The Old Jewish Cemetery, once located where the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki currently is, was founded in the 15th century and was the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. Founded where the Byzantine cemetery used to be, it numbered 50,000 graves. The first attempts for the relocation and reconstruction of the cemetery were made in the late 19th century, when the Ottoman authorities confiscated a large portion of it. After 1917, and especially after the settlement of Greek refugees from Asia Minor in Thessaloniki, the question about the relocation of the cemetery was raised again. In 1937, a new law allowed the creation of a new cemetery outside the city, the ceding of a part of the existing one to the university, and the transformation of the existing land into a park, while the tombs would remain intact. The plan was not achieved however. The park was never created, the burials continued to be held, though one part was actually given to the university.