Ottoman era: 14th–20th centuries The area where Alexandreia is located today is called
Imathia, which is also the name of the prefecture, but it is also known as
Kampania or Roumlouki. The area was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire during the late 14th century and was then called
Roumlouki by the
Ottomans. The first possible mention of Alexandreia as a settlement in history was on a
Tapu Tahrir of 1530 under the name of
Kato-Gode. However, the same name is absent from a map of the area from 1650. The first solid evidence of a settlement is in an Ottoman tax list (
tahrir defterleri) of 1771, which records the settlement of Gidas as the
feudal estate of the family of
Gazi Evrenos. According to this tax list, Gidas would be charged with 1900
aspers, which would render it the largest village in the area at that time with a probable population of 400 people. There are numerous mentions of Gidas in the following centuries, including the visit of the local Church of St. Athanasios by
Cosmas the Aetolian in 1775 as a part of his missionary tours. Gidas was the largest village in the area of Roumlouki, although the area was generally sparsely populated throughout the centuries. Under
Ottoman rule, they
paid heavy taxes, and as a consequence there was a general resentment towards the Ottomans. The local people were allowed to keep their religion and language, that is they were mostly
Orthodox Christians and spoke the
Greek language, although many people converted to Islam to gain the privileges granted to Muslims. As far as Gidas is concerned, in the first half of the 19th century, reports of Gidas are rare. In his work
Travels in Northern Greece (1835),
Topographer William Martin Leake mentioned travelling from Thessaloniki, through
Jedha (Gidas), on his way to Veroia in 1806, setting Gidas as a location within the route
Thessaloniki-
Veroia. In 1812,
physician Sir Henry Holland confirmed the existence of Gidas as a settlement, while travelling over the same route. Reports of Gidas are richer at the end of the century. The 1875's Ottoman
cadastre refers to the
Chiflik of Gidahor (Gidas) with an area of . The owner of the chiflik from 1875 to 1898 was Pasha Mehmed Şefik, who was also a distant descendant of
Gazi Evrenos. From that cadastre, it is known that at least 150 families, of mostly farmers and shepherds, resided in Gidas, and there were also a few shops and an inn, meeting the needs of the dwellers and travelers. In the years that followed, especially after the foundation of the
Supreme Macedonian Committee in 1895, the
Bulgarian committees, located in Macedonia, were in turmoil with the Greek freedom fighters over the dominance of Macedonia, when it was realized that this part would be the next territorial loss of the Ottoman empire. These conflicts led to the events of the
Macedonian Struggle that lasted for four years (1904-1908), in which the area of the Roumlouki played an important role at the outcome of the Struggle. More particularly, many guerrillas born or living in Gidas, called
Macedonomachoi, participated actively in those conflicts, most notably including
Koungas Theocharis (chieftain),
Koukouloudis Thomas (second-class spy),
Matopoulos Apostolos (chieftain),
Moschopoulos Antonios (priest-teacher) and
Perifanos Georgios (soldier). The
Young Turk revolution ended the Macedonian Struggle, however skirmishes among the Greeks, the
Bulgarians and the
Young Turks continued in following years. On 9 October 1912, the
first Balkan War was officially declared and very soon after, the
Greek Army released the town of Gidas from the Ottoman domination on 18 October. More particularly, in the previous morning, on 17 October, the 3rd
infantry half-company marched from Veroia to Gidas with the aid of the local Makedonomachos Koungas Theocharis and camped outside Gidas, intimidating that way the Turk soldiers, who fled the town. The next day, on October 18, the VII Cavalry
Division of the Greek Army entered the town freeing the people of Gidas. Because of these two-day events, there has been conflict whether the town was freed on 17 or 18 October. However, the official day of the Liberation of Gidas is considered to be 18 October 1912. The liberation was also followed by a general confusion about the spatial arrangement of the newly acquired land. In 1919, the former chiflik of Gidas was
expropriated for the first time and re-distributed to the people of the town. After the
Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 and the
population exchange between Greece and Turkey, 40
refugee families settled in Gidas and the need for their rehabilitation led to a second distribution of the land to the people. In 1932, the
lake of Giannitsa, near which Gidas was located, was drained by the
New York Foundation Company and, in 1936, a third re-distribution of land followed. The on end spatial arrangement led to the continuously unfair dispersion of land to the people, which was resolved with the fair distribution of to each dweller in 1937. Finally, in 1950, a second expropriation of 1400 fields took place with the following allocation of to new farmers residing in Gidas. After the draining of the lake of Giannitsa in 1932, thousands of fertile fields became available, which supported the local people and led to the general development of the area. Soon, an extended
irrigation network was constructed, which allowed the
cultivation of a large variety of agricultural products. In addition to the local development, the all along current location of the Roumlouki fields, serving as a junction between Thessaloniki and the
Western Macedonia as well as the Southern Greece, constituted an attraction for
internal migration and a push for strong economic progress. In the
census of 1920, Gidas had a population of 844 people, and a rapid population growth is being observed ever since until today. Soon, the first
public services would be staffed aiding the needs of the town and the surrounding communities. In 1931, the local settlements were distributed and the land was demarcated definitively, changing forever the
urban planning of the town. In 1941, Gidas is detached from the prefecture of Thessaloniki and is appended to the
prefecture of Imathia. After the end of the
Second World War and by 1946, many immigrant families from the Western Macedonia moved and settled in Gidas. During the same period, a large number of
Romani populations started appearing in Gidas, and today they constitute the largest minority group in Alexandreia. During the decade of 1950, the town planning and the economy of Gidas saw drastic changes. All the buildings, houses, utility rooms, shops, schools and even churches of the old village of Gidas were either replaced by new constructions and multi-storey buildings or succumbed to the ravages of time. The town center was moved closer to the historical building of the railway station, which connected and until nowadays connects the cities of Thessaloniki and Veroia by rail, and Gidas would further on be an example of a town with a basic center of commercial nature. The only 19th century buildings still standing in Alexandreia are Pasha Mehmed Şefik's
Konak (1875) and the railway station (1894). During the service of the first elected mayor of Gidas,
Ioannis Petridis, the
electrification of the town's households took place for the first time. In 1952, the
town council suggested the renaming of Gidas to Alexandreia on the grounds that the town was a commercial and communication center in the middle of a largely populated rural area as well as due to the proximity of the town to the birthplace of
Alexander the Great, whose name had not been used to name any other place in Greece. Gidas was officially renamed to Alexandreia a year after, in 1953. However, despite the fact that Alexandreia's economy is chiefly based on the agricultural production of the surrounding area, the city's always current position at a
road intersection has also established it as a major commercial center to the local area. This leads as a result to the constant growth of its
population and, therefore, to its continuous
reconstruction and the steady expansion of the
city plan, which provides the character of a modern city. The
sewerage network, whose construction lasted for a long time, is complete and functional, which is expected to be a milestone for the further development of the city. There are almost all the fundamental
public services in the city, including a
health center, serving its residents. There is also a large
market with numerous
shops,
supermarkets,
cafeterias,
pubs and
taverns. In close proximity to the city, there is an old
airport, which has the capacity for the airlift of the local, agricultural products. There are plans for its exploitation, which is expected to give a special boost to the local economy. == Transport ==