Kallithea, Rhodes: a summer thermal bath resort at the border of the Italian Fascist Empire and its reuse today

Abstract

As part of the architectural heritage left by the Italians during their occupation of the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea, this article presents the thermal bath resort complex in Kallithea, Rhodes, its history, life and today’s re-use. After the outbreak of the Italian-Turkish war from 1912 until 1940 the Dodecanese Islands, were taken over by the military forces and ruled by the Kingdom of Italy. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and creation of modern Turkey, the Dodecanese Islands were formally annexed by Italy as the Possedimenti Italiani dell’Egeo. Italian colonists started to settle the islands and in 1930s, several years after the military occupation and throughout the fascist era under the guide of Benito Mussolini, numerous architects, engineers, archeologists and scholars were sent from Italy to study and modernize the new Italian possessions, bringing over the political ideology through a well-defined program. Mainly architects and engineers were sent to study and restore the ancient traces of the Italian civilizations left prior the Ottoman conquest, as well as to document and eventually restore some Early Christian, medieval and Byzantine architectural structures, but also to examine and analyze the Ottoman and Muslim architecture left by the previous conquerors. The idea to revitalize this region of the Mediterranean, through a program of new architecture, in order to make it more Italianized and realize the dream of a fascist modernità was placed highly in Mussolini’s agenda. The scope of the paper is to mark the modern architecture left by the Italian architects after the invasion and the colonization of the islands with a focus on the summer bath resort of Kallithea, located on the island of Rhodes (Rodi), in a near vicinity of the town of Rhodes. This spa resort has been selected in order to better understand the richness of the architectural environment, since it is a material evidence of the Italian presence in the territories and a reminder of the remains of the ‘colonialist’ culture that arrived after the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the acquisition of the Dodecanese Islands first by the Italians during the Fascist era and then by the Greeks and their annexation to their State. The Kallithea Bay was famous for many years for its thermal spring waters. In 1927, during the Italian occupation, a comprehensive water bath study was carried out. The modernist architect Pietro Lombardi was appointed to plan the Spa. The architectural plans for the Kallithea baths were considered among the most successful architectural compositions of the time and the main design of some buildings was directly inspired by the Ottoman architecture, in particular by the typical Turkish baths structures already existing on the island. The principal idea of the complex was to maintain a romantic and exotic vision, focusing towards the tourist needs and as a tourist attraction rather than a propaganda delivered through architectural structures. The aim of this paper is to investigate the architectural environment and structures defined within the summer resort of Kallithea and how this complex lived until today. After World War II, due to damnatio memoriae, the Greeks perceived the buildings as evidence of the Italian rule, leaving them abandoned for decades. During the period 1999-2007 the resort was restored and is now operating as a prominent touristic destination on the island.