Villa Mehmet Kapanci, Protected building on Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Villa Mehmet Kapanci comprises two connected structures: a main residential building and an adjacent tower displaying Central European architectural influences. The two components together form an integrated complex along Vasilissis Olgas Avenue.
Mehmet Kapandji, a Dönme banker and president of the Thessaloniki Chamber of Commerce, commissioned the villa in the 1890s; it was built in 1893–1895 to plans by the Italian architect Pietro Arrigoni on a 4,000 m² seafront plot in the Hamidiye district. Prince Nicholas of Greece lodged here in 1912–13, and on 19 May 1913 the Greek-Serbian alliance treaty was signed in the villa. Eleftherios Venizelos stayed here during the 1916–17 provisional government. The National Bank of Greece bought it at auction in 1928 for 4,001,000 drachmas.
The villa has housed the Cultural Centre of Thessaloniki of the National Bank of Greece's Cultural Foundation since 1997, after opening as the bank's northern Greece cultural centre in 1989. The Kapandji family were Dönme, descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, and their name is said to have been Caballere, meaning knight.
The protected building is located at Vasilissis Olgas 108 and remains accessible to visitors interested in its architecture and exhibitions. Before visiting, it is advisable to check current information about exhibitions and opening times through the cultural foundation.
The villa's construction is estimated to have cost 40,000 gold sovereigns, a considerable sum at the time. Its grounds covered 4,000 m² along the Thermaic Gulf, and the architect Pietro Arrigoni built another villa for Ahmet and Yusuf 300 metres further north on the same avenue.
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