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Las Incantadas
Las Incantadas of Salonica (Greek: Μαγεμένες της Θεσσαλονίκης or Λας Ινκαντάδας, meaning "the enchanted ones") is a group of Roman sculptures from a portico dating to the second century AD that once adorned the Roman Forum of Thessalonica in Northern Greece, and were considered to be among the most impressive and prestigious monuments of the city. Based on descriptions by travellers, it consisted of five Corinthian columns with four of them having bilateral sculptures on each pillar above. The sculptures were removed in 1864 by French paleologist Emmanuel Miller and placed in the Louvre museum in France, while the rest of the building collapsed and was destroyed. A fragment from a lost, fifth pillar was discovered in the city in the late twentieth century.
Greece is seeking the return of the sculptures, although with little success. In 2015 faithful copies of the four pillars were produced and have been exhibited ever since in the archaeological museum of the city. When first displayed that year, it was the first time in over one hundred and fifty years that the city got to see the enchanted sculptures in some form again.
It is unknown what name, if any, the colonnade was known by in antiquity. During the Ottoman Empire, the monument was known by several bynames among the multicultural city's inhabitants. In Greek, they were originally called Είδωλα ("idols") while in Judaeo-Spanish spoken by the Sephardic community, it was las Incantadas, meaning "the enchanted women", which also inspired the current Greek name, Μαγεμένες (Magemenes, "enchanted ones"). Turkish inhabitants of the city dubbed it Ottoman Turkish: صورت ملك, romanized: suret malek, lit. 'Angel Forms'), while other names include portico of the idols, or Goetria (it is mentioned as Goetria the Incantada by Stuart and Revett in 1754).
In modern times they are commonly referred to as the Caryatids of Salonica, and also Elgins of Thessaloniki based on their removal in 1864, similar to the sculptures of the Parthenon which were removed by Scottishman Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin earlier the same century.
It is believed that the portico was located in the Jewish quarter of Rogos (area around today's Chalkeon Street next to the Church of Panagia Chalkeon) behind the Bey Hamam, close to the Roman Forum. The fact that it had sculptures on both sides indicates that the building's use was intended for both sides. Various assumptions have been made as to what its use was, it is quite likely that it was the entrance to the Roman market, or that it was a dividing border between the palaestra and the platform, or even propylaea of the hippodrome.
In a topographical plan by Ernest Hébrard, who was involved in the reconstruction of Thessaloniki after the Great Fire of 1917, its location was marked in the wider area behind the baths of Bay Hamam.
The oldest reference to Las Incantadas comes courtesy of Italian traveller Cyriacus of Ancona in 1431, shortly after the Fall of Thessalonica to the Ottomans. He described it briefly as a demolished temple of Artemis on which figures of gods were depicted. The first depiction of the portico was made between 1685 and 1687 by Frenchman Étienne Gravier d'Ortières, where the basic layout of the monument is shown without a high level of detail, and is described as ruins of a palace. He was followed by British anthropologist Richard Pococke in 1740, who, although he described the sculptures of the columns, the designer who drew the pictures based on his descriptions depicted the monument without the sculptures as well as placing it in a fictional space that did not correspond to reality.
The monument is also allegedly depicted on an unidentified, possibly Venetian, old map of Thessaloniki in which all the monuments of the city are marked with Italian descriptions. There under the title colonne (columns) it appears to have a total of eight columns in two sections of three and five respectively which join each other forming an angle, the monument as it was originally if some other part of them had not been destroyed even earlier.
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Las Incantadas
Las Incantadas of Salonica (Greek: Μαγεμένες της Θεσσαλονίκης or Λας Ινκαντάδας, meaning "the enchanted ones") is a group of Roman sculptures from a portico dating to the second century AD that once adorned the Roman Forum of Thessalonica in Northern Greece, and were considered to be among the most impressive and prestigious monuments of the city. Based on descriptions by travellers, it consisted of five Corinthian columns with four of them having bilateral sculptures on each pillar above. The sculptures were removed in 1864 by French paleologist Emmanuel Miller and placed in the Louvre museum in France, while the rest of the building collapsed and was destroyed. A fragment from a lost, fifth pillar was discovered in the city in the late twentieth century.
Greece is seeking the return of the sculptures, although with little success. In 2015 faithful copies of the four pillars were produced and have been exhibited ever since in the archaeological museum of the city. When first displayed that year, it was the first time in over one hundred and fifty years that the city got to see the enchanted sculptures in some form again.
It is unknown what name, if any, the colonnade was known by in antiquity. During the Ottoman Empire, the monument was known by several bynames among the multicultural city's inhabitants. In Greek, they were originally called Είδωλα ("idols") while in Judaeo-Spanish spoken by the Sephardic community, it was las Incantadas, meaning "the enchanted women", which also inspired the current Greek name, Μαγεμένες (Magemenes, "enchanted ones"). Turkish inhabitants of the city dubbed it Ottoman Turkish: صورت ملك, romanized: suret malek, lit. 'Angel Forms'), while other names include portico of the idols, or Goetria (it is mentioned as Goetria the Incantada by Stuart and Revett in 1754).
In modern times they are commonly referred to as the Caryatids of Salonica, and also Elgins of Thessaloniki based on their removal in 1864, similar to the sculptures of the Parthenon which were removed by Scottishman Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin earlier the same century.
It is believed that the portico was located in the Jewish quarter of Rogos (area around today's Chalkeon Street next to the Church of Panagia Chalkeon) behind the Bey Hamam, close to the Roman Forum. The fact that it had sculptures on both sides indicates that the building's use was intended for both sides. Various assumptions have been made as to what its use was, it is quite likely that it was the entrance to the Roman market, or that it was a dividing border between the palaestra and the platform, or even propylaea of the hippodrome.
In a topographical plan by Ernest Hébrard, who was involved in the reconstruction of Thessaloniki after the Great Fire of 1917, its location was marked in the wider area behind the baths of Bay Hamam.
The oldest reference to Las Incantadas comes courtesy of Italian traveller Cyriacus of Ancona in 1431, shortly after the Fall of Thessalonica to the Ottomans. He described it briefly as a demolished temple of Artemis on which figures of gods were depicted. The first depiction of the portico was made between 1685 and 1687 by Frenchman Étienne Gravier d'Ortières, where the basic layout of the monument is shown without a high level of detail, and is described as ruins of a palace. He was followed by British anthropologist Richard Pococke in 1740, who, although he described the sculptures of the columns, the designer who drew the pictures based on his descriptions depicted the monument without the sculptures as well as placing it in a fictional space that did not correspond to reality.
The monument is also allegedly depicted on an unidentified, possibly Venetian, old map of Thessaloniki in which all the monuments of the city are marked with Italian descriptions. There under the title colonne (columns) it appears to have a total of eight columns in two sections of three and five respectively which join each other forming an angle, the monument as it was originally if some other part of them had not been destroyed even earlier.