Ελληνικό Λογοτεχνικό και Ιστορικό Αρχείο Θεσσαλονίκης-Μορφωτικό Ίδρυμα Εθνικής Τραπέζης

Τhe Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive, better known as E.L.I.A., is part of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (M.I.E.T.), since October 2009. Its basic aim is to collect, preserve, classify, research and publish 19th and 20th century archival and printed material, particularly that which relates to the modern history and culture of Greece. In addition, E.L.I.A. supports research and dissemination of results across a broad range of academic orientations.

Archival holdings were collected either through donations towards ELIA in Thessaloniki or by the transfer of archives (related to northern Greece) from ELIA in Athens.

ELIA in Thessaloniki was founded in 1997. The period 2000-2011 was located at 13, Theophilou Street in Ano Poli (Upper Town). Since February 2011 ELIA has moved to the Cultural Center of MIET in Thessaloniki, which is housed in a building known as Villa Kapandji, located at 108, Vasilissis Olgas street. A small room, dedicated to the memory of an important poet of Thessaloniki, Nikos-Alexis Aslanoglou, and furnished with his personal belongings is housed in our premises.

They hold 50 archives of historical, literary, economic and artistic content. Related to different aspects of Modern Greek history are the archives of Bulgarian Occupation in Macedonia and Thrace, covering the period of 1941 to 1944, the archive of the liberal Interwar politician and mayor of Thessaloniki Charissios Vamvakas, the archive of the diplomat Aggelos Anninos, the archives of interwar politicians Georgios Kakoulidis and Nikolaos Konstantopoulos. ELIA in Thessaloniki holds also a core of archives of economic content such as the archive of Mavros family which contains valuable items on skin trade and tanneries in Greece and the Balkans at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Quite important is also the archive of Karathanassis family, owners of an exporting cigarette industry, located at Vathy, Samos. Interesting material is contained in a number of archives of Greek cigarette industries (Chatzigeorgiou, Lertas, VEKA, Tzamalis, Gavalas) which has been recently transferred and hasn’t been yet processed.The digitized press collection of ELIA, which contains hundreds of rare 19th and 20th century newspapers, journals and magazines is fully accessible locally. The collection has been recently strengthened with hundreds of newspapers printed in the 1940s and during the Colonel’s Junta of 1967-1974. ELIA in Thessaloniki in collaboration with the Society for the Preservation of Historical Archives (EDIA) 1940-1974 of Central and Western Macedonia and through the donations of historians and researchers has collected a number of oral testimonies on the decade of 1940 in Greece (related to the Occupation, the Resistance and the Civil War). There are more than 250 recordings. The entire collection has been digitized and wherever there was enough information documented. Obviously, material related to the Jews in Greece can be found in many archives and collections.

Descriptions in Greek, detailed or short, based on the International Standard of Archival Description (ISAD-G 2nd edition) have been made for almost every archive they hold in Thessaloniki. The descriptions are accessible through our online catalogue (only in Greek).