Aline Fernandez and Spyros Alibertis

Casa Bianca, the famous mansion currently hosting the Municipal Art Gallery, is associated with the city’s biggest romance, between Aline, the daughter of the Jewish industrialist Dino Fernandez-Diaz and the Greek Lieutenant, Spyros Alibertis, in cosmopolitan Thessaloniki of 1914. They accidentally met at the city’s tram and it was love at first sight! The affair met severe hostility due to the fact that Aline was Jewish and Spyros was Catholic. So, the couple eloped and got married after a short while in Athens, causing a huge scandal that reached the local press headlines. After a few years, the family reunited and the couple returned to Casa Bianca. With the outbreak of World War II, the mansion was confiscated both by the Italians at first, and the Germans shortly after, while Aline and Spyros went on the hide. When the war ended they returned and lived there until their death, 1964 for Spyros and 1965 for Aline.