It was built in 1898 by the Italian architect
Vitaliano Poselli, who also designed the
Mills of Allatini that were founded in 1890, and the head office of Allatini-affiliated
Banque de Salonique in downtown Thessaloniki. At that time the region where the villa is located was called the district of "Countrysides" (des Campagnes) or "Towers", and was the easternmost limit of
Thessaloniki. In the first period of its use, the villa was the countryside residence of the
Salonica Jewish Allatini family. After the emergence of the
Young Turks movement, from 1909 until 1911 it was used as the residence of the sultan
Abdul Hamid II, who after his unseating by the Young Turks lived there under house arrest. In 1926 it housed the Philosophical School for one year, the unique department of the newly founded
University of Thessaloniki, From 1979 the
Prefecture of Thessaloniki had its headquarters in Villa Allatini. In 2011 after the implementation of the
Kallikratis Plan, the prefecture was abolished and replaced by regional self-governing bodies. Today Villa Allatini houses the administration of the region of
Central Macedonia. ==See also==