Thessaloniki

THESSALONIKI
Katerina Prokopiou

Thessaloniki also known as Thessalonica and Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and
the capital of the region of Central Macedonia
Founded in 315 BC by Cassander of Macedon, Thessaloniki's history spans some 2,300 years.
An important metropolis by the Roman period, Thessaloniki was the second largest and
wealthiest city of the Byzantine Empire. Thessaloniki is home to numerous notable Byzantine
monuments, including the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site, as well as several Roman, Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures.
The city was founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon, on or near the site of
the ancient town of Therma and 26 other local villages. He named it after his wife
Thessalonike, a half-sister of Alexander the Great and princess of Macedon as daughter of
Philip II. Under the kingdom of Macedon the city retained its own autonomy and parliament
and evolved to become the most important city in Macedon.
http://www.lpth.gr/en/ timeline

After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in 168 BC, Thessalonica became a free city of the
Roman Republic under Mark Antony in 41 BC It grew to be an important trade-hub located on
the Via Egnatia, the road connecting Dyrrhachium with Byzantium, which facilitated trade
between Thessaloniki and great centers of commerce such as Rome and Byzantium.

Nowadays this is the main road for the car traffic in the city.

Later it became the capital of all the Greek provinces of the Roman Empire due to the city's
importance in the Balkan peninsula.
Roman Agora
The Agora was the administrative center of the ancient city. It was established at the end of 2nd
century AD in the place of a market. On three sides were stoas with two rows of pillars. The
southern hall was based on a two vaults substructure - cryptoporticus.

When the Roman Empire was divided into the tetrarchy, Thessaloniki became the administrative
capital of one of the four portions of the Empire under Galerius Maximianus Caesar, where
Galerius commissioned an imperial palace, a new hippodrome, a triumphal arch and a
mausoleum among others

Rotunda and Arch of Galerius complex reconstruction

The Palace of Galerius
(Navarino Square – Dim. Gounari. St.)

The Palace of Galerius
(Navarino Square – Dim. Gounari. St.)
At the archaeological site in Navarino Square, right in the historic centre of the city, fragmentary
remains can be seen of significant buildings, constructed for a variety of purposes, but all
belonging to the Palace of Galerius. Work on the palace began in the early 4th century AD and
was completed in stages. This was the official residence used by the Emperor and his retinue
when he stayed in Thessaloniki.
The Palace of Galerius is one of the most important monuments of late antiquity in Thessaloniki
and the only one dating from this period in Europe where such extensive remains can still be
seen. The search for the residence of the Tetrarch began in the early decades of the 20th
century and lasted until the 1970’s, bringing to light fragmentary sections of the massive palace
complex built at the edge of the city, next to the eastern walls. The imperial residence featured a
number of different structures – including the Rotonda, the Arch of Galerius, the domed
chamber on D. Gounari Street and the hippodrome.

Arch of Galerius
The arch, part of the Galerian complex, was built before 305 AD to commemorate the
victorious campaigns of Galerius against the Persians. It was erected at the intersection of the
Via Regia, the main road artery crossing the city from west to east, and the processional route
which linked the palace to the Rotonda. It was originally designed with four gateways, with four
columns supporting the vault which covered the square area below. At a later phase, two pairs
of arches were added to the north and south, with four smaller columns, these possibly
constructed at different dates. Directly adjacent to the southern, smaller pillars there was a
large rectangular space, 42.7m x 17.65m in size, laid with a marble floor, which served as a
vestibule of the palace. Today only three of the eight pillars have survived. Relief scenes on
marble, arranged in rows around the arch, relate episodes and figures from the victorious
eastern campaign of Galerius in 297 AD, extolling – symbolically – the virtues of the first
Tetrarchate (293-305 AD).

Galerius (L) attacks Narses (R)

The Rotunda of Galerius
It is also known (by its consecration and use) as the Greek Orthodox Church of Agios Georgios,
and is informally called the Church of the Rotunda (or simply The Rotunda). The cylindrical
structure was built in 306 AD on the orders of the tetrarch Galerius, who was thought to have
intended it to be his mausoleum. It was more likely intended as a temple; it is not known to
what god it would have been dedicated.
In its original design, the dome of the Rotunda had an oculus, as does the Pantheon in Rome

Mosaics in one of the bays of the interior

With the Fall of Rome in 476, Thessaloniki became the second-largest city of the Eastern
Roman Empire. Around the time of the Roman Empire Thessaloniki was also an important
center for the spread of Christianity; the First Epistle to the Thessalonians written by Paul the
Apostle is the first written book of the New Testament

From the first years of the Byzantine
Empire, Thessaloniki was considered the
second city in the Empire after
Constantinople, both in terms of wealth
and size. In the 14th century the city's
population exceeded 100,000, making it
larger than London at the time.
During the 6th-7th centuries the area
around Thessaloniki was invaded by
Avars and Slavs, who unsuccessfully laid
siege to the city several times.
In the 9th century, the Byzantine Greek
missionaries Cyril and Methodius, both
natives of the city, created the first
literary language of the Slavs, the
Glagolic alphabet, most likely based on
the Slavic dialect allegedly used in the
hinterland of their hometown

Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki

City Walls (4th/5th centuries)
Rotunda (4th century)
Church of the Acheiropoietos (5th century)
Church of Saint Demetrios (7th century)
Latomou Monastery (6th century)
Church of Saint Sophia (8th century)
Church of Panagia Chalkeon (11th century)
Church of Saint Panteleimon (14th century)
Church of the Holy Apostles (14th century)
Church of Saint Nicholas Orphanos (14th
century)
Church of Saint Catherine (13th century)
Church of the Saviour (14th century)
Blatades Monastery (14th century) The Church of Saint Catherine
Church of Prophet Elijah (14th century) (13th century)
Byzantine Bath (14th century) on the list of World Heritage Sites
by UNESCO.

The Walls of Thessaloniki are the city walls surrounding the city of Thessaloniki during the
Middle Ages and until the late 19th century, when large parts of the walls, including the entire
seaward section, were demolished as part of the Ottoman authorities' restructuring of
Thessaloniki's urban fabric. The city was fortified from its establishment in the late 4th century
BC, but the present walls date from the early Byzantine period, ca. 390, and incorporate parts
of an earlier, late 3rd-century wall. The walls consist of the typical late Roman mixed
construction of ashlar masonry alternating with bands of brick. The northern part of the walls
adjoins the acropolis of the city, which formed a separate fortified enceinte, and within it lies
another citadel, the Heptapyrgion (popularly known by its Ottoman name, Yedi Kule).

The Church of the Acheiropoietos is a 5th-century Byzantine church. The Acheiropoietos has
been dated from its bricks and mosaics to ca. 450–470, making it perhaps the earliest of the
city's surviving churches. It was modified in the 7th and again in the 14th–15th centuries.
Known as the Panagia Theotokos in Byzantine times, it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Its
current name is first attested in 1320, presumably after a miraculous acheiropoietos ("not made
by hands") icon of Panagia Hodegetria that was housed there.

The Church of Saint Demetrius, or Hagios Demetrios is the main sanctuary dedicated to Saint
Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki dating from a time when it was the second largest
city of the Byzantine Empire. It is part of the site Palaeochristian and Byzantine Monuments of
Thessaloniki on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO since 1988.
The first church on the spot was constructed in the early 4th century AD, replacing a Roman
bath. A century later, a prefect named Leontios replaced the small oratory with a larger, three-
aisled basilica. Repeatedly gutted by fires, the church eventually was reconstructed as a five-
aisled basilica in 629–634. This was the surviving form of the church much as it is today.

The Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) in Thessaloniki, is one of the oldest churches in that city
still standing today. It is one of several monuments in Thessaloniki included as a World
Heritage Site on the UNESCO list. In the 8th century, the present structure was erected,
based on the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey)

The Church of Panagia Chalkeon is an 11th-century Byzantine church

Thessaloniki passed out of Byzantine hands in 1204, when Constantinople was captured by the
forces of the Fourth Crusade and incorporated the city and its surrounding territories in the
Kingdom of Thessalonica — which then became the largest vassal of the Latin Empire.

In 1342, the city saw the rise of the Commune of the Zealots, an anti-aristocratic party formed
of sailors and the poor, which is nowadays described as social-revolutionary.

In 1423, Despot Andronicus, who was in charge of the city,
ceded it to the Republic of Venice with the hope that
it could be protected from the Ottomans
who were besieging the city. The Venetians held
Thessaloniki until it was captured by the
Ottoman Sultan Murad II on 29 March 1430

Ottoman period
The change from the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman one did not affect the city's prestige as a
major imperial city and trading hub. Thessaloniki and Smyrna, although smaller in size than
Constantinople, were the Ottoman Empire's most important trading hubs. Thessaloniki's
importance was mostly in the field of shipping, but also in manufacturing, while most of the
city's trade was controlled by ethnic Greeks.
Soon after the turn of the 15th to 16th century, nearly 20,000
Sephardic Jews had immigrated to Greece from Spain following
their expulsion

Thessaloniki in 1688

White Tower – City Museum
At the meeting point of the eastern wall and the sea wall, stood a Byzantine tower, on the site
of which, in the late 15th century, the White Tower was erected. It was constructed as part of
a programme of modernization of the city’s fortifications by the Ottomans (cf. Alysseos Tower).
The emblem of Thessaloniki, the White Tower is intimately connected with the city’s history
and the focus of many legends reflected in its various names. The original appellation Fort of
Kalamaria (18th century) was replaced in the 19th century by the names Tower of the
Janissaries and Tower of Blood (Kanli Kule), referring to the use of the building as a prison for
long-term convicts and those sentenced to death, whom the Janissaries executed on the
battlements, dyeing with blood the exterior walls of the tower. In 1890, the tower was
whitewashed by a convict in exchange for his freedom, and was henceforth known by its
current name, the White Tower. As a defensive structure, it is a characteristic example of the
great circular towers of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, which replaced the mediaeval
rectangular structures, reflecting the need to defend against the new and widespread practice
of artillery warfare, which led to a variety of innovations in defensive architecture. The
structure was topped by a conical, wooden roof, covered in lead. Until the early 20th century, a
polygonal defensive structure survived at the base of the tower, with apertures for cannon at
sea level along the sides and small towers serving as look-out points at the corners of the
enclosing wall. This complex was constructed in 1535-36, according to the Turkish inscription
found above the entrance. Inside the White Tower, there is now a museum where visitors can
enjoy a digital reconstruction of the city’s history.

From 1870, driven by economic growth, the city's population expanded by 70%, reaching
135,000 in 1917. The last few decades of Ottoman control over the city were an era of revival,
particularly in terms of the city's infrastructure. It was at that time that the Ottoman
administration of the city acquired an "official" face with the creation of the Command Post
while a number of new public buildings were built in the eclectic style in order to project the
European face both of Thessaloniki and the Ottoman Empire. The city walls were torn down
between 1869 and 1889, efforts for a planned expansion of the city are evident as early as 1879,
the first tram service started in 1888 and the city streets were illuminated with electric lamp
posts in 1908. In 1888 Thessaloniki was connected to Central Europe via rail.

In the early 20th century, Thessaloniki was in the center of radical activities by various groups;
the Bulgarian-Macedonian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, founded in 1897,
and the Greek Macedonian Committee, founded in 1903. In 1903 an anarchist group known as
the Boatmen of Thessaloniki planted bombs in several buildings in Thessaloniki, including the
Ottoman Bank. The Greek consulate in Ottoman Thessaloniki (now the Museum of the
Macedonian Struggle) served as the center of operations for the Greek guerillas.

In 1908 the Young Turks movement broke out in the city, sparking the Young Turk Revolution

As the First Balkan War broke out, Greece declared war on the
Ottoman Empire and expanded its borders. When Eleftherios
Venizelos, Prime Minister at the time, was asked if the Greek
army should move towards Thessaloniki or Monastir (now Bitola)
Venizelos replied "Salonique à tout prix!" (Thessaloniki, at all costs!).
As both Greece and Bulgaria wanted Thessaloniki, the Ottoman
garrison of the city entered negotiations with both armies.

On 26 October 1912 the feast day of the city's patron saint, Saint Demetrius, the Greek Army
accepted the surrender of the Ottoman garrison at Thessaloniki. The Bulgarian army arrived one
day after the surrender of the city to Greece and Tahsin Pasha, ruler of the city, told the
Bulgarian officials that "I have only one Thessaloniki, which I have surrendered". After the
Second Balkan War, Thessaloniki and the rest of the Greek portion of Macedonia were officially
annexed to Greece by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913.

On 18 March 1913 George I of Greece was assassinated in the city.

In 1915, during World War I, a large Allied expeditionary force established a base at Thessaloniki
for operations against pro-German Bulgaria. This culminated in the establishment of the
Macedonian Front, also known as the Salonika Front. In 1916, pro-Venizelist Greek army officers
and civilians, with the support of the Allies, launched the Movement of National Defence,
creating a pro-Allied temporary government by the name of the "State of Thessaloniki“ that
controlled "new lands" (lands that were gained by Greece in the Balkan Wars, most of Northern
Greece, the North Aegean as well as the island of Crete); the official government of the King in
Athens, the "State of Athens", controlled the "old lands" which were traditionally monarchist.
The State of Thessaloniki was disestablished with the unification of the two opposing Greek
governments under Venizelos, following the abdication of King Constantine in 1917.

Venizelos inspects Greek
troops on the Macedonian
front, accompanied by
Admiral Koundouriotis and
General Sarrail.

Most of the old center of the city was destroyed by the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, which
started accidentally by an unattended kitchen fire on 18 August 1917. The fire swept through
the centre of the city, leaving 72,000 people homeless; according to the Pallis Report, most of
them were Jewish (50,000). Many businesses were destroyed, as a result, 70% of the population
were unemployed.
Following the fire the government
prohibited quick rebuilding, so it
could implement the new redesign
of the city according to the
European-style urban plan
prepared by a group of architects,
including the Briton Thomas
Mawson, and headed by French
architect Ernest Hébrard

Plan for central Thessaloniki by Ernest Hébrard. Much of the plan can be seen in
today's city center.

After the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and during the break-up of
the Ottoman Empire, a population exchange took place between Greece and Turkey. Over one
million ethnic Greeks deported from the former Ottoman Empire were resettled in Greece and
over 160,000 were resettled in the city, changing its demographics. Additionally many of the
city's Muslims were deported to Turkey, ranging at about 20,000 people.

During World War II Thessaloniki was heavily bombarded by Fascist Italy (with 232 people dead,
871 wounded and over 800 buildings damaged or destroyed in November 1940 alone), and, the
Italians having failed to succeed in their invasion of Greece, it fell to the forces of Nazi Germany
on 8 April 1941 and remained under German occupation until 30 October 1944 when it was
liberated by the Greek People's Liberation Army. The Nazis soon forced the Jews into a ghetto
near the railroads and on 15 March 1943 began the deportation process of the city's 56,000
Jews to its concentration camps. They deported over 43,000 of the city's Jews in concentration
camps, where most were killed in the gas chambers. The Germans also deported 11,000 Jews to
forced labor camps, where most perished. Only 1,200 Jews live in the city today.

Having been the first major city in Greece to fall to the occupying
forces just two days after the German invasion, it was in
Thessaloniki that the first Greek resistance group was formed
(under the name «Ελευθερία», Eleftheria, "Freedom") as well as
the first anti-Nazi newspaper in an occupied territory anywhere
in Europe, also by the name Eleftheria. Thessaloniki was also
home to a military camp-converted-concentration camp, known in
German as "Konzentrationslager Pavlo Mela" (Pavlos Melas
Concentration Camp), where members of the resistance and
other non-favourable people towards the German occupation
from all over Greece were held either to be killed or sent to
concentration camps elsewhere in Europe.

Camp of Pavlou Mela, Stavroupoli, Thessaloniki

After the war, Thessaloniki was rebuilt with large-scale development of new infrastructure and
industry throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Many of its architectural treasures still remain,
adding value to the city as a tourist destination, while several early Christian and Byzantine
monuments of Thessaloniki were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988.
In 1997, Thessaloniki was celebrated as the European Capital of Culture, sponsoring events
across the city and the region. Agency established to oversee the cultural activities of that year
1997 was still in existence by 2010.
Today Thessaloniki has become one of the most important trade and business hubs in
Southeastern Europe, with its port, the Port of Thessaloniki being one of the largest in the
Aegean and facilitating trade throughout the Balkan hinterland.

On 26 October 2012 the city celebrated its centennial since its incorporation into Greece.

The city also forms one of the largest student centres in Southeastern Europe, is host to the
largest student population in Greece and will be the European Youth Capital in 2014

Upper Town Thessaloniki is the most
ancient part of the city that is
approximately 2300 years old. Here you
may see the ancient Byzantine wall with
its towers, ancient religious sites with
Byzantine mosaics and frescoes, and
other remnants of the city's great
civilization.

Katerina Prokopiou

Thessaloniki

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Similar to Thessaloniki

More from Κατερίνα Προκοπίου

Recently uploaded

Thessaloniki