Thessaloniki

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Thessaloniki  (Θεσσαλονίκη)
Image:White Tower.jpg The White Tower of Thessaloniki was used as a prison during the era of the Ottoman Empire. Today it is a museum and the landmark of the city.
Image:Thessaloniki Municipal Flag.png	Image:Thessaloniki seal.png
Location
Image:Greece prefectures map dark.PNG Image:Red pog.svg
Coordinates	40°38′N 22°57′E / 40.633, 22.95Coordinates: 40°38′N 22°57′E / 40.633, 22.95
Time zone:	EET/EEST (UTC+2/3)
Elevation (min-max):	0 - 20 m (0 - 66 ft)
Government
Country:	Greece
Periphery:	Central Macedonia
Prefecture:	Thessaloniki
Districts:	16
Mayor:	Vassilios Papageorgopoulos  (ND) (since: January 1, 1999)
Population statistics (as of 2001[27])
City Proper
- Population:	363,987
- Area:[28]	17.8 km² (7 sq mi)
- Density:	20,449 /km² (52,962 /sq mi)
Metropolitan
- Population:	1,057,825
- Area:	108.088 km² (42 sq mi)
- Density:	9,787 /km² (25,347 /sq mi)
Codes
Postal codes:	53x xx, 54x xx, 55x xx, 56x xx
Area codes:	2310
License plate codes:	Ν
Website
www.thessalonikicity.gr
Image:Flag of Greece.svg

Thessaloniki or Salonica (Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη) is Greece's second-largest city and the capital of Macedonia, the nation's largest region. The Thessaloniki Urban Area extends around the Thermaic Gulf for approximately 17 kilometres (11 mi) and comprises 16 municipalities. According to the 2001 census, the municipality of Thessaloniki had a population of 363,987, while the metropolitan population approximates one million inhabitants.

Thessaloniki is Greece's second major economic, industrial, commercial and political centre, and a major transportation hub for the rest of southeastern Europe; its commercial port is also of great importance for Greece and its southeast European hinterland. The country's Prime Minister traditionally gives his annual governmental speech outlining plans for the year to come from the city.

Thessaloniki retains several Ottoman and Jewish structures as well as a large number of Byzantine architectural monuments. The city hosts an annual International Trade Fair, the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and the largest bi-annual meeting of the Greek diaspora.

Contents 1 Name 2 History 2.1 Hellenistic era 2.2 Roman era 2.3 Byzantine era 2.4 Ottoman era 2.5 Balkan Wars and World War I 2.6 World War II Era 2.7 Modern Era 3 Government 4 Urban Landscape 4.1 Architecture 4.2 Landmarks 4.3 Museums 4.4 Archaeological sites 5 Demographics 5.1 The Jews of Thessaloniki 5.2 Ethnic statistics 6 Economy 7 Culture 7.1 Festivals 7.1.1 International Trade Fair 7.1.2 International Film Festival 7.1.3 Documentary Festival 7.1.4 International Festival of Photography 7.1.5 Dimitria 7.1.6 Video Dance Festival 7.1.7 DMC DJ Championship 7.2 Sports 7.3 Notable Thessalonikians 8 Climate 9 Transportation 9.1 Thessaloniki Metro 9.2 Motorways 9.3 Railways 9.4 Airport 10 Communications 10.1 Newspapers 10.2 Television 10.3 Radio 11 Twinnings 12 Photo gallery 13 See also 14 Further reading 15 References 16 External links 16.1 Government 16.2 Cultural

[edit] Name

The alternative name Salonica, formerly the common name used in some western European languages, is derived from a variant form Σαλονίκη (Saloníki) in popular Greek speech. The city's name is also rendered Thessaloníki or Saloníki with a dark l typical of Macedonian Greek .^[1][2] Names in other languages prominent in the city's history include سلانيك in Ottoman Turkish and Selânik in modern Turkish, Solun or Sulun (Cyrillic: Солун or Сулун) in the Slavic languages of the region, Sãrunã in Aromanian, and Selanik in Ladino (see other names).

Thessaloniki is commonly called the 'Συμπρωτεύουσα' 'Symprotevousa' (lit. co-capital) of Greece since the National Schism, in much the same way as it was called the 'συμβασιλεύουσα' 'symbasileousa' (co-queen) of the Byzantine Empire.

[edit] History

[edit] Hellenistic era

Further information: Hellenistic Greece and Ancient Greece

The city was founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon (Μακεδονία), on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and twenty-six other local villages. He named it after his wife Thessaloniki, a half-sister of Alexander the Great. She gained her name from her father, Philip II, to commemorate her birth on the day of his gaining a victory (Gr. Nike, pronounced Niki) over the Phocians, who were defeated with the help of Thessalian horsemen, the best in Greece at that time. Thessaloniki means the "victory of Thessalians". Thessaloniki developed rapidly and as early as the 2nd century BC the first walls were built, forming a large square. It was 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.

[edit] Roman era

Further information: Roman Greece

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, the Roman road connecting Byzantium (later Constantinople), with Dyrrhachium (now Durrës in Albania), and 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, while for a short time in the 1st century BC, all the Greek provinces came under Thessalonica (the Latin form of the name). 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 town'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 in the present day 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.

The city had a Jewish colony, established during the first century, and was to be an early centre of Christianity. On his second missionary journey, Paul of Tarsus, born a Hellenized Israelite, preached in the city's synagogue, the chief synagogue of the Jews in that part of Thessaloniki, and laid the foundations of a church. Other Jews opposed to Paul drove him from the city, and he fled to Veroia. Paul wrote two of his epistles to the Christian community at Thessalonica, the First Epistle to the Thessalonians and the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians.

Thessaloníki acquired a patron saint, St. Demetrius, in 306. He is credited with a number of miracles that saved the city, and was the Roman Proconsul of Greece under the anti-Christian emperor Maximian, later martyred at a Roman prison where today lies 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 centre of the modern city.

[edit] Byzantine era

Further information: Byzantine Greece and Medieval Thessalonica

When in 379 the Roman Prefecture of Illyricum was divided between East and West Roman Empires, Thessaloníki became the capital of the new Prefecture of Illyricum (now reduced in size). Its importance was second only to Constantinople itself, and 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.^[3] 7,000 - 15,000 of the citizens were massacred in the city's hippodrome in revenge – an act which earned Theodosius a temporary excommunication.

A quiet interlude 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 subsequently 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.

The city recovered, and the gradual restoration of Byzantine power during the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries brought peace to the area. The population of the city expanded, and according to Benjamin of Tudela, the city also had a Jewish community some 500-strong by the twelfth century. It also hosted the 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 rule of the Komnenoi emperors expanded Byzantine control into Serbia and Hungary, to the north. The city is known to have housed an imperial mint at this time. 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. Nonetheless, their rule lasted less than a year, and they were defeated by the Byzantine army in two battles months later 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, and was given by the emperor Baldwin I to his rival Boniface of Montferrat, but seized back once more in 1224 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.

At this time, despite intermittent invasion, Thessaloniki sustained a large population and flourishing commerce, resulting in intellectual and artistic endeavour that can be traced in the numerous churches and frescoes of the era, and by the evidence of its scholars teaching there.^[4] Examples of Byzantine art survive in the city, particularly the mosaics in some of its historic churches, including the basilica of Hagia Sophia of Thessalonki, and the church of St George.

In the 14th century, however, the city faced upheaval in the form of the Zelotes social movement (1342-1349), springing from a religious conflict between bishop Gregorios Palamas, who supported conservative principles, and the monk Barlaam, who introduced progressive social concepts. Quickly, it turned into a political commotion, leading to the preeminence of the Zelotes, who ruled the city for a time and applied progressive social ideas.

[edit] Ottoman era

Further information: Ottoman Greece

The Byzantine Empire, unable to hold the city against the Ottoman Empire's advance, sold it in 1423 to Venice. Venice held the city until it was captured after a three-day-long siege by the Ottoman Sultan Murad II on 29 March 1430. The Ottomans had previously captured Thessaloniki in 1387, but lost it in the aftermath of their defeat in the Battle of Ankara against Tamerlane in 1402, when the weakened Ottomans were forced to hand back a number of territories to the Byzantines.

During the Ottoman period, the city's Muslim and Jewish population grew. By 1478, Thessaloniki had a population of 4,320 Muslims and 6,094 Greek Orthodox, as well as some Catholics, but no Jews. By ca. 1500, the numbers had grown to 7,986 Greeks and 8,575 Muslims, briefly making the latter the majority. Around the same time, Jews began arriving from Spain, fleeing persecution. In ca. 1500, there were only 3,770 Jews, but by 1519, there were 15,715, 54% of the city's population. The invitation of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, was an Ottoman demographic strategy aiming to prevent the Greek element from dominating the city.^[5] The Sephardic Jews, Muslims and Greek Orthodox remained the principal groups in the city for the next 4 centuries.^[5]

The city remained the largest Jewish city in the world for at least two centuries, often called "Mother of Israel". Of its 130,000 inhabitants at the start of the 20th century, around 60,000 were Sephardic Jews.^[6] Some Romaniote Jews were also present.^[7]

Thessaloníki, called Selânik in Turkish, became one of the most important cities in the Empire, viable as 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 there in 1881, and the Young Turk movement was headquartered there in the early twentieth century.

Selânik was a sanjak center in the Rumeli eyalet from 1393 to 1402 and again from 1430 to 1864, when it became a vilayet (province). The Ottoman vilayet of Selânik province included the 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 to survive the city's fire. In the city center, a number of the stone mosques survived, notably the "Hamza-Bey Camii" on Egnatia (under restoration), the "Alatza Imaret Camii" on Kassandrou Street, "Bezesteni" on Venizelou Street, and "Yahoudi Hamam" on Frangon Street. Most of the more than 40 minarets were demolished after 1912, or collapsed because of the fire; the only surviving one is at the Rotonda (Arch and Tomb of Galerius). There are also a few remaining Ottoman hammams (bathhouses), particularly the "Hamam Bey" on Egnatia Avenue.

During 19th century, Thessaloníki became one of the cultural and political centres of the Bulgarian revival movement in Macedonia. According to Bulgarian ethnographer Vasil Kanchov around the beginning of the 20th century there were approximately 10,000 Bulgarians, a substantial minority in the city.^[8] In 1880 a Bulgarian Men's High School was founded, followed later by other educational institutions of the Bulgarian Exarchate. In 1893 a part of the Bulgarian intelligentsia created a revolutionary organization, which spread its influence among Bulgarians throughout Ottoman Balkans and became the strongest Bulgarian paramilitary movement, best known under its latest name, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. In 1903 a group of Bulgarian leftists and anarchists, tied to IMRO, organized series of terrorist acts. After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, Thessaloniki became a centre of Bulgarian political activity in the Ottoman Empire and seat of the two largest legal Bulgarian parties, the rightist Union of the Bulgarian Constitutional Clubs, and the leftist People's Federative Party (Bulgarian Section).^[9]

[edit] Balkan Wars and World War I

Further information: Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917

During the First Balkan War, the Ottoman garrison surrendered Salonika to the Greek Army, on November 9 November [O.S. 27 October] 1912. This was a day after the feast of the city's patron saint, Saint Demetrios, which has become the date customarily celebrated as the anniversary of the city's liberation. The next day, a Bulgarian division arrived, and Bulgarian troops were allowed to enter the city in limited numbers. Although officially governed by the Greeks, the final fate of the city hung in the balance. The Austrian government proposed to make Salonika into a neutral, internationalized city similar to what Danzig was to later become; it would have had a territory of 400-460 km² and a population of 260,000. It would be "neither Greek, Bulgarian nor Turkish, but Jewish".^[10]

The Greeks' emotional commitment to the city was increased when King George I of Greece, who had settled there to emphasize Greece's possession of it, was assassinated on 18 March 1913 by Alexandros Schinas. After the Greek and Serbian victory in the Second Balkan War, which broke out among the former allies over the final territorial dispositions,^[11] the city's status was finally settled by the Treaty of Bucharest on August 10, 1913, becoming an integral part of Greece. 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. This precipitated the political conflict between the pro-Allied Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, and the pro-neutral King Constantine. In 1916, pro-Venizelist army officers, with the support of the Allies, launched the Movement of National Defence, which resulted in the establishment of a pro-Allied temporary government, headed by Venizelos, that controlled northern Greece and the Aegean, against the official government of the King in Athens. Ever since, Thessaloniki has been dubbed as symprotévousa ("co-capital").

Most of the old town was destroyed by a single fire on 18 August [O.S. 5 August] 1917, accidentally sparked by French soldiers in encampments at the city. The fire left some 72,000 homeless, many of them Turkish, 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, although never fully completed, swept away the oriental features of Thessaloníki and transformed it into the modern European metropolis that it is today. One effect of the great fire was that nearly half of the city's Jewish homes and livelihoods were destroyed, leading to massive Jewish emigration. Many went to Palestine, others to Paris, and still others found their way to America. Their populations, however, were quickly replaced by considerable numbers of refugees from Asia Minor as a result of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, following the defeat of the Greek forces in Anatolia during the Greco-Turkish War. With the arrival of these new refugees, the city expanded enormously and haphazardly, and came to be nicknamed "The Refugee Capital" (I Protévoussa ton Prosfýgon) and "Mother of the Poor" (Ftohomána).

[edit] World War II Era

Further information: Axis occupation of Greece during World War II

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. Thessaloniki was rebuilt and recovered fairly quickly after the war, with this resurgence taking in both a rapid growth in its population, and a large-scale development of new infrastructure and industry throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Most of the urban development of that period was, however, without an all-embracing plan, contributing to the traffic and zoning problems remaining to this day.

[edit] Modern Era

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 large city recovered with considerable speed from the effects of the disaster. Early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988, and Thessaloniki later became European City of Culture 1997.

Thessaloniki is one of the most important university centres in the Southeastern European region, and is also host to a student population from across Greece. The city sustains two state universities — the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the largest university in Greece (founded 1926), and the University of Macedonia, alongside the Technological Education Institute of Thessaloniki. It also sponsors a range of private international institutions, either affiliated with universities in other nations, or accredited abroad.

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 the Thessaloniki city limits themselves, to aid security precautions, and in 2004 the city hosted a number of the football events forming part of the 2004 Summer Olympics. Thessaloniki unsuccessfully bid for the 2008 World EXPO, this time won by Zaragoza in Spain, but another planned bid for 2017 was announced in September 2006 and is now in full development.

[edit] Government

Main article: List of mayors of Thessaloniki

As Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece, and an influential city in Northern Greece, it functions as the capital of the Central Macedonia Periphery, Thessaloniki Prefecture, and Thessaloniki Municipality.

All major embassies are located in the capital Athens, except the Culture office of the Italian Embassy, located in Thessaloniki. However, a number of countries have consulates in Thessaloniki:

Albania, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Chile, Republic of Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America (consulate general).

[edit] Urban Landscape

[edit] Architecture

The architectural face of Thessaloniki has always a been an interesting and distinctive case, in its constant flux born of the city's position at the centre of all historical developments in the Balkans. Aside from its commercial importance, Thessaloniki was, for many centuries, the military and administrative hub of the region, and beyond this the transportation link between Europe and the Levant.

The city layout changed after 1870, when the seaside fortifications gave way to extensive piers and unfortunately most of the ancient walls of the city were demolished including those surrounding the White Tower. During the subsequent 47 years, a period of great economic growth, the city's population exploded by 70%, reaching 135,000 in 1917. The city became an attraction for merchants, traders and refugees from across Europe, including Jews joining the city's earlier population. The authorities replaced part of the city's earliest Byzantine walls to allow it to expand, which it did, to the east and west along the coast. The need for commercial and public buildings in that new era of prosperity led to a marked shift in architectural direction and led to the construction of large edifices in the city centre, in lots formerly occupied by small, shabby one-family homes. During this time, Thessaloniki saw the building of banks, large hotels, theaters, warehouses, and factories.

The expansion of Eleftherias Square (today's Venizelou Square) toward the sea completed the new commercial centre of the city. The rest of the city's neighborhoods, within the old fortifications, remained unchanged. The western districts were the working class section, near the factories and Thessaloniki' s new industrial activity; the middle and upper classes moved east of the city and built a new suburb, then known as "Exohes", or "country retreats", and this new district soon acquired schools, public buildings and manufacturing plants. Today, the city's most important public buildings are to be found between the historic centre and those eastern suburbs, next to the White Tower.

The most decisive and unforeseen moment in the city's modern history was 1917. A devastating fire swept through the city that year and burned uncontrollably for 32 hours. It destroyed the city's historic centre and a large part of its architectural heritage, including many buildings of rare beauty.

The city designed between 1917 and 1950 was modern but with little consideration for wide, manageable roads urban centre; its layout and feel had little in common with what preceded it. The team of architects and urban planners designing the new Thessaloniki was led by Ernest Hebrard, a French architect. The team chose the Byzantine era as the basis for their building designs. The new city plan included axes, diagonal streets and monumental squares, with a street grid that would channel traffic smoothly. The plan of 1917 included provisions for the future population explosion and an adequate street and road network that would have been sufficient even today. It contained sites for public and significant buildings, the restoration of important Byzantine churches and landmarks and of Ottoman mosques, whereas the whole of the Upper City, near the fortifications, was declared a heritage site. The plan also included a site for the campus of the future University of Thessaloniki, which was never fully realized, although today's nondescript, concrete University campus incorporates some of Hebrard's ideas nevertheless.

An important element of the plan was to achieve a fine balance between contemporary urban planning and architectural ideas, and the city's rich tradition and history. Unfortunately, these plans were never to be fully implemented, and the city lacks a full administrative district to this day. Nevertheless, this aspect of the plan influenced a number of building and planning decisions throughout the 20th century, with the inevitable adaptations to service the population explosion of the last 50 years.

Although Thessaloniki is one of the most attractive cities of Greece and interesting for the student of architecture, today it bursts at the seams and presents its residents with the full range of modern urban inconveniences. Traffic is the most important problem, with new car registrations increasing by about twenty thousand annually, and the volume of cars quintupling in the last 15 years. Thessaloniki is the only major European urban centre that is served by only one mode of public transportation: buses. In addition, the city centre has limited public parking spaces; a subway line and underwater tunnel are now under construction in a strong recent effort to decongest the city centre.

[edit] Landmarks

• The White Tower of Thessaloniki (Greek: Λευκός Πύργος Lefkos Pyrgos), widely regarded as the symbol of the city. It has been known by many names and is now home to the Museum of Byzantine Cultures; the top of the tower offers excellent views of the downtown area.
• The Arch and Tomb of Galerius is more commonly known as the "Kamara" and ornately decorated, crafted with a reddish-coloured stone.
• The Upper Town or 'Ano Poli' is what remains of Ottoman Thessaloniki, with beautiful wooden houses overhanging the winding streets all the way up to the Eptapyrgio at the top of the city. The Ano Poli also contains some of the city's oldest and most important churches, particularly Osios David, St. Nicolaos Orphanos and Vlatades Monastery.
• The Church of Aghios Demetrios is the most important church in the entire city. Lying above the remains of the agora and the Roman Forum, the church has three side-chapels, a museum, and underground catacombs that also include Saint Demetrios' imprisonment chamber; he is the patron saint of the city.
• OTE Tower, a TV tower is the center of the Thessaloniki Expo Center. A revolving restaurant offers spectacular views of the city.
• The waterfront is Thessaloniki's major draw. The promenade of Nikis Avenue runs from the White Tower of Thessaloniki to the giant palace that is now a ferry terminal, and plentiful cafés, restaurants and shops line the waterfront.
• The Arch and Tomb of Galerius, or the Church of Aghios Georgios, is a circular church lacking the classic Orthodox iconostasis. The church is built upon former Roman and Greek pagan ruins.
• Aristotelous Square extends all the way from Nikis Avenue on the waterfront to the Church of Panayia Halkeion. The square, shaped like a bottle, is lined with tall archondika, or mansions of the affluent, that have now been converted to shops and hotels. A large park lies at the north end of the square, and Thessaloniki's thriving old market is just one block away to the east and west.
• The area surrounding the Church of Aghia Sofia, also located in the city center, includes the large church and paved alleyways that make the few blocks around it widely known.
• The extensive Byzantine walls of the Upper City (Ano Poli) and kastro.
• The Kyvernion (little Palace); former residence of the King and Queen of Greece; in the Karabournaki area, in Eastern Thessaloniki
• The modern Concert Hall of Thessaloniki in the East side of the city, near the Posidonion sports center.
• Thessaloniki Intemational Trade Fair held every September, organised by Helexpo.

[edit] Museums

• Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki (Museo Djudio de Salonik)
• Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art
• State Museum of Contemporary Arts [1] housing an important collection of 1275 Russian avant-garde works of art, collected by George Costakis
• Macedonia-Thrace Folklore and Ethnological Museum, housed in the G. Modiano Mansion
• Museum of Byzantine Culture
• Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum
• Thessaloniki Cinema Museum
• Museum of the Macedonian Struggle
• Thessaloniki Sports Museum
• Water Museum of Thessaloniki
• White Tower of Thessaloniki, museum and monument
• Thessaloniki Science Center & Technology Museum - NOESIS
• Thessaloniki Museum of Photography
• Museum of Cinematography
• Teloglion Foundation of Art
• Artforum Culture Foundation
• Artforum Research-institute and public-exhibition-hall
• European Center of Byzantine and Postbyzantine Monuments
• The Goulandris Natural History Museum

[edit] Archaeological sites

• Agia Paraskevi, Thessaloniki, archaic cemetery
• The Ancient Agora of Thessaloniki
• Monastery of Latomos at Thessaloniki
• The Roman Palace and Hippodrome
• The extensive city walls
• Trigonian Tower and the Castra area

[edit] Demographics

Although the population of the Municipality of Thessaloniki has declined in the last two censuses, the metropolitan area's population is still growing, as people are moving to the suburbs. Today approximate 1 million people live in the metropolitan area, making it the second largest metropolitan area in Greece after Athens.

Year	City population	Change	Metro population
1981	406,413	-	-
1991	383,967[12]	-22,446/-5.52%	-
2001	363,987[12]	-19,980/-5.20%	1,057,825[12]

[edit] The Jews of Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki's Jewish community, was largely of Sephardic background, but also included the historically significant and ancient Romaniote community. During the Ottoman era, Thessaloniki's Jewish community comprised more than half the city's population and Jews were dominant in commerce until the Greek population increased after 1912. Within the interwar Greek state the Jews enjoyed the same civil rights as all other Greeks.^[13] As a result of the Jewish influence on the city, many non-Jewish inhabitants of Thessaloniki also spoke Ladino, the Romance language of the Sephardic Jews, and the city virtually ground to a stop on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.^[14]

A great blow to the Jewish community of Thessaloniki came with the great fire of 1917, which left 50,000 Jews homeless.^[15] Many Jews emigrated to Turkey,^[16] the United States, other parts of Europe and Alexandria, Egypt. In 1920, a law of the period creating separate electoral colleges for Salonica's Jews, meant they could not compete with Christian candidates,^[17] and a measure in 1922 ending Sunday trading had caused further stress for part of the city's Jewish population, already suffering the loss of markets after the collapse of the Ottoman empire, and more Jews emigrated.^[18] The arrival of the 100,000 Greek refugees settling in Thessaloniki after the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1923, reduced the importance of the community and during the interwar period its proportions were at 20% of the city’s population.

In March 1926, Greece had re-emphasised that all citizens of Greece enjoyed equal rights, and a considerable proportion of the Jews of the city stuck by their earlier conviction they should remain. By 1944 the great majority of the community firmly identified themselves as both Greek and Jewish. According to Misha Glenny, these Greek Jews had largely not encountered "anti-Semitism in its North European form..the twentieth century had witnessed the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment among Greeks... but it attracted an insignificant minority".^[19] By the mid 1940s the prospect of German deportation to death camps was repeatedly met with disbelief by an increasingly well integrated Greek Jewish population. Mordechai Frizis was nevertheless among the leading Greek officers of World War II.

Thessaloniki's Jewish community continued to play an important role in the city's life up until its occupation by the Nazis in World War II. The Nazis murdered approximately 96% of Thessaloniki's Jews of all ages in the Holocaust, effectively ending the Jewish community of Thessaloniki. Today, fewer than 1,000 Jews are left in Thessaloniki, although there are communities of Thessaloniki Jews -- both Sephardic and Romaniote -- in the United States and Israel.

Jewish Population of Thessaloniki^[20]

Year	Total Population	Jewish Population	Jewish Percentage	Source
1842	70,000	36,000	51%	Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer
1870	90,000	50,000	56%	Greek schoolbook (G.K. Moraitopoulos, 1882)
1882/84	85,000	48,000	56%	Ottoman government census
1902	126,000	62,000	49%	Ottoman government census
1913	157,889	61,439	39%	Greek government census
1917		52,000
1943		50,000
2000	363,987[12]	1,000	0.27%

[edit] Ethnic statistics

The tables below show the ethnic statistics of Thessaloniki during the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century.

Year	Total Population	Jewish Population	Turkish Population	Greek Population	Bulgarian Population	Roma Population	Other groups
1890	118,000[21]	55,000[21]	26,000[21]	16,000[21]	10,000[21]	2,500[21]	8,500[21]
around 1913	157,889[22]	61,439[22]	45,889[22]	39,956[22]	6,263[22]	2,721[22]	1,621[22]

[edit] Economy

Thessaloníki is a major port city and an industrial and commercial center. The city's industries centre around oil, steel, petrochemicals, textiles, machinery, flour, cement, pharmaceuticals, and liquor. The city is also a major transportation hub for the whole of southeastern Europe, carrying, among other things, trade to and from the newly capitalist countries of the region. A considerable percentage of the city's workers are employed in small- and medium-sized businesses and in the service and the public sectors. Official unemployment rates for 2002 were 10%.

[edit] Culture

[edit] Festivals

[edit] International Trade Fair

The Thessaloniki International Trade Fair has a venerable modern history dating to 1926. Hosted every September for 10 days at the 180,000 m² Thessaloniki International Exhibition Center, in the heart of the city, the fair is organised by HELEXPO, which also organises themed exhibitions and congresses throughout the year. The International Trade Fair is inaugurated by the Prime Minister and attended by more than 300,000 visitors every year.

[edit] International Film Festival

The Thessaloniki International Film Festival has become the primary showcase in Southeastern Europe for the work of new and emerging filmmakers, as well as the leading film festival of the region. The event features an International Section, its Panorama of Greek Film, the New Horizons program, the Balkan Survey, and numerous retrospectives and tributes to leading figures in the world of film. Since 1993, a succession of leading lights of international cinema, incuding Francis Ford Coppola, Faye Dunaway, Catherine Deneuve and Irene Papas, have visited the Festival.

[edit] Documentary Festival

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival was launched in March 1999, inspired by Dimitri Elpides and benefiting from the local public's enthusiastic response, alongside extensive coverage in the local and international press. In 2005, 22,000 admissions were registered. The main programme focuses on documentaries that explore global social and cultural developments, and also now introduces a number of new side sections and events based on important works by new documentarists. Films from the main programme will be candidates for the FIPRESCI and also the Audience Awards.

The festival attracts a filmgoing public which rediscovers, year after year, images of the new century, new film ecritures, new directors, new technologies, but also representatives of the film world who find in it a reliable organisation appropriate for promoting their work. The event revolves around a sequence of unchanging sections: stories to tell, views of the world, the recording of memory, and portraits, but each year's programme is also supplemented with several others.

The Festival aims to the offer the filmgoing publc annually gathering in Thessaloniki an exploration of the common images of the early 21st century, and to explore its human landscape through documentary.

[edit] International Festival of Photography

The Thessaloniki International Festival of Photography (Photosynkyria) takes place in Thessaloniki from February to mid-April of every year, attracting the interest of both the photographic world and the wider public, while also functioning as a meeting point for the Greek and the international photographic scene. Photosynkyria exhibitions and events are hosted in a variety of venues around Thessaloniki, including museums, heritage landmarks, galleries, bookshops and cafes.

Photosynkyria was launched in 1988 by photographer Aris Georgiou, and over the past five years has been organized by the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, which annually appoints the artistic director of the festival.

[edit] Dimitria

This three-month long festival of cultural events has been held every September-December since 1966. Named after Aghios Dimitrios (St. Demetrius), the patron Saint of the city, it has become something of an institution for the city and very popular with the local population. It includes musical, theatrical, dance events, street happenings and exhibitions, and is organised and overseen by the Municipality of Thessaloniki, celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2006.

[edit] Video Dance Festival

The Video Dance Festival started in 2000 at Thessaloniki as an international dance film festival, but soon widened to include additional experimental forms incorporating movement and the moving image.

[edit] DMC DJ Championship

The Greek DMC DJ Championship is hosted in Thessaloniki at the International Trade Fair Of Thessaloniki.

DMC’s World DJ Championships, sponsored internationally by Technics and Ortofon, has grown over the years and the formats of its competitions have developed along with demand. Originally intended to be a DJ mixing battle, DJ Cheese introduced scratching in his routine in 1986, changing the course of future DMC battles. Since then, the Technics DMC World Champion title has become the most sought-after by aspiring DJs and turntablists worldwide.

The only equipment permitted in Technics' DJ Championships worldwide are Technics SL1200 turntables and the Technics EX-DJ1200 mixer; the DJs are allowed a period of exactly six minutes to impress the judges.

[edit] Sports

The first football team to be officially established in the city was Iraklis, in 1908. Aris was established in 1914. PAOK and Apollon Kalamarias were established in 1926 by Greek refugees from Constantinople, Pontus and Asia Minor in the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War; today there are many more football teams in Thessaloniki, while the four major teams participate in the Super League Greece and on many occasions in the UEFA Cup.

The current stands of the major teams are:

• Aris FC - Super League Greece (2006-2007: 4th place)
• PAOK FC - Super League Greece (2006-2007: 6th place)
• Apollon Kalamaria - Super League Greece (2006-2007: 12th place)
• Iraklis FC - Super League Greece (2006-2007: 13th place)

PAOK is the most successful team of the city's football competitors, Aris its most successful basketball team, and Iraklis its most successful Volleyball and track and field competitor. The main football stadiums to be found in the city are the state-owned Kaftanzoglio Stadium which also finds use as Iraklis' home stadium, and was heavily renovated in the wake of the 2004 Summer Olympics, the Toumba Stadium (PAOK's home stadium), and the Kleanthis Vikelides Stadium (Harilaou), Aris' home stadium. Thessaloniki's major indoor arenas are the state-owned Alexandreio Melathron, home to Aris Thessaloniki and also used for a number of cultural events, and the PAOK Sports Arena, which is that used by PAOK's basketball and volleyball sections.

In October 2007, Thessaloniki organised the first South Eastern European Games.^[23] The participating nations were: The Republic of Albania, the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Republic of Bulgaria, Romania, the Republic of Croatia, the Helllenic Republic, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Montenegro, the Republic of Slovenia, and the Republic of Turkey.

[edit] Notable Thessalonikians

Main article: List of famous Thessalonikians

Thessaloniki's famous inhabitants over the centuries include saints, such as Saint Cyril, athletes and musicians, and the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey.

[edit] Climate

The city experiences a Mediterranean climate, with mild rainy winters and hot summers:

Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Maximum. [°C]	12	13	16	18	23	28	31	30	26	21	15	13
Minimum temperature [°C]	5	6	6	9	12	16	18	18	15	11	6	7
Rainfall (mm)	40	38	43	35	43	30	22	20	27	45	58	50
Record temperatures [°C]	20	22	25	31	36	39	42	39	36	32	27	26

[edit] Transportation

Public transport in Thessaloniki is currently served only by buses. The bus company operating in the city is called Organismos Astikon Sygkoinonion Thessalonikis (OASTH)

[edit] Thessaloniki Metro

Further information: Thessaloniki Metro

The construction of the Thessaloniki Metropolitan Railway was under discussion for more than fifteen years,^[24] but construction began in 2006 and is scheduled to last around six and a half years, with a completion date envisaged for late 2012.^[24] The single line will extend over 9.5km and include 13 stations^[25], and is expected that the subway will eventually serve 250,000 passengers daily.^[24] Like the Athens Metro, the Thessaloniki Metro will also house a number of archaeological finds.^[26]

Discussions are underway on future expansion to the west, in order to connect the underground with the major transport hubs for the city, the Makedonia Central Bus Station, the Central Railway Station, and Makedonia International Airport. Possible future expansion may include that toward the districts of Eleftherio-Kordelio in the west side, Stavroupoli in the upper west side, Kalamaria in the east side, and the northern districts, such as Toumba.

[edit] Motorways

Further information: Egnatia Odos

Thessaloniki was without a motorway link until the 1970s. The city is accessed by GR-1/E75 from Athens, GR-4, GR-2, (Via Egnatia) /E90 and GR-12/E85 from Serres and Sofia; by the early 1970s the motorway had reached Thessaloniki and was the last section of the GR-1 to be completed, while 1980s construction saw completion of the city's 4-lane bypass, which was finally opened to traffic in 1988 and runs from the western industrial side of the city all the way to its southeast, approaching Thermi and Halkidiki. Recently upgraded, it now takes in a number of new junctions and improved motorway features; the latest motorway expansion was toward the Via Egnatia, northwest of Thessaloniki.

[edit] Railways

The city is a major railway hub for the Balkans, with direct connections to Sofia, Skopje, Belgrade, Moscow, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and Istanbul, alongside Athens and other major destinations in Greece. Daily railway services have recently been established between Thessaloniki and Litochoro, Pieria, covering the journey in approximately 45 to 50 minutes.

[edit] Airport

Air traffic to and from the city is served by Makedonia International Airport, for both international and domestic flights. The short length of the airport's two runways means that it does not support intercontinental flights, although there are plans for major expansion. The expansion of one of the runways into the Thermaic Gulf is being undertaken, so as to enable the servicing of trans-oceanic flights, despite considerable opposition to this by local environmentalist groups.

[edit] Communications

[edit] Twinnings

(in chronological order)

• Image:Flag of the United States.svg Hartford, Connecticut, United States, since May 5 1962
• Image:Flag of Bulgaria.svg Plovdiv, Bulgaria, since February 27 1984
• Image:Flag of Australia.svg Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, since March 19 1984
• Image:Flag of Cyprus.svg Limassol, Cyprus, since June 30 1984
• Image:Flag of Germany.svg Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, since October 10 1984
• Image:Flag of Italy.svg Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, since October 20 1984
• Image:Flag of Slovakia.svg Bratislava, Slovakia, since April 23 1986
• Image:Flag of Turkey.svg Akhisar, Turkey, since August 25 1988
• Image:Flag of Germany.svg Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, since May 3 1988
• Image:Flag of Romania.svg Constanţa, Romania, since July 5 1988
• Image:Flag of the United States.svg San Francisco, California, United States, since August 6 1990
• Image:Flag of France.svg Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, since March 20 1992
• Image:Flag of Egypt.svg Alexandria, Egypt, since July 12 1993
• Image:Flag of Israel.svg Tel Aviv, Israel, since November 24 1994
• Image:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Tianjin, People's Republic of China, since March 4 2002
• Image:Flag of Russia.svg Saint Petersburg, Russia, since 2003
• Image:Flag of Italy.svg Syracuse, Sicily, Italy, since March 18 2007

[edit] Photo gallery

Iktinoustret Salonica.jpg The pedestrianized Zeuxidos street in the city center.	Tsimiski Thessaloniki.jpg Eastern part of Tsimiski Street	Aristotelian University.jpg Section of the campus of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.	THES-Heptapyrgion SE.jpg The Heptapyrghion or Yedi Kule Castle.
Navarinou Square.jpg The colourful Navarinou Square at the city center.	Thessaloniki 08-07.jpg Evening view of the White Tower and the Thermaic Gulf towards the YMCA Square.	Salonika waterfront.jpg Night view of Nikis Avenue on Thessaloniki's central seafront.	Makedonia Palace Thessaloniki.jpg The historic Makedonia Palace is amomg the city's largest and most luxurious hotels.

[edit] See also

• Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
• History of Greece
• Jews in Greece
• Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917
• OASTH

[edit] Further reading

• Apostolos Papagiannopoulos,Monuments of Thessaloniki, Rekos Ltd, date unknown.
• Apostolos P. Vacalopoulos, A History of Thessaloniki, Institute for Balkan Studies,1972.
• John R. Melville-Jones, 'Venice and Thessalonica 1423-1430 Vol I, The Venetian Accounts, Vol. II, the Greek Accounts, Unipress, Padova, 2002 and 2006.
• Thessaloniki: Tourist guide and street map, A. Kessopoulos, MalliareÌ„s-Paideia, 1988.
• Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, 2004, ISBN 0-375-41298-0.
• Thessaloniki City Guide, Axon Publications, 2002.
• James C. Skedros, Saint Demetrios of Thessaloniki: Civic Patron and Divine Protector, 4th-7Th Centuries (Harvard Theological Studies), Trinity Press International (1999).
• Vilma Hastaoglou-Martinidis (ed.), Restructuring the City: International Urban Design Competitions for Thessaloniki, Andreas Papadakis, 1999.
• Matthieu Ghilardi, Dynamiques spatiales et reconstitutions paléogéographiques de la plaine de Thessalonique (Grèce) à l'Holocène récent, 2007. Thèse de Doctorat de l'Université de Paris 12 Val-de-Marne, 475 p.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] Government

• Municipality of Thessaloniki
• Thessaloniki Port Authority
• ΟΑΣΘ - Organisation of Urban Transport of Thessaloniki (Greek & English)
• Thessaloniki - Photo Archive Documents 1900-1980

[edit] Cultural

• Thessaloniki Film Festival
• Thessaloniki - Old postcards

v • d • e Municipalities and Communities of the Thessaloniki Prefecture
Municipalities	Agios Athanasios • Agios Georgios • Agios Pavlos • Ampelokipoi • Apollonia • Arethousa • Assiros • Axios • Chalastra • Chalkidona • Chortiatis • Echedoros • Egnatia • Eleftherio-Kordelio • Epanomi • Evosmos • Kalamaria • Kallindoia • Kallithea • Koroneia • Koufalia • Lachanas • Lagkadas • Madytos • Menemeni • Michaniona • Mikra • Mygdonia • Neapoli • Oraiokastro • Panorama • Polichni • Pylaia • Rentina • Sochos • Stavroupoli • Sykies • Thermaikos • Thermi • Thessaloniki • Triandria • Vasilika • Vertiskos
Communities	Efkarpia • Pefka

v • d • e Image:Flag of Europe.svg European Capitals of Culture

1985 Athens · 1986 Florence · 1987 Amsterdam · 1988 West Berlin · 1989 Paris · 1990 Glasgow · 1991 Dublin · 1992 Madrid · 1993 Antwerp · 1994 Lisbon · 1995 Luxembourg City · 1996 Copenhagen · 1997 Thessaloniki · 1998 Stockholm · 1999 Weimar · 2000 Reykjavík · Bergen · Helsinki · Brussels · Prague · Kraków · Santiago de Compostela · Avignon · Bologna · 2001 Rotterdam · Porto · 2002 Bruges · Salamanca · 2003 Graz · 2004 Genoa · Lille · 2005 Cork · 2006 Patras · 2007 Luxembourg City and Greater Region · Sibiu · 2008 Liverpool · Stavanger · 2009 Linz · Vilnius · 2010 Essen · Pécs · Istanbul · 2011 Turku · Tallinn · 2012 Maribor · Guimarães

v • d • e World Heritage Sites in Greece

Acropolis, Athens · Archaeological Site of Aigai (modern name Vergina) · Archaeological Site of Delphi · Archaeological Site of Mystras · Archaeological Site of Olympia · Archaeological Site of Mycenae, and Tiryns · Delos · Historic Centre (Chorá) with the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian and the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Island of Pátmos · Medieval City of Rhodes · Metéora · Monasteries of Daphni, Hosios Loukas, Nea Moni of Chios · Mount Athos · Old Town of Corfu  · Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonica: (Hagios Demetrios, Arch and Tomb of Galerius, Hagia Sophia, Church of Panayia Halkeion, Church of Saint Nicolaos Orfanou, Church of Agioi Apostoloi, Church of Acheiropoiitos, Monastery of Latomou, Church of Agios Panteleimon) · Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos · Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus · Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae

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v • d • e Image:Flag of Greece.svg   Prefectural Capitals of Greece

Agios Nikolaos • Alexandroupoli • Amfissa • Argostoli • Arta • Athens • Chalcis • Chania • Chios • Corfu • Corinth • Drama • Edessa • Eleusina • Ermoupoli • Florina • Grevena • Heraklion • Igoumenitsa • Ioannina • Kalamata • Karditsa • Karpenisi • Kastoria • Katerini • Kavala • Kilkis • Komotini • Kozani • Lamia • Larissa • Lefkada • Livadeia • Messolonghi • Mytilene • Nafplion • Pallini • Patras • Piraeus • Polygyros • Preveza • Pyrgos • Rethymno • Rhodes • Serres • Sparta • Thessaloniki • Trikala • Tripoli • Vathy • Veria • Volos • Xanthi • Zakynthos

v • d • e Image:Flag of Greece.svg   Capitals of Peripheries of Greece
• Athens - Attica • Corfu - Ionian Islands •Heraklion - Crete • Ioannina - Epirus • Komotini - East Macedonia and Thrace • Kozani - West Macedonia • Lamia - Central Greece • Larissa - Thessaly • Mytilene - North Aegean • Patras - West Greece • Ermoupoli - South Aegean • Thessaloniki - Central Macedonia • Tripoli - Peloponese

v • d • e Second Journey of Paul of Tarsus
1. Cilicia · 2. Derbe · 3. Lystra · 4. Phrygia · 5.Galatia · 6. Mysia (Alexandra Troas) · 7. Samothrace · 8. Macedonia including (8a. Neapolis · 8b. Philippi · 8c. Amphipolis · 8d. Apollonia · 8e. Thessalonica · 8f. Beroea) · 9. Athens · 10. Corinth · 11. Cenchreae · 12. Ephesus · 13. Syria · 14. Caesarea · 15. Jerusalem 16. Antioch

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