Zeitenlik 4.44

Zeitenlik is an Allied military cemetery and World War I memorial park in Thessaloniki, the largest in Greece. It contains the graves of the Serbian, French, British, Italian and Russian soldiers and Bulgarian POWs, who died in the battles on the Salonika front during the World War I. The largest part of the complex is the Serbian Military Graveyard, which contains the remains of c. 7,500 soldiers. The French sector contains the remains of 8,000 French soldiers. The Italian sector holds about 3,000 graves; the British sector holds about 2,000 graves, and there is also the Russian sector with about 400 graves.The complex is located on the place where the Main Hospital of the Serbian Army was located during the war. The name comes from the Turkish word Zeytin which means Olive. It can be translated as Olive plantation. It is located on Lagkada street, about from the city centre of Thessaloniki.HistoryThe agreement establishing the Allied cemeteries was signed on 20 November 1920, by the Greek Governor-General of Thessaloniki, Anastasios Adossides, and allies Vojvoda Živojin Mišić (Serbia), General Jean Noël Boucher (France), Field Marshal George Francis Milne (England) and Colonel Curgio Giamberini (Italy). The Greek government bought the land where the cemetery would be created and ceded it to the allies in usufruct, while maintenance of the cemeteries was left to their governments.