Historical Physiognomy of the City of Volos, Recognized by New Residents, First Years’ University Students

A city can be considered to have a historical physiognomy when the collective perception of it is mainly characterized by historical elements. The main hypothesis of the survey presented in this paper is the rate that ‘The City of Volos maintains its historical physiognomy and the most characteristic elements of the city, through which it can be identified by new residents, are related to its historicity.’ To carry out the survey, a questionnaire was addressed to a random sample of first years students of the Department of Planning and Regional Development of the University of Thessaly at Volos. There was followed the wording of Professor Joseph Stefanou, and the main aim was to obtain the most characteristic elements of the city’s identity-through the frequency with which they appeared in the respondents’ answers- and the hierarchical order in which they chose to indicate the elements or in which they were recalled in their memory. Questions about the historicity of the city’s physiognomy and its association with the decision to settle in the city for studies, and those concerning the intention to recommend the city to new residents and tourists/visitors, were divisive/dichotomous. Using the SPSS Statistics program, the results of all the combinations of answers and characteristics of the respondents were investigated, and statistically significant conclusions were revealed.