footbridge, on the ground, a man carrying a basket on a stick, welcomes the arrival of the god (perhaps the god Pan ). In the left corner is a seated figure, dressed in a white robe, the physician Hippocrates.
This mosaic is dated to the Roman period in the third century AD, it was discovered in a Roman house in the city of Kos.
|Around the atrium and in showrooms, we discovered several statues:
The statue is the most famous statue supposed to represent Hippocrates (Ιπποκράτης). There is a larger than life statue representing a bearded man wearing a toga, this statue was discovered in the ruins of the Odeon of Kos it is said that it is the workers who discovered that the statue named Hippocrates, but it can be a renowned physician in the line of milkweed. The statue has been dated to the fourth century BC.
The headless statue of the god Asclepius (Ασκληπιός), the Roman Aesculapius, holding a stick around which is wound a snake (a typical attribute of the god) with Télesphore (Τελεσφόρος), the god of convalescence sitting at his feet. The statue is dated from the second century BC and comes from the house of the mosaic of Europe .
A statue of Artemis (Άρτεμις), the huntress Diana of the Romans, whose arc is broken, with his hunting dog.
A statue of Hygeia (Υγιεία), the Roman Salus, daughter of the god of medicine, Asclepius, goddess of health, cleanliness and hygiene. Hygeia offers an egg serpent of Asclepius.
Made a statue representing the god Dionysus (Διόνυσος), the Bacchus of the Romans, rather effeminate, holding in his right hand a glass of wine and empty leaning on the shoulder of a young man drunk with his entourage. His left hand rests on a vine which is perched the god Pan, with his cloven feet and horns short features, and playing his flute at the foot of Dionysus is a small Eros, the personification of love , stroking a panther. The statue is dated the second or third century.
|The statue of the messenger god Hermes (Ερμής), the Mercury of the Romans, and sat stroking a lamb, with winged sandals on his feet.
A statue of Demeter (Δήμητρα), the Roman Ceres, goddess of agriculture. The statue is dated fourth or third century BC.
A statue of the Goddess Tyche (Τύχη), Roman goddess Fortuna, the goddess of wealth and prosperity.
A statue of Hades (Άδης), god of the underworld.
A statue of Aphrodite.
Some statues of women, the Hellenistic period (third century BC to the second century), wearing the clothing characteristic of Kos.
|A support table (trapézophore) is the torment of the satyr Marsyas (Μαρσύας), a naked old man hanging from a tree by his bound hands, waiting to be punished by Apollo. Marsyas had challenged the god Apollo to a music contest and, having lost, was sentenced to be flayed alive and his skin turned further (Marsyas played an instrument shaped reed also has a kind of bagpipe , Apollo played the lyre). This "trapezophoron" is dated to the Hellenistic period (second century BC), but is in fact a copy of an older original.
|The first floor is reserved for archaeological museum collections of pottery. Collection of prehistoric pottery and metal objects of everyday use, discovered on the hill Seragia, the site of the Bronze Age Kos (twentieth in the twelfth century BC), and the Neolithic site of the cave Aspri Petra ("white stone") and other archaeological sites. The collection is closed to the public.
The large collection of pottery from the Geometric period to the Hellenistic period (eighth century to the first century BC), also closed to the public.
Many of the mosaic floors that need to be exposed to the first floor of the museum are currently in Kos Rhodes, because the Italians in the 1930s, there were transported to decorate the famous Palace of the Grand Master .
|Archaeological Museum of Kos
Place Kazouli (Πλατεία Καζούλη) next to the Place Eleftherias (Πλατεία Ελευθερίας).
Phone: 00 30 22420 28326
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, from 8 am to 14 pm 30. The tour can be done in 20-30 minutes.
Entrance Fee: 3 € (adults), € 2 (seniors and students), free for children 16 and under.
The museum was closed in 2012 for restoration.
|Italian restaurant, located at the bottom of the Hotel Triton, facing the beach, close to the former Government Palace . Pasta, wood-fired pizzas, fish, seafood ...
4 rue Vasileos Georgiou
Phone: 00 30 22420 20040
Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
|Filiation of the topics
|More detailed topics
Kos Town, Kos Island - Interactive map
Kos Town, Kos - The Greco-Roman city
Kos Town, Kos - The Byzantine city
Kos Town, Kos - The medieval town
Kos Town, Kos - Castle Neratzia
Kos Town, Kos - The Ottoman city
Kos Town, Kos - The Italian town
The village of Platani, Kos
The village and hot spring Empros, Kos
The island of Kos - Interactive Map
The city of Kos or Cos, Kos
The site of the Asclepion of Kos, Kos
The town of Asfendiou, Kos
The town of Pyli, Kos
The town of Antimahia or Antimachia, Kos
The town of Kardamena, Kos
The town of Kefalos, Kos
The island of Kos in the Aegean - The history of the island