Holy Week in Smyrna in 1920

Easter outside Agia Fotini Church in Smyrna in 1920. Orthodox Easter in the city (modern-day Izmir in Turkey) on the coast of Asia Minor was always the biggest holiday of Christians in the East. It was an opportunity not only for all members of Smyrna’s parishes to meet, but also to get together with friends of other ethnicities too. The Greeks of the city, whose roots stretched back to antiquity, were forced out of Smyrna in the wake of the Greco-Turkish War in 1922 and a devastating fire. [Photo archive of the Center for Asia Minor Studies]