The Ottoman traveler Evlija Çelebi provides an extensive description of Servia in the 17th century, which he describes as a town of 1800 houses with eight Greek, six Muslim, and one Jewish district. Çelebi informs us that the city had seven churches, and he writes that he was impressed by the well-kept stone houses in the narrow and steep streets of the city, which almost cling to the castle. As for the castle itself, he says that it has lost its defensive character, no longer having gunpowder storehouses, cannons, or other military equipment, and that about a hundred houses of poor Greeks are still inhabiting it. The inhabitants are said to be engaged in wine-growing, textile manufacturing, trade, and especially silk production. This leads to Çelebi naming Servia “Little Bursa” because of the number of its mulberry trees and silk.
The English traveler and diplomat William Martin Leake, who visited Servia in the early 19th century, gives a somewhat different description of the city. The dominant element is now Muslim, and tobacco farming has replaced sericulture. The cathedral, which must be identified with the Basilica of Servia, was already in ruins, as Leake reports, and the bishop’s house, which had been moved outside the castle, was in no better condition.
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The decline of the Christian population and the poor state of preservation of the cathedral and the bishop’s house of Servia can be easily explained if one takes into account the significant flourishing of the nearby town of Kozani in the 18th century, which absorbed a large part of the Christian population of Servia. In 1745, in fact, the bishop’s seat was transferred to Kozani, and a new bishop’s house was built there.
Servia developed in the 19th century as an important Ottoman town in which remarkable public buildings were built, such as the large clock in the center of the city and the Ottoman Administration building, which was built in 1881 for the needs of the administration of the Sanjak of Servia, which included, apart from Servia, the regions of Voio, Kozani, Grevena, and Elassona. Although these two buildings are no longer standing, visitors can still perceive part of the Ottoman architectural heritage of the town from other buildings that either still exist, such as the Turkish school, built in 1882, or are in ruins, such as the so-called “cut mosque” in the north-eastern part of Servia or the Ottoman bath in the center of the town.
A building of the late Ottoman period is also the post-Byzantine church of Agia Kyriaki, which, although built in the 17th century, was destroyed by fire twice. The currently visible phase of this church dates back to 1879, with the bell tower being added at the beginning of the 20th century. Even from this late phase of the church, however, only part of its outer walls remain, as the church was burnt down again in 1943 by the Italian occupying troops.
The creation of this website is part of the implementation of the Act “Consolidation and Restoration of the Western Tower of the Castle of Servia,” which was implemented by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kozani and co-funded by Greece and the European Union / European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme “Western Macedonia” of the NSRF 2014-2020.
