Geography of Surveillance. Lazarettos and Quarantine Services in the Greek State, 1821-1923
2020-2021
The aim of the research program is to record the lazarettos and the quarantine services that operated in the Greek state from the declaration of the Greek Revolution in 1821 to 1923, when its borders were finalized after a decade of wars (1912-1922). The research will focus on lazarettos, quarantine services and health stations which were established and operated by the central administration, as well as on those constructed by municipalities, mainly islanders, in an effort to protect their population on one hand and their economics operations on the other hand.
The declaration of the Greek Revolution (1821) led to the establishment of makeshift hospitals and rudimentary lazarettos, mainly municipal ones, in order to limit the transmission of epidemics that affected various areas of the Greek state. After the finalization of the borders of the independent Greek state (1832), lazarettos and quarantine services were established, mainly in important port-cities as well as in cities that reside on the border with the Ottoman Empire. Greece's successive territorial expansions and annexations were constantly changing the network of lazarettos and quarantine services. The aim of the research program is to record the lazarettos and the quarantine services that operated in the Greek state from the declaration of the Greek Revolution in 1821 to 1923, when its borders were finalized after a decade of wars (1912-1922). The research will focus on lazarettos, quarantine services and health stations which were established and operated by the central administration, as well as on those constructed by municipalities, mainly islanders, in an effort to protect their population on one hand and their economics operations on the other hand. The research combines the two dominant approaches of health history in Greek historiography: biomedical and social dimension. The research aims not only at the study of lazarettos as medical-health institutions, but will also highlight the social, economic, political, cultural, environmental and psychological factors that have influenced and accompanied their operation.
Scientific Responsible: Leda Papastefanaki
Collaborator researchers
Yannis Gonatidis (PhD student in History, Department of History-Archaeology, University of Crete)
Maria Pappa (PhD student in History, Department of History-Archaeology, University of Ioannina)
International Conferences and Workshops
- Yannis Gonatidis, Leda Papastefanaki, Maria Pappa, «Lazarettos and epidemics in Greece (1821-1923): Available sources and archival silences», Medical Humanities: (In)Visibility, Northern Network for Medical Humanities, Institute for Medical Humanities – Durham University (online, 21-23.4.2021).
- Yannis Gonatidis, Leda Papastefanaki, Maria Pappa, «Surveillance of the Borders. Lazarettos and Quarantine Services in Greece during the Period 1821-1923», Max Weber Programme Multidisciplinary Research Workshop Mobilities in Early Modern and Contemporary Mediterranean, European University Institute (online, 27-28.5.2021).
- Yannis Gonatidis, Leda Papastefanaki, Maria Pappa, «Spaces of social control. Lazarettos and Quarantine in the Greek State (1821-1909)», International workshop Locking up, forcing, removing. Space as an instrument of separation and social control between the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, Competence Centre for Regional History, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Bressanone, 15.10.2021).
Image: John Howard, An Account of the Principal Lazarettos in Europe, with various papers relative to the Plague, Warrington 1789.
Project Team
Leda Papastefanaki
