Kortejos / Cortijos of Salonika

Mavi Boncuk | 

“In olden days, The Jews of Salonika lived in houses which surrounded large courtyards called cortijos[1]. The houses formed a kind of square around the courtyard. Facing the courtyard were open galleries, with roofs held up by wooden pillars. At the back were the living quarters with small grilled windows overlooking the street. (…) Each house would give refuge to a family comprised of many souls (…) To house these new generations it was necessary to construct room after room, reducing the size of the courtyard with new extensions, and sometimes even to overflow into the street. (…) The Jewish dwellings always had a modest and inexpressive exterior, sometimes even a shabby look. The cortijos were not completely devoid of foliage and fig trees, pomegranate trees, vines and jujube trees gave welcome shade during the warm summer. In the spring, jasmine and roses emitted a delicious perfume which permeated the air.” SOURCE

The Idol Arcade at Salonika, from J. Stuart and N. Revett, The antiquities of Athens, 1794 (Private collection, Salonika). This is an example of a cortijo which was formed by the conjestion of multiple Jewish dwellings around an interior courtyard where most daily activities were carried out.










A dye-works in cortijos of Salonika, early 20th century.

See also: 

Kortejos of Izmir

[1] A cortijo is a type of traditional rural habitat in the Southern half of Spain, including all of Andalusia and parts of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha. Cortijos may have their origins in ancient Roman villas, for the word is derived from the Latin cohorticulum, a diminutive of cohors, meaning 'courtyard'. They are often isolated structures associated with a large family farming or livestock operation in the vast and empty adjoining lands.
In certain Anatolian towns, in Izmir [Smyrna] and Aydin for instance, an important part of the Jewish population lived in cortijos, vast enclosed yards. Sephardic Jews migrated to the Ottoman Empire from the Iberian Peninsula and while migrating they brought along their culture, which developed in those land as well as their traditions, and residential architecture, which was shaped by their lifestyle in that region. They lived in family homes, known as Cortijo in Spanish, or Yahudhane by locals, where a courtyard, which also serves as a guest room and a where a central fountain is placed, is surrounded by rooms. Cortijos were built in Ikicesmelik, the first settlement of Jews in Izmir. One of Izmir’s most recognizable person, a very popular singer from Izmir, Dario Moreno, has grown up in on of these cortijos.

Life in cortijos have blended with Izmir's food culture and served the people of Izmir as "boyoz" and the "subiya" (a sherbet drink made of melon seed).

Family homes or cortijos allowed crowded families to live together in a type of housing forming an inward life. Central courtyard with its surrounding two-storey structure created an intimate residential environment.

Jewish homes, as seen in the examples of cortijo, served the needs of coexistence of Jews who prefer to be discreet by hiding from the society they live in as a minority population.

Unfortunately, cortijos, which date back to the early years of Jewish settlement in Izmir, did not survive to the present day. Only five or six cortijos exist out of 27 cortijos counted in 1982. Cortijos, which were built in later periods, give us an idea about the architecture of this type of housing. All existing cortijos are located in Tilkilik Namazgah neighborhood.