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Visitors´
Praise for Monastir
The
Sephardic Jews of Monastir, 1839-1943. A web companion
to a new history.
"The
bustle and brilliancy of Monastir is remarkable . . .
You are bewildered by the sudden reappearance of a civilization
which you had apparently left for ever: reviews, guards,
bands of music, pashas, palaces, and sentry-boxes, bustling
scenes and heaps of merchandise await you at every turn."
Edward
Lear, English writer, 1848
"The
most beautiful part of town, however, lies on the west
side on both sides of the Dragor stream, which flows through
the town in a walled-in channel. On both quays, with their
elegant balustrades, extends a long row of large, new
houses in which live the numerous military Pashas and
the high-ranking military and civil servants who are stationed
here . . . Monastir gave the impression of a major center."
J.G.
v. Hahn, Austrian writer, 1858
Monastir
displayed a "bustle and an activity which looked
more westerly, and gave the place a far more civilized
aspect in some respects than even Constantinople itself."
Mary
Walker, English visitor, 1860
Visitors to Monastir "will seem to be breathing European
air" and "will be agreeably surprised at the
number of Europeans, either in trade or the service of
the [government]."
Bradshaw's
Handbook to the Turkish Empire, 1870s
"To
visit Monastir is worth it at all costs. Here is the pleasantest
and cleanest Turkish city it has ever been my fortune
to visit."
American
missionary, 1902
"How
beautiful was the city of Monastir, with its white houses
displayed along the banks of the cool and clear river
Dragor, and with its markets teeming with diverse crowds
of a half-dozen nations! What a magnificent panorama formed
by Pelister´s snowy summits and green forests."
A.
Rappoport, Austrian consul, 1927
"It
is one of those cities which prove to our amazement that
we Westerners have never even begun to understand what
town-planning means. Thirty-five thousand people live
in it, yet from every point of the compass it looks like
a garden, and there is no part of it so congested or squalid
that it would be unpleasant to live in it."
Rebecca
West, English writer, 1937
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