History of Thessaloniki, Greece

Few cities wear their history as openly as Thessaloniki. Roman streets run beneath busy avenues. Byzantine churches sit between apartment buildings. Ottoman baths stand around the corner from modern cafés, while the waterfront continues to shape the rhythm of daily life, much as it always has.

Founded in 315 BCE, Thessaloniki has spent more than 2,300 years at the meeting point of Europe and Asia, the Balkans and the Aegean. It grew into an important Macedonian port, a major crossroads of the Roman world and one of the great cities of the Byzantine Empire. Under Ottoman rule, it became a diverse metropolis, home to Greek Orthodox Christians, Sephardic Jews, Muslims and communities from across Europe.

Its history also carries immense loss. Fire destroyed much of the city centre in 1917. The population exchange between Greece and Turkey transformed entire neighbourhoods. During the German occupation, Thessaloniki’s centuries-old Jewish community, once one of the largest in Europe, was almost entirely destroyed in the Holocaust.

Knowing this history changes the way Thessaloniki is seen. The White Tower, the Rotunda, the old markets, Ano Poli and Aristotelous Square belong to different periods, yet all remain part of the same working city.

Thessaloniki at a Glance

Founded
315 BCE

Founder
Cassander of Macedon

Municipal Population
319,045

Urban-Area Population
802,392

Joined Modern Greece
1912

UNESCO Heritage
15 monuments

Historic Role
Port and Balkan crossroads

Patron Saint
Saint Demetrius

The wider Thessaloniki Regional Unit has 1,092,919 residents, according to the 2021 census.

Why This Guide Matters

Thessaloniki is usually introduced as Greece’s second city, a description that says little about its historical reach. For centuries, it looked towards Constantinople, deep into the Balkans and across the Mediterranean. Its port carried people and goods between the Macedonian interior and the sea. Greek, Ladino, Ottoman Turkish, Bulgarian, French and many other languages were heard in its streets.

This guide follows the changes that produced the present city, from ancient Macedon and Rome to Byzantium, the Ottoman Empire and modern Greece. War, fire, forced migration and genocide altered both its population and its appearance, while monuments and street patterns preserved much of what came before.

How Thessaloniki Was Founded

Thessaloniki (Θεσσαλονίκη, Thessaloníki) was founded in 315 BCE by Cassander, king of Macedon and one of the successors who fought for control of Alexander the Great’s empire. Cassander united 26 settlements around the Thermaic Gulf and established a new city beside a sheltered natural harbour.

He named it after his wife, Thessalonike of Macedon, daughter of Philip II and half-sister of Alexander the Great. Her name commemorated a Macedonian victory in Thessaly. The modern city therefore carries the name of a woman from the royal house of ancient Macedon.

The harbour gave Thessaloniki access to the Aegean. River valleys and land routes connected it with the Macedonian interior and the Balkans. Trade grew quickly, and the city developed its own civic institutions, including a council and popular assembly. Philip V, king of Macedon, granted Thessaloniki the right to mint coins, reflecting its commercial and political importance.

The Hellenistic city followed a grid of streets and large urban blocks. Its marketplace occupied the area later developed as the Roman Forum. Continuous habitation and repeated rebuilding buried most of this early city beneath the modern centre. Excavations have uncovered houses, roads, cemeteries and sections of its fortifications.

The Macedonian royal world from which Thessaloniki emerged survives most vividly at ancient Aigai. Our guide to the Vergina Royal Tombs and the New Aigai Museum covers the first capital of Macedon, the palace of Philip II and the royal burials.

Did You Know?

The name Thessalonike combines Thessaly with nike, the Greek word for victory. More than 23 centuries later, the city still bears the name Cassander gave it.

Statue of Alexander the Great on horseback beside the Thermaic Gulf in Thessaloniki. — The equestrian statue of **Alexander the Great** stands on Thessaloniki’s waterfront, accompanied by shields and spears representing the Macedonian army. The monument connects the modern city with the ancient Macedonian kingdom from which Thessaloniki emerged. Image credit: Shutterstock.

Map showing Thessaloniki on the Thermaic Gulf in Central Macedonia, northern Greece. — Thessaloniki occupies a strategic position at the head of the **Thermaic Gulf**, connecting the Aegean Sea with Central Macedonia and the wider Balkans. Its sheltered harbour and access to inland trade routes helped the city grow from a Macedonian settlement into a major Mediterranean port. Image credit: Adobe Stock.

Thessaloniki Under Rome

Thessaloniki’s next period began after Rome defeated King Perseus at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BCE and brought the Macedonian kingdom to an end. In the following century, the city became the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia. Its position on the Via Egnatia, the military and commercial road from the Adriatic to Byzantium, accelerated its growth.

Soldiers, officials, merchants and travellers moved through the city. Grain, wine, oil, timber, metals and manufactured goods passed through its markets and port. Thessaloniki received the status of a free city, retained civic privileges and issued its own coins. The Roman statesman and orator Cicero spent part of his exile there in 58 BCE, writing letters that reveal the city’s established place in Roman political life.

The line of the Roman road survives in Egnatia Street, still one of the main routes through central Thessaloniki. Excavations for buildings, roads and the metro have repeatedly exposed the older city below it.

Thessaloniki acquired an imperial character at the beginning of the 4th century CE, when Galerius, one of the rulers of the Roman Tetrarchy, made it one of his seats of power. His vast complex extended across the eastern part of the Roman city. It included a palace, a hippodrome, an octagonal ceremonial hall, the Arch of Galerius and the Rotunda.

The arch, known as the Kamara, was completed in 305 CE after Galerius’s victory over the Persians. It stood above the ceremonial road linking the palace with the Rotunda. Its marble reliefs present battles, imperial ceremonies and the unity of the Tetrarchy. Two main piers and one smaller pier survive beside Egnatia Street, where the monument now serves as one of Thessaloniki’s best-known meeting points.

The Roman Forum formed the administrative and commercial centre. Its squares, colonnades, public buildings, odeon and underground shopping arcade occupied a large area between today’s Egnatia and Olympou streets. Elsewhere, archaeologists have uncovered baths, villas with mosaic floors, marble-paved avenues and the remains of the Galerian palace around Navarinou Square.

Roman investment also transformed the waterfront. In the early fourth century, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great built a new artificial harbour near today’s Ladadika and Eleftherias Square, strengthening Thessaloniki’s position as the principal maritime outlet for the Balkan interior.

Las Incantadas of Salonica

A colonnade near the Roman Forum once carried eight sculpted mythological figures. Thessaloniki’s Ladino-speaking Jewish community called the monument Las Incantadas. Its Greek name was Μαγεμένες (Mageménes, “Enchanted Ones”). The sculptures were removed in 1864 and taken to France, and the originals are now held by the Louvre. Full-size replicas are displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

Full-size replicas of Las Incantadas at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki — Full-size replicas of **Las Incantadas**, or the Enchanted Ones, displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. Image credit: Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

Roman Forum of Thessaloniki with its restored column and ancient ruins — The Roman Forum of Thessaloniki, once the administrative and commercial centre of the Roman city. Image credit: Municipality of Thessaloniki.

The Massacre of 390

In 390 CE, unrest in Thessaloniki led to the killing of a Roman military commander. Emperor Theodosius I ordered a savage reprisal. Imperial troops attacked a crowd gathered in the hippodrome and killed thousands of people.

Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, barred Theodosius from communion until the emperor performed public penance. The confrontation became a defining episode in the relationship between imperial power and Christian authority during late antiquity.

Arch of Galerius, known as the Kamara, in central Thessaloniki — The **Arch of Galerius**, known locally as the **Kamara** (**Καμάρα**), was erected in the early fourth century to commemorate **Galerius’s victory over the Persians**. Image credit: **Armineaghayan**.

Ruins of the Palace of Galerius at Navarinou Square in Thessaloniki — The remains of the **Palace of Galerius** at **Navarinou Square**, part of the extensive imperial complex built in Thessaloniki during the early fourth century. Image credit: Shutterstock.

The Arrival of Christianity

Christianity reached Thessaloniki during the first century CE. The Apostle Paul visited during his second missionary journey around 50 CE and preached to the city’s Jewish community. His two letters to the Thessalonians entered the New Testament and placed Thessaloniki within the earliest written history of European Christianity.

Saint Demetrius, traditionally described as a Roman officer martyred in the early fourth century, became the central figure in the city’s Christian identity. He was honoured as Thessaloniki’s patron and protector. His feast on 26 October remains a major civic and religious celebration and coincides with the anniversary of the city’s entry into modern Greece in 1912.

Imperial acceptance of Christianity reshaped the city. The Rotunda, built around 306 CE as part of the Galerian complex, became a church during the Early Christian period. A sanctuary was created at its eastern end and a covered aisle was added around the immense circular building.

The surviving mosaics transformed its brick interior into a vision of the Christian cosmos. Martyrs stand in prayer before richly coloured architectural settings. Angels, stars, fruit, birds and a phoenix appear in the upper compositions. Gold tesserae catch the changing light beneath a dome almost 30 metres high.

The Rotunda became a mosque in 1590 or 1591. Its minaret still rises beside it. Following the city’s incorporation into Greece, the building was dedicated to Saint George. Major restoration followed the earthquake of 1978.

The Basilica of Saint Demetrius developed above a Roman bath complex associated with the saint’s imprisonment and martyrdom. Other major churches appeared throughout the city as pagan civic spaces gave way to a Christian urban order.

Fifteen Early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki entered the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988. Together they preserve more than a thousand years of architecture, mosaics and wall painting within the living city.

Exterior of the Rotunda and its surviving Ottoman minaret in Thessaloniki — The **Rotunda of Galerius**, built in the early fourth century, later served as a Christian church and an Ottoman mosque. Its surviving minaret records one of the many chapters in the monument’s long history. Image credit: Shutterstock.

Church of Saint Demetrius in Thessaloniki — The **Church of Saint Demetrius** (**Άγιος Δημήτριος**, *Agios Dimitrios*), dedicated to Thessaloniki’s patron saint and one of the city’s most important Byzantine monuments. Image credit: Shutterstock.

The Byzantine Metropolis

As the Roman Empire in the east developed into the Byzantine Empire, Thessaloniki became its leading city after Constantinople. It guarded the Balkan routes, supplied armies and connected the interior with the Aegean. Its wealth was expressed in its walls, port, churches and intellectual life.

The walls enclosed the lower city and climbed towards the acropolis in today’s Ano Poli. Towers, gates and successive repairs record centuries of pressure from Goths, Avars, Slavs, Bulgarians, Saracens and Normans. The fortifications protected the population, controlled movement and defined the city’s outline until large sections were demolished in the late 19th century.

A powerful earthquake around 620 damaged the Roman Forum and many public buildings. The Christian city grew across and around the ruins. Churches occupied central positions, workshops spread into former civic spaces and new neighbourhoods emerged within the ancient street plan.

War brought two devastating sacks. Saracen raiders captured Thessaloniki in 904, looted it and carried thousands of residents into slavery. Norman forces from Sicily seized it in 1185 and subjected its population to another violent assault.

The Fourth Crusade created a Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica in 1204. The city returned to Greek rule in 1224 and entered the restored Byzantine Empire after the recovery of Constantinople. During the civil conflicts of the 14th century, the Zealots, an urban political movement opposed to the landed aristocracy, governed Thessaloniki from 1341 to 1350. They drew much of their support from merchants, artisans and poorer residents.

Byzantine Thessaloniki produced theologians, scholars, painters and churchmen whose influence travelled across the Orthodox world. The Byzantine missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius, born in the city in the 9th century, carried Christianity and a written liturgical tradition to the Slavs. Their pupils developed the Cyrillic script and extended that cultural mission across southeastern Europe.

The churches of Hagia Sophia, Panagia Acheiropoietos, Hosios David, Panagia Chalkeon and the Holy Apostles preserve successive phases of Byzantine architecture and art. Their domes, mosaics and frescoes reveal a city with the resources and artistic workshops to serve imperial and local patrons.

Commerce remained equally important. Each October, the Demetria joined the feast of Saint Demetrius with a major trading fair. Merchants arrived from the Balkans, the Mediterranean and central Europe. Religious celebration and international commerce met in the same annual gathering.

A Byzantine City Still in Use

Thessaloniki’s Byzantine monuments remain part of everyday life. Worship continues inside churches more than a thousand years old. Medieval walls overlook apartment blocks, football grounds and the port. The Byzantine city survives within the routes and routines of the modern one.

Trigonion Tower and the Byzantine walls overlooking Thessaloniki from the Upper Town — The **Trigonion Tower** (**Πύργος Τριγωνίου**, *Pyrgos Trigoniou*), also known as the **Tower of the Chain**, was built in the late 15th century to reinforce a vulnerable point in Thessaloniki’s fortified walls. Designed for artillery, it stands high above **Ano Poli** and commands sweeping views across the city and the **Thermaic Gulf**. Image credit: **Falk2**.

Exterior of the Byzantine Church of Hagia Sophia in central Thessaloniki — The **Church of Hagia Sophia** (**Αγία Σοφία**, *Agia Sofia*) in central Thessaloniki. Built in the eighth century and renowned for its Byzantine mosaics, it forms part of the city’s **UNESCO World Heritage** listing. Image credit: Shutterstock.

Thessaloniki Under Ottoman Rule

Byzantine control weakened during the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Ottoman forces first captured Thessaloniki in 1387, although Byzantine rule returned after the Ottoman defeat at Ankara in 1402. Under renewed Ottoman pressure and unable to defend the city, its Byzantine governor, Andronikos Palaiologos, placed Thessaloniki under the protection of the Republic of Venice in 1423. Venice governed it for seven years, until Sultan Murad II captured the city in 1430, beginning almost five centuries of Ottoman rule.

The conquest changed the city’s population, institutions and skyline. Major churches became mosques. Muslim neighbourhoods developed on the higher ground. Markets, workshops and caravan routes concentrated around the port and lower city. Religious foundations financed bathhouses, fountains, schools, kitchens and places of worship.

The Bey Hamam, built in 1444, is the oldest surviving Ottoman bath in Thessaloniki. The Alaca Imaret, Hamza Bey Mosque, Bezesteni and Yeni Mosque mark different stages of Ottoman urban life.

The White Tower

The most recognisable monument from Ottoman Thessaloniki is the White Tower (Λευκός Πύργος, Lefkos Pyrgos). The present cylindrical structure was built in the late 15th century, replacing an earlier Byzantine fortification at the eastern end of the waterfront walls. It guarded the coastal approach to the city and later served as a military garrison and prison.

Executions carried out there earned it the name Tower of Blood during the 19th century. After Thessaloniki became part of Greece in 1912, the tower was whitewashed and its present name became established. Today it houses an exhibition on the city’s history, while its rooftop offers views across the waterfront and the Thermaic Gulf. It remains the best-known symbol of Thessaloniki.

A City Beyond the Walls

By the 19th century, railways, steamships, banks, factories and European consulates were binding Thessaloniki more closely to international markets. The seaward wall came down in 1874, opening the city towards the gulf and creating a modern waterfront. The removal of the eastern walls allowed expansion beyond the old fortified centre.

The southeastern suburb of Exoches grew along today’s Vasilissis Olgas Avenue. Wealthy Jewish, Muslim, Greek Orthodox and European families commissioned villas in neoclassical, Art Nouveau, eclectic and Ottoman styles. The surviving Villa Allatini, Villa Bianca and Casa Mordoch preserve the confidence and cosmopolitan taste of late Ottoman Salonica.

A Port of New Ideas

Newspapers appeared in Ladino, Greek, Ottoman Turkish, French and Bulgarian. Schools, theatres, cafés and political clubs circulated ideas about constitutional government, nationalism, socialism and labour rights.

The city became a centre of the Young Turk movement, which restored the Ottoman constitution in 1908. The deposed Ottoman ruler Sultan Abdul Hamid II was later held at Villa Allatini. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of modern Turkey, was born in Thessaloniki in 1881 and grew up in this restless political environment.

In 1909, Jewish socialist and labour organiser Avraam Benaroya helped establish the Socialist Workers’ Federation, known as the Federación. It organised workers through separate language sections joined in a common movement. Its structure reflected a city where dockworkers, railway employees, factory workers and artisans came from several communities.

Alaca Imaret, a fifteenth-century Ottoman mosque and charitable complex in Thessaloniki — **Alaca Imaret** (**Αλατζά Ιμαρέτ**, *Alatza Imaret*) was commissioned by **Ishak Pasha** in **1484**, during the first decades of Ottoman rule. Combining a mosque with a charitable kitchen, it reflects the religious and social institutions that reshaped Thessaloniki after 1430. Image credit: **C messier**.

Bey Hamam Ottoman bathhouse on Egnatia Street in central Thessaloniki — The **Bey Hamam** (**Μπέη Χαμάμ**, *Bei Hamam*) was built in **1444** by **Sultan Murad II**, shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Thessaloniki. Also known as the **Baths of Paradise**, it contained separate sections for men and women and remained in use as a public bathhouse until 1968. Image credit: Shutterstock.

The Jewish City of Salonica

The Ottoman city was transformed further by the arrival of Sephardic Jews, although Jewish life in Thessaloniki already reached back to antiquity. After the rulers of Spain expelled practising Jews in 1492, refugees settled across the Ottoman Empire and made Thessaloniki one of their most important centres.

The newcomers brought Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, together with commercial networks, printing skills, crafts, scholarship and distinct religious traditions. Congregations took the names of places their members had left, including Castile, Aragon, Majorca, Lisbon and Italy. Over time, these communities formed the largest element of the city’s population.

Jewish merchants linked the Macedonian interior with Mediterranean and European markets. Jewish workers loaded ships, processed tobacco, spun wool, printed books, made textiles and ran shops. The port slowed for the Sabbath. Ladino newspapers reported local and international events. Thessaloniki became known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans and the Mother of Israel.

The city’s commercial geography reflected this presence. Markets, workshops, synagogues and homes filled the districts near the waterfront. The six-domed Bezesteni protected valuable goods at the centre of the bazaar. Modiano families became bankers, merchants, architects and public figures. Working-class Jewish neighbourhoods developed beside the railway and industrial zone.

Fire, political change and migration placed growing pressure on the community during the early 20th century. Jewish institutions nevertheless remained central to Thessaloniki until the German occupation. The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, surviving synagogues, memorials and family archives preserve the history of a community that shaped Salonica for more than four centuries.

Crowds gathering at the quay in old Olympus Square in Ottoman Salonica — **The landing stage opposite Olympus Square in Salonica, around 1910**, crowded with residents and travellers beside the Thermaic Gulf. The scene shows the movement and cosmopolitan character of the city during its final years under Ottoman rule, when Thessaloniki was widely known as the **“Jerusalem of the Balkans”**. Photograph by **Ali Eniss**. Image credit: **Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris**.

Aerial view of the Bezesteni market and Hamza Bey Mosque in Thessaloniki — The six-domed **Bezesteni** (**Μπεζεστένι**) was built in the fifteenth century as Thessaloniki’s covered market for textiles and other valuable goods. It stood at the centre of a commercial world in which the city’s **Sephardic Jewish merchants and textile workers** became particularly prominent. The large dome in the foreground belongs to the neighbouring **Hamza Bey Mosque**. Image credit: **Thodoris Dimoschakis, Open House Thessaloniki**.

Thessaloniki Joins Modern Greece

The First Balkan War brought Ottoman rule to an end. On 26 October 1912, the feast of Saint Demetrius, the Ottoman commander Hasan Tahsin Pasha surrendered Thessaloniki to Crown Prince Constantine, commander-in-chief of the Greek Army of Thessaly and heir to the Greek throne. Greek troops entered shortly afterwards, and the city became part of the modern Greek state.

The new border changed its political allegiance while the city remained visibly Ottoman and multicultural. Greek Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims and Europeans continued to share its streets. Osman Sait Bey remained mayor under Greek administration until 1916 and returned to the office from 1920 to 1922. Greek authorities gradually introduced a new administrative, legal and educational framework.

King George I of Greece, who had arrived in Thessaloniki soon after its incorporation into the country, was assassinated there in March 1913. Three years later, the First World War turned the city into the headquarters of the Allied Salonica Front. French, British, Serbian, Italian, Russian and colonial troops filled camps, hospitals and depots around it.

Thessaloniki also stood at the centre of Greece’s National Schism, the bitter division over whether the country should enter the First World War. In 1916, former prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos formed the Provisional Government of National Defence in the city with naval officer Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis and army commander General Panagiotis Danglis. Their government supported the Entente and directly challenged King Constantine I, who favoured neutrality and retained control of the government in Athens.

Within five years, military occupation, political division and a catastrophic fire changed the city more profoundly than the transfer of sovereignty alone.

King George I arriving on horseback in Thessaloniki in November 1912 — **King George I arrives in Thessaloniki in November 1912**, following the city’s incorporation into Greece during the **First Balkan War**. Soldiers and residents line the street as spectators watch from the balconies of the **Brasserie-Pâtisserie Egypte**. Image credit: Public Domain.

Villa Mehmet Kapandji on Vasilissis Olgas Avenue in Thessaloniki — The **Villa Mehmet Kapandji** (**Βίλα Μεχμέτ Καπαντζή**, *Vila Mehmet Kapantzi*), built between **1893 and 1895**, originally housed the family of prominent merchant **Mehmet Kapandji**. After Thessaloniki joined Greece in 1912, it became the residence of **Prince Nicholas**, the city’s first Greek military governor. **Eleftherios Venizelos** later lived there while leading the **Provisional Government of National Defence**. Today, it houses the **Cultural Centre of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (MIET)**. Image credit: Public Domain.

The Great Fire of 1917

The catastrophe came on 18 August 1917, when a domestic fire broke out in the densely built centre. Strong winds, dry conditions and a severe shortage of water drove the flames across the lower city. The fire burned for more than 30 hours, destroyed about one square kilometre and left more than 70,000 people homeless.

The destruction cut through the commercial and religious centre. Thousands of homes vanished along with shops, warehouses, schools, synagogues, churches and mosques. The Basilica of Saint Demetrius suffered extensive damage. Around 50,000 of the people made homeless were Jewish.

The government used the disaster to rebuild central Thessaloniki on a new plan. A commission led by French architect and urban planner Ernest Hébrard replaced the tight street pattern with avenues, civic squares and carefully framed views of the sea. The design drew on Byzantine forms and the architecture of Mediterranean port cities.

Aristotelous Square became the plan’s most recognisable achievement. Its curved façades create a formal route from the waterfront towards the hills, opening the dense centre to light and sea. Hébrard’s wider scheme was only partly realised, and the completed sections established the structure of the modern city centre.

The reconstruction also changed ownership and access to land. Many former residents were unable to return to their neighbourhoods. The old Jewish quarters lost homes, businesses, synagogues and communal networks. The fire therefore altered Thessaloniki’s social geography as decisively as its buildings.