When the king Kassandros of Macedonia founded Thessaloniki in 315 B.C. in the regional ancient suburb of Thermi, he chose to name it, after a very important person in his life, his spouse, and half sister of Great Alexandros. Thus began the history of a city that attracted international interest for more than 4.000 years. 

Thessaloniki gains soon to be, the fame of “Mother of Macedonia” and takes over the nodal cloak of being the commercial center with connections to all ports of eastern regions developing at the same time a separate cultural identity.

In 279 B.C. it becomes the Roman capital of the Macedonia province, a “liberated city” at the duration of Roman season, uniting the east with the west through the Egnatia highway, which contributes catalytically in the growth of her prosperity.

At 50 a.c Apostle Pavlos visits Thessaloniki and founds the second Christian Church in the European continent that prepared and dispatched the eminent letters to the “people of Thessaloniki” who are considered up to date to the most important factors of Christian Faith.  In the structure of the Byzantine Empire, Thessaloniki conquers the role of the second pole after Constantinople.  This role bequeaths to her a Byzantine character that is maintained up until today, being the city with the most Byzantine monuments from any other.  Her artistic, intellectual and religious influence affects catalytically the Balkan population.

The common capital of Byzantine Empire, the cradle of Christian Faith and Greek culture, changes Thessaloniki in to the “eye of Europe and particularly of Greece”.

During 1430a.c it is taken over by the Turks of Mourat the second, and thousands of Thessaloniki citizens are slaughtered or driven to slave markets.  Despite the intensity of the Turkish incision, Thessaloniki manages to maintain its ethical, moral and ethnical strength that it had inherited from her historical culture.  Following the persecutions of Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain, thousands of Jews resort to Thessaloniki in 1492 and become cultural economic institutions expanding growth for the city.

 

 

In 1912 Thessaloniki is released by the Greek army, the day of feast of her protector, St. Dimitrios, and soon enters a new development orbit.   In the passage of years it continued to accept blows that however shield her even in more.  In 1917, a large fire demolishes the center of the city leaving behind incalculable damage and thousands of homeless citizens.

 
A few years later, in 1925, the International Trade Fair is founded in the city, as well as the University of Thessaloniki that symbolize her developmental course.  In 1966 Thessaloniki is revived by the feast of St. Dimitrios, while in 1978 a powerful earthquake convulses the city bringing down catastrophic consequences.  A very important station in the historical contribution of Thessaloniki constitutes in 1997, when it is being nominated as a cultural capital of Europe and is called to give a sample of her rich cultural heritage.

 

 

A tour in the city reveals at first glance her historical past, the fortification of the city with its 6 towers, where the White Tower is on first plan, strongly symbolizing Thessaloniki and all of its rich historical culture.

Contemporary Thessaloniki is a city very open and ready to satisfy even her most exigent visitors.  A city that beyond her historical identity remaining alive, adapted in the modern tendencies, with the shuddering existence personalized by the thousand of young individuals attending the two University Institutions.