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Santirvan is located in the centre of Drama and is a testament to the recent history of the city.
It was initially an Ottoman Mosque, its minaret dating back to the second half of the 15th century. According to the dedicatory inscription above the entrance, it was restored in 1806 by Mehmet Khalil Aga, father of Mahmud Pasha (more commonly known as Dramalis). Until 1922 it functioned as a mosque, known locally as Santirvan Cami. After the Asia Minor Catastrophe, from 1922 to 1927 it provided shelter to numerous refugee families, given that Drama was the city that, out of the whole of Greece, received the greatest number of refugees in relation to its size.
From 1927 to 1981 the building, visibly altered, housed the printing press that published the historical local newspaper Tharros, the most important and longest in circulation newspaper in Eastern Macedonia.
In 1983 it was declared a listed monument and, with the collapse of its roof, gradually fell into disrepair.
In 2012 it was bought by Raycap company, which proceeded to restore the monument to allow for its use as a cultural center. It demolished two adjoining blocks of flats, one of which had been built against the windows of the monument and digitised the archives of the Tharros newspaper (www.tharrosdrama.gr), thus allowing the public free access to the archive’s website.
In 2022 Raycap invited the Benaki Museum to co-organise a series of exhibitions specially curated for Santirvan with objects drawn from its diverse collections. In between exhibitions, lectures by Benaki Museum members of staff focus on the work of this major cultural institution. Visits by school and other organised groups as well as individuals are offered free of charge. All this cultural activity is documented in concise exhibition catalogues published in Greek and English and in videos uploaded on this webpage, dedicated to Santirvan.
ART AND CULTURE: Lectures in Greek by the Benaki Museum in Santirvan
