Thessaloniki
Solun, Salonica or Thessaloniki in Greek, is the second biggest city in Greece that is located on the northern part of the country by the Thermaic Gulf. Almost million people live there and it is an administrative centre for two northern provinces, Macedonia and Thrace, which became part of Greece in the beginning of the 20th century. It has no ruins from classical Greece (around 5th century BC), but it can boast with Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman remains and it has more attractions, protected by Unesco than any other city in Greece. Thessaloniki was also the European capital of culture in 1997.
The city was named in the year 316 BC after the wife of general Kassander, the daughter of Philip II of Macedon and half-sister of Alexander the Great. She was born when her father expanded the territory to Thessaly. When he came back home, he announced that his daughter will be named Thessaloniki, which means “victory in Thessaly”. The history of Solun started writing in 168 BC, when this area was occupied by Romans who founded the Roman province Macedionia with Thessaloniki as its capital because of the good location by the wide bay. Thessaloniki was later the second most important city of Byzantine Empire, right after Istanbul until it was occupied by Ottoman Turks. It was occupied until the year 1913 when Thessaloniki became part of the Greece.
The modern look of the lower city is from the year 1917 when fire destroyed the city. Thessaloniki was an Ottoman city before the fire and was built with no plan, but the renovation gave it a more European look with straight streets that run parallel with the coast and many new squares. The main square is named after Aristotle and is surrounded with impressive buildings with colonnades. The first plan was to name the city after Alexander the Great, who recently got a big statue on the renovated promenade and is already becoming the trademark of the city.
Leoforos Nikis, Victory avenue is a coastal promenade that is surrounded by 10 story high buildings on one side with coffee houses and shops in the ground floor. At the end of the promenade, not far from the statue of Alexander the Great, there is a famous city attractions, 34-metre high White tower, which was once a part of the city wall. The tower was used as a prison in the 18th century for disobedient Janissaries (kidnapped Christian boys who became Sultan’s servants). They killed them in 1826 and the tower was renamed into “the bloody tower”. When Thessaloniki became Greek, it was painted with white to wash it from the past and renamed it. The white plaster came off through time, but the name stayed.
The main street of Thessaloniki was an important road even in Roman times, because it connected Rome to Byzantium. The road is named Via Egnatia. It represents the history of Thessaloniki. We can find the remains from the Roman times, as well as Byzantine and Ottoman. Besides the remains of Roman agora, the main attraction of Thessaloniki from the Roman times is the palace of emperor Galerius from the 4th century. Arch of trial and the round rotunda, which was built at the same time as Galerius’ mausoleum and never served its purpose are a part of it. Later it was turned into a church and is still the oldest church in the city with a preserved minaret, which reminds that the rotunda was a mosque in the time of Turkish occupation. There are a lot more remains from the Byzantine times than from the Roman times. Churches are built in Byzantine architecture, which were damaged by the earthquake in the year 1978. You can also find buildings from the Turkish occupation (the mosque, Hamam, a Bedesten from 15th century) that miraculously survived the big fire. To really take a look of Thessaloniki before the big fire, you have to go to the old, upper part of the city Ano Polis or Kastra. It is partly still surrounded by the city wall from 14th century, which was built on Roman foundations. Kastra opens narrow streets and partly broken-down houses that really give us an idea of what old Thessaloniki looked like before 1917. Because of the location on top of the hill, Kastra also offers a beautiful view on the city and represents a great finish of the non-touristy trip around northern Greece.
