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History
The statue of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki sea front.
Hellenistic era
The city was founded circa 315 BC by Cassander, the King of Macedon (Μακεδών), on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and twenty six other local villages. He named it after his wife Thessalonica, the sister of Alexander the Great. She gained her name from her father, Philip II of Macedon, to commemorate her birth on the day of his gaining a victory (Gr. Nike) over the Phocians, who were defeated with the help of Thessalian horsemen, the best in Greece back then. Thessalonki means the "victory of Thessalians" (where Thessalians derives from Thessaly which means thesi alos, i.e. "a land that was sea"). So Thessaloniki means "The victory of the people that came from the land that used to be sea"
Thessaloniki developed rapidly and as early as the second century BC the first walls were built, forming a large square. It was, as all the other contemporary Greek cities, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Macedon, with its own parliament where the King was represented and could interfere in the city's domestic affairs.
Roman era
After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in 168 BC, Thessalonica became a city of the Roman Republic. It grew to be an important trade-hub located on the Via Egnatia, a Roman road that connected Byzantium (later Constantinople), with Dyrrhachium (now Durrës in Albania), facilitating trade between Europe and Asia. The city became the capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia. It kept its privileges but was ruled by a praetor and had a Roman garrison. For a short time in the 1st century BC, all the Greek provinces came under Thessalonica.
The Arch of Galerius with Rotunda in the background
Due to the city's key commercial importance, a spacious harbour was built by the Romans, the famous Burrow Harbour (Σκαπτός Λιμήν) that accommodated the city's trade up to the eighteenth century; later, with the help of silt deposits from the river Axios, it was reclaimed as land and the port built beyond it. Remnants of the old harbour's docks can be found nowadays under Odos Frangon Street, near the Catholic Church.
Thessaloniki's acropolis, located in the northern hills, was built in 55 BC after Thracian raids in the city's outskirts, for security reasons.
It had a Jewish colony, established during the first century, and was an early centre of Christianity. On his second missionary journey, Paul of Tarsus preached in the city's synagogue, the chief synagogue of the Jews in that part of Thessaloniki, and laid the foundations of a church. Opposition against him from the Jews drove him from the city, and he fled to Veroia. Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians was addressed to the Christian community of Thessalonica.
Thessaloníki acquired a patron saint, St. Demetrius, in 306. He is credited with a number of miracles that save the city. He was the Roman Proconsul of Greece under the anti-Christian emperor Maximian and was martyred at a Roman prison, where today lays the Church of St. Demetrius, first built by the Roman sub-prefect of Illyricum Leontios in 463.
Other important remains from this period include the Arch and Tomb of Galerius, located near the center of the modern city.
Byzantine era
When the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western segments ruled from Byzantium/Constantinople and Rome respectively, Thessaloníki came under the control of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire). Its importance was second only to Constantinople itself. In 390 it was the location of a revolt against the emperor Theodosius I and his Gothic mercenaries. Botheric, their general, together with several of his high officials, were killed in an uprising triggered by the imprisoning of a favorite local charioteer for pederasty with one of Botheric's slave boys.[1] 7,000 - 15,000 of the citizens were massacred in the city's hippodrome in revenge – an act which earned Theodosius a temporary excommunication.
The quiet era followed until repeated barbarian invasions after the fall of the Roman Empire, while a catastrophic earthquake severely damaged the city in 620 resulting in the destruction of the Roman Forum and several other public buildings. Thessaloníki itself came under attack from Slavs in the seventh century; however, they failed to capture the city. Byzantine brothers Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius were born in Thessaloníki and the Byzantine Emperor Michael III encouraged them to visit the northern regions as missionaries; they adopted the South Slavonic speech as the basis for the Old Church Slavonic language. In the ninth century, the Byzantines decided to move the market for Bulgarian goods from Constantinople to Thessaloníki. Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria invaded Thrace, defeated a Byzantine army and forced the empire to move the market back to Constantinople. In 904, Saracens based at Crete managed to seize the city and after a ten day depredation, left with much loot and 22,000 slaves, mostly young people.
Despite this, the city quickly recovered, and the gradual recovery of Byzantine power during the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries meant that Thessaloniki entered a new golden age of peace and prosperity. The population of the city expanded, and according to Benjamin of Tudela, the city even had a Jewish community some 500 strong by the twelfth century. It also hosted the famous fair of Saint Demetrius every October, which was held just outside the city walls and lasted six days.
The economic expansion of the city continued through the twelfth century as the strong rule of the Komnenoi emperors expanded Byzantine control into Serbia and Hungary, far to the north. The city is known to have housed an imperial mint at this time, another sign of prosperity.
The huge Rotunda - the oldest building in the city centre. In the background, lies part of The Kastro in the Ano Poli
However, after the death of the emperor Manuel I Komnenos in 1180, the fortunes of the Byzantine Empire began to decline, and in 1185 the Norman rulers of Sicily, under the leadership of Count Baldwin and Riccardo d'Acerra attacked and occupied the city, resulting in considerable destruction. Nevertheless, their rule lasted less that a year, since they were defeated in two battles later that year by the Byzantine army and forced to evacuate the city.
Thessaloniki passed out of Byzantine hands in 1204, when Constantinople was captured by the Fourth Crusade. Thessaloníki and its surrounding territory—the Kingdom of Thessalonica—became the largest fief of the Latin Empire, covering most of north and central Greece. It was given by the emperor Baldwin I to his rival Boniface of Montferrat but in 1224 it was seized by Theodore Komnenos Doukas, the Greek ruler of Epirus. The city was recovered by the Byzantine Empire in 1246. For the rulers of Thessaloníki in the Middle Ages, see here.
At that time, despite the various invasions, Thessaloniki had a large population and flourishing commerce. That resulted in an intellectual and artistic florescence that can be traced in the numerous churches and their frescoes of that era and also by the names of scholars that taught there. (Thomas Magististos, Dimitrios Triklinios, Nikiforos Choumnos, Kostantinos Armenopoulos, Neilos Kavassilas, etc). Many fine examples of Byzantine art survive in the city, particularly the mosaics in some of its historic churches, including the basilica of Hagia Sophia and the church of St George.
In the 14th century though, the city was appalled by the Zelotes social movement (1342-1349). It began as a religious conflict between bishop Gregorios Palamas, who supported conservative ideas and the monk Barlaam, who introduced progressive social ones. Quickly, it turned into a political commotion, leading to the prevalence of the Zelotes, who for a while ruled the city, applying progressive social policies.
Ottoman era
The winding Ottoman-period streets of Thessaloniki's Old Town (Ano Poli)
The Byzantine Empire, unable to hold it against the Ottoman Empire advance, sold it to Venice, who held it until it was captured by the Ottoman ruler Murad II on 29 March 1430, after a three day long siege of the city.
During Ottoman times the city received an influx of muslim and Jewish populations. By 1478 Thessaloniki had a population of 4,320 muslims and 6,094 Greek Orthodox, out of a total of 10,414. By c. 1500 the numbers had grown to 7,986 Greeks and 8,575 muslims; briefly making the latter the majority group. Around the same time a third group arrived: registered in c. 1500 at 3,770 Jews. By 1519 the number of Jews had increased to 15,715, comprising 54% of the city. Inviting the Sepharadic Jews that had been expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabelle, was an Ottoman demographic strategy aiming to prevent the Byzantine (Greek Orthodox) element from dominating the city. The Jews, Muslims and Greek Orthodox remained the principal groups in the city for the next 4 centuries.[2]
Yet the city managed to remain the largest Jewish city in the world for at least two centuries, and of its 130,000 inhabitants at the start of the 20th century, around 60,000 were Sephardic Jews[3]. Some Romaniote Jews were also present. Thessaloníki, pronounced Selânik by the Turks, became one of the most important cities in the Empire, being the foremost trade and commercial center in the Balkans. The railway reached the city in 1888 and new modern port facilities were built in 1896-1904. The founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was born here in 1881, and the Young Turk movement was headquartered there in the early twentieth century. Selânik first became a sanjak center in Rumeli eyalet between 1393 and 1402 and again 1430 and 1864, after it became a province. Selânik province constituted from sanjaks of Selânik (Thessaloniki), Drama and Serres (Siroz or Serez).
Architectural remains from the Ottoman period can be found mainly in the 'Ano Poli' (Upper Town) which has the only traditional wooden houses and fountains that survived the great fire. In the city centre, a number of the stone mosques survived, of note are; "Hamza-Bey dzami" on Egnatia (currently being restored), the "Alatza Imaret dzami" on Kassandrou st, "Bezesteni" on Venizelou st, and "Yahoudi Hamam" on Frangon st. Almost all of the more than 40 minarets collapsed in the fire, or were removed after 1912, only one survives at the Rotunda. There are also a few remaining Ottoman bathhouses, particularly the "Hamam Bey" on Egnatia Avenue.
Thessaloniki's 'Ano Poli' (Old City)
Modern era
Thessaloniki was the main "prize" of the First Balkan War, as a result of which it was reunified with Greece on October 26, 1912. This date has an immense importance for the city as, in addition to the aforementioned historic event of the reunification, it also marks the nameday of Saint Demetrius, its patron Saint.
King George I of Greece was assassinated during a visit to Thessaloniki on 18 March 1913.
Greek soldiers marching in Thessaloniki in 1916.
In 1915, during World War I, a large Allied expeditionary force landed at Thessaloniki to use the city as the base for a massive offensive against pro-German Bulgaria. A pro-Allied temporary government headed by Eleftherios Venizelos was established there, against the will of the pro-neutral King of Greece.
Most of the town was destroyed by a single fire on 18 August 1917 [O.S. 5 August] which was accidentally caused by some French soldiers that were camping there. The fire made some 72,000 people homeless out of a population of approximately 271,157 at the time. Venizelos forbade the reconstruction of the town center until a full modern city plan was prepared. This was accomplished a few years later by the French architect and archeologist Ernest Hebrard. The Hebrard plan swept away the Oriental features of Thessaloníki and transformed it to the modern, European style metropolis that it is today.
Sunset in Thessaloniki's seaside Nikis Avenue. View from the Port
One consequence of the great fire was the fact that nearly half of the city's Jewish homes and livelihoods were destroyed leading to a massive Jewish emigration. Many went to Palestine, others stepped onto the Orient Express to Paris and still others found their way to America. Their numbers, however, were quickly replaced by a considerable number of refugees from Asia Minor following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, after the defeat of the Greek forces in Anatolia during the Greco-Turkish War. With these new refugees, the city expanded enormously and was nicknamed "The Refugee Capital" (I Protévoussa ton Prosfígon) and "Mother of the Poor" (Ftohomána).
Thessaloniki fell to the forces of Nazi Germany on April 9, 1941 and remained under German occupation until 30 October 1944. The city suffered considerable damage from Allied bombing, and almost its entire Jewish population was exterminated by the Nazis. Barely a thousand Jews survived. However, Thessaloniki was rebuilt and recovered fairly quickly after the war. This recovery included both a rapid growth in its population, as well as an impressive development of new, modern infrastructure and industrial enterprizes throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Most of the urban development of that period was, however, without a proper plan, causing traffic and zoning problems that remain to this day.
The statue of Pavlos Melas in White Tower's square
At 23:04 (local time) on 20 June 1978, the city was hit by a powerful earthquake registering a moment magnitude of 6.5. The tremor caused considerable damage to several buildings and even to some of the city's Byzantine monuments. Forty people were crushed to death when an entire apartment block collapsed in the central Hippodromio district. Nonetheless, the city quickly recovered from this natural disaster.
The Ministry of Macedonia-Thrace.
Early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988. Thessaloniki became the European City of Culture for 1997.
Thessaloniki is one of the most important university centers in Southeastern Europe and it hosts a large and vibrant student population coming from all over the country. The city features two state universities — the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the largest university in Greece (founded 1926) and the University of Macedonia, as well as the Technological Education Institute of Thessaloniki. In addition, there are several universities that are either affiliated with universities in other nations, or accredited abroad. Anatolia College of Thessaloniki, for one, is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in the United States.
In June 2003, the Summit meeting of European leaders, at the end of the Greek Presidency of the EU, was hosted at the Porto Carras resort in Chalkidiki, instead of within Thessaloniki itself (as originally planned) due to some security concerns. In 2004, the city hosted some of the football events of the 2004 Summer Olympics. Thessaloniki unsuccessfully bid for the 2008 World EXPO, won by Zaragoza, Spain. However, another planned bid for 2017 was announced in September 2006.
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