Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο ΘεσσαλονίκηςSince 1998, the Centre for Byzantine Research has been housed in the building of the Melissa orphanage at 36 Vasilissis Olgas Street. The building was constructed in 1897 as the mansion of Osman Ali Bey, a Turkish merchant, with neoclassical and Renaissance elements, in keeping with the eclectic style of the time. In 1908, it was purchased by Athanasios Sopov, a commercial attaché of Bulgaria, and from 1909 it housed the Bulgarian Commercial Service and from 1914 its Consulate General, while in 1913 the building hosted King Ferdinand II of Bulgaria. In 1915, it was occupied by the French and converted into their headquarters. In 1916, the year of the Thessaloniki uprising, Venizelos, Daglis, and Kountouriotis were hosted in the building. After the destruction of Smyrna in 1922, the city’s orphanage moved into the building. The institution, known as “Melissa,” remained in the building (with a brief interruption between 1942 and 1944, when the building was occupied by the occupying forces) until 1977, when it was moved to Panorama in Thessaloniki. Since then, the neoclassical building of Queen Olga, which has been owned by the orphanage since 1959, remained uninhabited until it was rented and maintained by Aristotle University and the establishment of the Centre for Byzantine Research there.