Naoussa Industrial Tour

The app is based on the industrial history of the Municipality of the Heroic City of Naoussa, the so-called “Manchester of the Balkans” due to its flourishing textile industries and water powered mills. The aim of the app is to survey, describe and highlight in terms of education and tourism both the mobile and immobile industrial relics of the city (machinery, tools, factories etc) and those of the intangible heritage (oral testimonies of the industrial workers, industrialists etc) that all together constitute the local and economical history of the city. At the same time, we aim to connect the city with other ex-industrial centres of the region (Thessaloniki, Edessa, Veroia) and to stress upon the mild, sustainable touristic development urgently needed after the deindustrialisation in the beginning of the ‘90’s.

Naoussa is situated in the foothills of the Vermio mountains, in an altitude of 330 m. Its river Arapitsa, which was used as the main power of the industries, divides the city into two uneven parts. The city had a rich past in crafts and small industries and in the 19th century the first big industry of cotton finishing is founded, the industrial complex “Logou – Kirtsi – Tourpali”, the first “modern” factory of Macedonia. A series of new factories follows in the late 19th century – beginning of the 20th, while new industries are founded after the independence of the city in 1912 and the entrepreneurial spirit of some locals extended to Edessa and Thessaloniki. The industry of Naoussa enters again a new period of growth and development after 1960. The app attempts to narrate the long industrial history of the city from the time of the foundation of the first industry till present time, when the factories are completely inactive. All these inactive industries occupy a large area of the city centre and crack its social and spatial coherence. The app plans to integrate those areas into the social and economical life of the city, since the industrial complexes give today the possibility for an economical, socio – cultural and spatial restructuring of the city.

The app provides a virtual tour platform along the city’s river, where the old textile industries are scattered. This way, the users will have an educational, recreational and interactive experience, since they will actively participate in the platform. A usual guided tour will be transformed into a personal, interactive experience of storytelling through multimedia technologies, such as augmented reality and 3D animation, and navigation using GPS data (geolocation). The users-visitors get informed and both challenged and entertained at the same time. This is of vital importance so that the visitors’ interest is maintained vivid, especially that of the younger generation.