Old School (Prosvoro)

The existence of a school in Prosvoro is confirmed by a written testimony in 1890, while in 1901-1902 there was a Grammar School. The now surviving building of the Primary School is located at the entrance of the village, behind the church of St. Dimitri (1873). It is a typical example of public architecture in Western Macedonia and one of the many schools in the area that were built in the early 20th century. The school was built in 1924, on a plot of land granted by the Church. There are two built-in stone inscriptions, one on the arch of the entrance, where the date is mentioned, and a larger one on the long wall of the facade: “ESTABLISHED EXPENDITURE OF THE DELNIOTES BROTHERHOOD SEPTEMBER 15, 1924”. The school is a single-storey building with a basement and its floor plan is rectangular in shape. Internally it is structured in three unequal spaces, in the center is the hall, on the right the classroom and on the left the teacher’s room. The masonry built with local carved stones is elaborate, while in the four corners of the building there are well-made elbows. The windows and the main entrance are framed from the same stone. The entrance is guarded by a covered rectangular space that leads to a low staircase. Two flywheel columns support three built-in arches that support the roof, internally formed in a low canopy (shield). The metal bonds, or the “keys”, are visible and an interesting element for the art of the blacksmiths of the time. In the school there is also a basement that served as a storage space and as a kitchen, since there the food was prepared and distributed. The school yard extends on three levels, two larger on either side of a narrower one that leads to the entrance.

During the years of the Occupation and the Civil War the school stopped operating. It was renovated in 1952 and operated until the early 1980s. Since 2004, the Folklore Museum of the Educational-Cultural Association of all Prosvorites “The Prophet Elijah” has been housed in the three areas of the building. Traditional costumes, wooden and iron tools, utensils, photographs, a loom, textiles, etc. are on display. In the hall of the building there is a space with objects of the old school (desks, a table, a library, instruments, stamps, etc.) to remind of its original use. The adjacent church of St. Demetrios with interesting despotic icons of Samaritan hagiographers, the embossed frame of the main entrance with plant decoration and the stone-built bell tower built, according to a surviving inscription, in 1922.

Source/References

Accessibility: Limited access, the school does not have a wheelchair ramp