Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ORIENTATION
Most of central Thessaloníki's principal sights are within easy walking distance of each
other, many located on either side of Egnatía. Perpendicular to the avenues that run
parallel to the seafront,
Aristotélous
is a partly pedestrianized street with Italianate
porticoes on either side and lined with freshly painted, pale ochre buildings, housing
o
ces, shops and facilities such as the post o
ce and the national railways bureau. It
slopes down from Egnatía and opens out at the seaside end into completely
pedestrianized
Platía Aristotélous
, where you can enjoy views across to Mount Olympus
on clear days. The divide between the older and newer parts of town is marked by the
exhibition grounds and the start of the seaside park strip, known locally as Zoo Park and
dominated by the
White Tower
(Lefkós Pýrgos).
however, before the new religion took full root.
Galerius
, who acceded as eastern
emperor upon Byzantium's break with Rome, provided the city with virtually all its
surviving late Roman monuments. The first resident Christian emperor was
Theodosius
(reigned 379-95), who after his conversion issued the Edict of Salonica, officially
ending paganism.
Under Justinian's rule (527-65) Salonica became the second city of
Byzantium
after
Constantinople, which it remained - under constant pressure from Goths and Slavs
- until its sacking by Saracens in 904. The storming and sacking continued under the
Normans of Sicily (1185) and with the Fourth Crusade (1204), when the city became
for a time capital of the Latin Kingdom of Salonica. It was, however, restored to the
Byzantine Empire of Nicea in 1246, reaching a cultural “
golden age
” until Turkish
conquest and occupation in 1430.
Thessaloníki was the premier
Ottoman Balkan city
when Athens was still a
backwater. Its population was as varied as any in the region, with Greek Orthodox
Christians in a distinct minority. Besides Ottoman Muslims, who called the city
“Selanik”, there were Slavs (who still know it as “Solun”), Albanians, Armenians and,
following the Iberian expulsions after 1492, the largest European
Jewish community
of the age (see box, p.274).
The modern quality of Thessaloníki is due largely to a disastrous
ire
in 1917
which
levelled most of the old plaster houses along a labyrinth of Ottoman lanes, including
the entire Jewish quarter. The city was rebuilt, often in a special form of Art Deco style,
over the following eight years on a grid plan prepared under the supervision of French
architect Ernest Hébrard, with long central avenues running parallel to the seafront
and cross-streets densely planted with trees. During
World War II
the city was occupied
by the Nazis, who decimated the Jewish community. After the war more reconstruction
was necessary to repair bomb damage, though this was interrupted in 1978 by a severe
earthquake
that damaged many older buildings.
Thessaloníki's opulence has traditionally been epitomized by the locals' sartorial
elegance, but the boom of the 1990s is long gone and an increasing number of
boarded-up shops indicate that Greece's economic malaise has taken hold here. A
permanent underclass lives in shantytowns near the port, consisting of Pontic or Black
Sea Greeks, Albanians and eastern European refugees, as well as a growing community
of Afghans and Africans.
4
The archeological museum
Platía H.A.N.TH.; June-Oct Mon 10.30am-8pm, Tues-Sun 8am-8pm; Nov-May Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm • €6 •
T
2310 830 538,
W
amth.gr
The refurbished
archeological museum
is undoubtedly the city's leading museum. Star
billing goes to the marvellous
Gold of Macedon exhibition
in the south hall, which
displays - and clearly labels in both English and Greek - many of the finds from the
