National Boarding School for Boys of Florina (1905)

It was built in 1906 by the Ottoman Kaimakam Tahsin Uzer, in order to house the Ottoman schools, on the main street of the city, opposite the present Town Hall. Since 9 March 1923, the building has housed the “National Boarding School for Boys of Florina”. The building was extended in 1927.
It is an elongated two-story rectangular tile-roofed building. In the front zone there are six shops on the ground floor and three classrooms on the first floor, while in the rear zone towards the courtyard there are six classrooms, three on each level. Pseudo-pillars, with openings in between, outlining linear frames, a small cornice of cladding and horizontal frames separating the floors, are elements that define the eclectic image of the school building.
Today, the building appears altered in terms of the ground floor with the closing of the shop openings and the formation of windows in their place.
In 1941 the buildings of the Boarding School of Florina were requisitioned by the Germans and a military hospital was housed in the area. In 1947, an arson attempt was made in the Boarding School.
After the civil war, in the 1950s, another building was built on the western side of the courtyard to house the reading room, the library and auxiliary rooms.
In 1973, the boarding school was renamed ‘Florina Boys’ Childcare Centre’.
In February 2003, the Boys’ Boarding School and the ‘Agia Olga’ Girls’ Children’s Home merged into a mixed institution, which was called the ‘Child Care Centre’. Later the institution was renamed “Social Welfare Centre of the Region of Western Macedonia”.

TEXT SOURCE: http://history.eled.uowm.gr
SOURCE OF PHOTOS: Christos Tegos