Yannis Divramis 
A day trip from Thessaloniki to Vergina carries a traveller into the heartland of ancient Macedon, to the royal tombs of Aigai and the treasures of its kings. The gold of Philip the Second, the painted graves under the Great Tumulus, and the palace on the hill above them form the core of the visit. … Read more
Thessaloniki carries more than twenty-three centuries of history in its streets, from a Macedonian foundation named for a princess to a modern Greek metropolis on the Thermaic Gulf. The city has served as a Roman provincial capital, an imperial seat under Galerius, the second city of Byzantium, an Ottoman port, and the largest Sephardic Jewish … Read more
The markets of Thessaloniki fill the streets between Egnatia avenue and the seafront with produce, fish, spice, and cloth. The covered hall of Modiano, the open lanes of Kapani, the Ottoman Bezesteni, and the square of Athonos sit within a few blocks of one another. Each hall carries a layer of the city’s Ottoman and … Read more
The Thessaloniki waterfront is the long seafront promenade that traces the Thermaic Gulf along the southern edge of the city. It splits into two halves: the old waterfront that runs from the passenger port to the White Tower, and the Nea Paralia, the redesigned new waterfront that carries on east to the Concert Hall. The … Read more
The Museum of Byzantine Culture holds the richest record of Byzantine art in northern Greece, gathered inside an award-winning brick building near the seafront of Thessaloniki. Its eleven permanent galleries trace the empire from the early Christian centuries to the years after the Ottoman conquest, through icons, mosaics, coins, and the painted tombs of the … Read more
The Byzantine churches of Thessaloniki form the richest span of early Christian and medieval church building to survive in one Greek city. They run from the fifth-century basilicas of the early empire to the domed churches of the last Byzantine age, raised in brick over the Roman streets and the martyrs’ tombs. Fifteen of these … Read more
The Roman Forum of Thessaloniki is the excavated civic square of the ancient city, a two-level complex of paved terraces, colonnades, and an odeon set in the heart of the modern centre. The Greeks laid out their agora on this ground, and Rome rebuilt it as the forum that ran the public life of the … Read more
Aristotelous Square is the main plaza of Thessaloniki, a broad marble-paved space that opens onto the waterfront at the heart of the city centre. The French architect Ernest Hébrard drew it into his plan for the city after the great fire of nineteen-seventeen razed the old Ottoman quarter. Twelve listed buildings frame the square in … Read more
The Church of Agios Dimitrios is the great five-aisled basilica of Thessaloniki’s patron saint, raised over the Roman baths where the soldier Demetrios was held and run through with a spear. The church has stood on this ground since the early Christian centuries, rebuilt after fire and earthquake, and it guards a crypt at the … Read more
The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki keeps the finds of Macedonia under one roof, from prehistory through the Hellenistic kingdom to the Roman city. The bronze Derveni Krater crowns the galleries, and the charred Derveni Papyrus reads as the oldest known manuscript in Europe. Gold wreaths, grave goods, sculpture, and mosaics fill the rooms around them, … Read more
Thessaloniki runs one of the liveliest night scenes in Greece, powered by a student population that keeps the bars full across the whole year rather than only through summer. The night moves by district, from the restored warehouses near the port to the dense bar lanes inland and the open waterfront, and each quarter keeps … Read more
Halkidiki is the beach escape of Thessaloniki, a three-fingered peninsula that drops into the Aegean southeast of the city. The nearest sands sit around an hour from the centre, which turns a swim, a coastal cruise, or a village lunch into an easy outing between breakfast and dinner. Kassandra brings lively resorts, Sithonia keeps its … Read more