The Trigoniou Tower, located in the upper town of Thessaloniki, is a remarkable example of Ottoman military architecture. Originally a Byzantine bastion, the Ottomans rebuilt it in the late fifteenth century to accommodate heavy artillery. Known also as the Chain Tower, it stands as one of the strongest points of Thessaloniki’s fortifications. The tower offers … Read more
Perched high in the upper town of Thessaloniki, the Byzantine Bath stands as a unique testament to the architectural and cultural legacy of the Byzantine era. This small brick bathhouse, built around the turn of the fourteenth century, is the only Byzantine public bath still standing in Thessaloniki and one of very few that survive … Read more
Panagia Acheiropoietos stands as a testament to early Christian architecture in the heart of Thessaloniki. This basilica, constructed in the fifth century, is among the city’s oldest churches that remain in continuous use. Its name, meaning ‘made without hands’, refers to a miraculous icon of the Virgin. Visitors are drawn to its three-aisled timber-roofed structure, … 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 White Tower is the emblem of Thessaloniki, a stone cylinder on the waterfront at the eastern end of the seafront promenade. The statue of Alexander the Great and the park stand close behind it. The tower once anchored the sea walls that ringed the port, and it now stands alone where the ramparts came … Read more
The history of Antiparos reaches far back into prehistory, to a time about four thousand years before the common era, when early settlers first arrived in this small Cycladic island. The nearby islet of Saliagos, set in the channel between Antiparos and Paros, holds the oldest known settlement in the whole Cyclades. From those Neolithic … Read more
The history of Zakynthos runs from ancient myth to the modern day. Settled in antiquity and named in the oldest Greek legends, the island passed through Roman and Byzantine hands. It then spent long centuries under Venice, which shaped its towns, its art and its way of life. French, Russian and British rule followed, before … Read more
Mycenae began as a small hilltop settlement in the Argolid and grew into the leading centre of Bronze Age Greece, lending its name to a whole civilization. Its rulers gathered wealth, raised Cyclopean walls, and buried their dead in gold-filled graves and great domed tombs. From this fortified citadel they reached out across the Argolid … Read more
The Milatos cave sits in the hills above the village of Milatos, on the north coast of Crete in the Lasithi region near Neapoli and the fishing village of Sissi. This wide, low stalactite cavern spreads through interconnected chambers rather than one tall hall, and a small whitewashed chapel dedicated to Saint Thomas stands inside. … Read more
Melidoni Cave rises above the village of Melidoni in the Mylopotamos area of Rethymno, offering visitors a single vast chamber where geology and history intertwine. Known also as Gerontospilios, this cavern sheltered ancient worshippers and, according to legend, the bronze giant Talos who guarded Crete. Its most poignant chapter unfolded in the nineteenth century, when … Read more