RENAISSANCES BOUNDARIES AND MONUMENTS OF THESSALONIKI

?he Renaissance of 19th-century historiography and of every period of intense artistic and intellectual activity called renaissance is characterized by the exploration of cultural heritage that it inherits and its appropriation, conquest, and revival through this exploration. We are referring to the Carolingian renaissance, the Ottoman, the 12th century one, and the Italian Renaissance with its chronological subdivisions and influences. Corresponding renaissances are also recognized in the Byzantine territory. The Macedonian, the Komnenian and the Palaiologan renaissance, until Byzantium transitions to the Ottoman occupation, during the period that the Quattrocento culminated. The difficulty in the periodization of renaissances is argued to be an element of the historical continuum. Also, the repeatability of the characterization of periods as renaissance supports the evolutionary continuity between antiquity and modern times, as ancient knowledge was never wholly absent from the West or Byzantine society. After all, in one way or another, historians today agree that this division is always made up. In this article, we focus on the impact of the so-called renaissance periods on monuments, urban planning and the fortification of Thessaloniki. We approach this by defining the elements that constitute a renaissance in architecture and whether this phenomenon concerns changes in social and political issues, with what characteristics, or only in architectural practices. The purpose is to understand whether the perception of the renaissance characteristics of a period is objective or is confined to artificial periodization. We explore why a period acquires renaissance characteristics, attempting to appropriate the glorious past and consequently of its authoritarian power. We examine when it is characterized as a renaissance, purifying the policies in the name of the superiority that a renaissance represents. In this way, we understand that the concept of renaissance, which by definition is characterized by the opening up of all intellectual fields, tends to construct new borders, geographical, political, cultural.