Thessaloniki' s History

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INTRODUCTION The city of Thessaloniki, built by King Cassandros in 315 B.C. as a new capital for the Macedonian state, was named after the king’s wife, sister of Alexander the Great. Set on the shores of the Thermaic Gulf, Thessaloniki is one the world’s most historic cities; in more than 23 centuries of uninterrupted history it has been a major centre of population, a busy economic, cultural and political centre in the region of the Balkans and south-eastern Europe, an important meeting point for different cultures and peoples. It has always been a prize eagerly sought by powerful men in the region, connected by generals and would-be kings. Throughout its long life the city experienced many important events. It has seen powerful and ambitious emperors, who endowed it with fine public buildings, superb churches, markets, baths, fortifications and ports. The city has lived through calamitous wars, uprisings, siege, conquest and fire – but also through days of peace and prosperity in which the arts were able to thrive. Saint Paul preached the Christian message here, and it was from Thessaloniki that Curil and Methodius launched their civilizing mission to the Slav peoples. For centuries, Thessaloniki was home to many different ethnic groups – Jews, Ottoman Turks, Armenians and others. Alongside the native Greek population, they all left their characteristic mark on the city and helped shape its cosmopolitan character. Throughout their long history, the people of Thessaloniki have made important contributions to the arts, literature and commerce. In modern Thessaloniki, the magical traces of its long history are everywhere to be seen: in the streets and city squares, the famous churches, the walls and historic buildings, the many different neighborhoods, the seafront, the sea and the outskirts of the city. In every corner, secrets await the lover of history, echoes from the past, historical figures and the distant traces of great events – a feast for the


historian, for those who revere the past and its traditions, and for contemporary man, seeking in the collective memory of the city universal values, works of art, messages of peace and fraternity. Thessaloniki is the most hospitable of places- and its people look forward to welcoming all those visitors who wish to discover the true face of the city.


The History of Thessaloniki Thessaloni, one of the most populous and multicultural of the port cities of the Mediterranean, can look back on an uninterrupted history of many centuries – punctuated with turbulent and dramatic events, but continuing without a break from its foundation to the present day. Most scholars agree that Thessaloniki was founded by Cassandros, King of Macedonia, in aroung 316-315 BC, who united the surrounding small settlements and named the city after his wife, Thessaloniki, sister of Alexander the Great. The new city, located in a central position on the Thermaic Gulf, brought together the people of twenty-six settlements from the surrounding area. The burial mounds found in the immediate vicinity of Hellenistic Thessaloniki have yielded rich testimony of continuous and organized human occupation from as early as the Neolithic period. The nucleous of the local settlements was probably Thermi, on whose precise location archaeologists cannot agree, though it may be identified with the ancient settlement revealed at Mikro Emvolo (Mikro Karabournou). The new city evolved rapidly into the metropolis of the Macedonian region. Recent studies of the urban plan of the centre of the ancient city, in additions to the archaeological research (due to the Metro of Thessaloniki), have shown the existence of large streets oriented from north to south and east to west, at right angles to one another and forming substantial blocks of construction. No trace has remained of either the Hellenistic port of palace. However we do know that the forum was situated at the centre of the modern city, on the same site as the later Roman forum, which has been extensively excavated. Perhaps the most important military base in the kingdom of Cassandros, and the largest commercial port in the northern Greek region, Thessaloniki was a city of international reputation and character, home to a large number of foreigners in the Hellenistic period. It was also to become the bestknown religious centre of the Greek world.


In the Hellenistic era Thessaloniki had a dual administration, being typically autonomous, as its aims did not conflict those of the greater state. The Romans fearing the expansion of the Macedonian state initiated several wars against it, leading to the battle of Pydna (June 22, 168 B.C.), in which the Macedonians were comprehensively defeated. Thus, the major cities of Macedonia, i.e. Veria, Thessaloniki and Pella, were surrendered to the Roman Consul Aemilius Paulus. There was no decline in the city’s importance following the military conquest of Macedonia by the Romans (146 BC). Enjoying a well-defended location within the Thermaic Gulf, at the foot of Mt. Kissos and with a privileged position for east-west and north-south trade, with four rivers in its immediate vicinity and a safe harbor, set on one of the most important roads of the time, the Via Egnatia, Thessaloniki remained an important economic and administrative centre within the Roman Empire. During the Roman Era Thessaloniki was strengthened and fortified, decorated with buildings and special monuments. It is generally agreed that the Roman fortifications of the city were added to before the construction of the Galerian complex (palace, triumphal arch and Rotonda)

Galerius palace comlex

Galerius triumphal arch (Kamara)

Rotonda Mausoleum


When Diocletian established the Tetrarchate, or system of four rulers, Thessaloniki was made capital of the section of the Empire comprising the Balkan peninsula and administered by one of the four Tetrarchs, Galerius Valerius Maximianus. The city enjoyed renewed prosperity during this period and rose to new prominence, with a marked increase in building activity. The Roman port must have been located on the same axis as the palace complex of Galerius, somewhere on the seafront to the west of the site where the White Tower was to stand many centuries later. This is the period during which the boundaries of the walled city acquired their final form, with the reconstruction of the eastern walls. These boundaries would remain in plave until the end (2 nd half) of the 19th century. The eastern walls were built just outside, and abutting on to, the hippodrome, along the line from the White Tower up to Aghiou Dimitriou street. Air photo of city’s fortifications

A cosmopolitan and prosperous seaport, the city grew in commercial and strategic importance during the Roman period and was one of the first bases for the spread of Christianity. St Paul first travelled there in AD 50, and he returned in 56 to visit the church he had founded and for which he exhibited great concern in his Epistles. His preaching was well received. As a result the first Christian community was created in the city. In the middle of the 3rd century the frequent attacks of the Goths disrupted the co called “Pax Romana�.


From the 4th century AD to 1430, when the city was occupied by the Ottomans, Thessaloniki was the second city after Constantinople and symvasilevoussa (co-reing) of the Byzantine Empire, implementing imperial policy in the European part of the Empire. The city played a leading role in the Balkan region in the fields of learning and the arts. Often taking an independent line in spiritual and social developments, it led the way in the intellectual and religious thought of the period. The city’s vitality and dynamism remained throughout the 1100 years of the Byzantine era, despite the many adversities and reverses it endured. With repeated sieges by Avars and Slavs in the 7th and 8th centuries, the Saracens in the 10th century and later the Bulgars, Normands and Franks from the West, the city was the centre of some of the most important military operations of the period, but none of these was able to halt its cultural development, which reached its peak during the Palaeologan years. From the 9th century onwards, the conversion of the slavs by brothers Cyril and Methodius from Thessaloniki, who also devised an alphabet for the Slav language, represent the first extension of the city’s cultural influence out into the Slav world – an influence which was to culminate in the 14th century. It was largely through Thessaloniki that the ideology and cultural influence of Byzantium were communicated to the Balkans. The monuments that remain from this thousand-year period have led the city to be described as an “open-air museum” of Byzantine art and architecture. The mosaics of the rotunda, St Demetrius and St David are among the great masterpieces of early Christian art. The Christian monuments of Thessalonika are outstanding examples of churches built according to central, basilical and intermediary plans from the 4th to the 15th centuries. For this reason, they constitute a series which is a typological point of reference. The influence of the Thessalonian churches on the development of the monumental arts was considerable, first in the Byzantine and later the Serbian world, whether in the early Christian period of the high Middle Ages or the Palaeologan Renaissance. The mosaics of the Rotunda, St Demetrius and St David's are among the great masterpieces of early Christian art. Imperial splendour and the changing fortunes of the Thessalonian church were inextricably linked during the early centuries of Christianity. It was during the period that the palatial complex of Galerius was being built (298-311) that St Demetrius was martyred (c. 303). Some time later the rotunda, which Galerius had probably planned as his mausoleum, was taken over by the Christians who converted it to a church dedicated to St George. North of the Forum, on the ruins of the thermae (baths) where tradition has it that St Demetrius was imprisoned and tortured, they built the Basilica of St Demetrius. Rebuilt in 412-13 by the eparch Leontius and enlarged in 629-34 according to a grandiose plan that included five naves, the church, despite having been ravaged by fire in 1917, remains one of the most notable monuments of the early Christian era. That is the reason for which UNESCO has nominated the


palaeochristian and byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki as monuments of world cultural heritage.

The Church of Saint Demetrius,s the main sanctuary dedicated to the patron saint of Thessaloniki, dating from a

time when it was the second largest city of the Byzantine Empire. The first church on the spot was constructed in the early 4th century AD, replacing a Roman bath. A century later, a prefect named Leontios replaced the small oratory with a larger, three-aisled basilica. Repeatedly gutted by fires, the church eventually was reconstructed as a five-aisled basilica in 629–634. This was the surviving form of the church much as it is today. The church had an unusual shrine called the ciborium, a hexagonal, roofed structure at one side of the nave. It was made of or covered with silver. The structure had doors and inside was a couch or bed. Unusually, it did not hold any physical relics of the saint. The ciborium seems to have been a symbolic tomb. It was rebuilt at least once. Nave with rests of applicated light and dark fields of the arches The basilica is famous for six extant mosaic panels, depicting St. Demetrius with officials responsible for the restoration (called the founders) and with children, represent rare examples of art surviving from the Dark Age that followed Justinian's death. An inscription below one of the images glorifies heaven for saving the people of Saloniki from a pagan Slavic raid in 612. Other magnificent mosaics, recorded as covering the church interior, were lost in the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 that destroyed much of the city. It also destroyed the roof and upper walls of the church. Black-and-white photographs and good watercolour versions give an idea of the early Byzantine craftsmanship lost during the fire. Following the Great Fire of 1917, it took decades to restore the church. Archeological excavations conducted in the 1930s and 1940s revealed interesting artifacts that may


be seen in a museum situated inside the church's crypt. The excavations also uncovered the ruins of a Roman bath, where St. Demetrius was said to have been held prisoner and executed. A Roman well was also discovered. Scholars believe this is where soldiers dropped the body of St. Demetrius after his execution. After restoration, the church was reconsecrated in 1949.

Other churches of archaeological interest were built during the Byzantine period. These include the Basilica of the Virgin, called Acheiropoietos, after 448, The Acheiropoietos has been dated from its bricks and mosaics to ca. 450– 470, making it perhaps the earliest of the city's surviving churches. It was modified in the 7th and again in the 14th–15th centuries. Known as the Panagia Theotokos in Byzantine times, it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Its current name is first attested in 1320, presumably after a miraculous acheiropoietos ("not made by hands") icon of Panagia Hodegetria that was housed there. Byzantine sources also indicate that the city's patron saint, St. Demetrius, was also worshipped in the Acheiropoietos. The building is a threeaisled basilica St David's (late 5th or early 6th centuries), The Church of Hosios David (Greek: Όσιος Δαβίδ) is a late 5th-century church in Thessaloniki, Greece. In Byzantine times, it functioned as the katholikon of the Latomos Monastery, and received a rich mosaic and fresco decoration, which was renewed in the 12th–14th centuries. The surviving examples are of high artistic quality. Under Ottoman rule, the building was converted into a mosque (probably in the 16th century), until it was reconsecrated as a Greek Orthodox church in 1921, receiving its present name.

and particularly St Sophia (8th century), which is a harmonious blend of the Greek cross plan and a three-nave basilica plan. St Sophia (Holy Wisdom) Since the 3rd century, there was a church in the location of the current Hagia Sophia. In the 8th century, the present structure was erected, based on the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey). In 1205, when the Fourth Crusade


captured the city, the Hagia Sophia was converted into the cathedral of Thessaloniki, which it remained after the city was returned to the Byzantine Empire in 1246. After the capture of Thessaloniki by the Ottoman Sultan Murad II on 29 March 1430, the church was converted into a mosque. It was reconverted to a church upon the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912.Its ground plan is that of a domed Greek cross basilica. Together with the Gßl and the Kalenderhane Mosques in Istanbul and the destroyed Church of the Dormition in Nicaea, it represents one of the main architectural examples of this type, typical of the Byzantine middle period. When the city was returned to Byzantium in 1246, new churches were built, among which were The Church of Saint Panteleimon is a late Byzantine church in Thessaloniki, Greece, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church lies in the eastern part of the old city, near the Tomb of Galerius (the "Rotunda�) Its current dedication to Saint Panteleimon was given to the church after the end of Ottoman rule in 1912, and its original dedication is therefore disputed. In Ottoman times, it was converted into a mosque in 1548 and became known as Ishakiye Camii ("Mosque of Ishak [Isaac]"), which in the prevailing scholarly interpretation points to an identification with the late Byzantine Monastery of the Virgin Perivleptos. The church is of the tetrastyle cross-in-square type, with a narthex and a ambulatory that is connected to two chapels. Very few of the building's original wall paintings survive. Ottoman remains include the base of the demolished minaret and a marble fountain. The Church of the Holy Apostles is a 14th-century Byzantine church in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. The building belongs to the type of the composite, five-domed cross-in-square churches, with four supporting columns. It also features a narthex with a U-shaped peristoon (an ambulatory with galleries), with small domes at each corner. There are also two small sidechapels to the east. The exterior walls feature rich decoration with a variety of brick-work patterns. The interior gives a very vertical impression, as the ratio of height to width of the church's central bay is 5 to 1. The interior decoration consists of rich mosaics on the upper levels, inspired by Constantinopolitan models. These are particularly important eas some of the last examples of Byzantine mosaics (and the last of its kind in Thessaloniki itself). Frescoes complete the decoration on the lower levels of the main church, but also on the narthex and one of the chapels. These too show influence from Constantinople, and were possibly


executed by a workshop from the imperial capital, perhaps the same which decorated the Chora Church.

St Nicholas Orphanos, From its interior decoration, the building is dated to the period 1310–1320. The church originally formed part of a monastery, traces of which (remnants of a gate) survive to the east. The church was originally built as a simple, single-aisled edifice with a wooden gabled roof. Later, aisles were added on three sides. They form an ambulatory, under whose floor several graves have been found. The church's original marble templon survives. The church is most notable for its frescoes, contemporary with the church's construction, which cover almost the entire interior surface. The frescoes are an example of the Thessalonican school at the height of the "Palaiologan Renaissance", and their creator may be the same who decorated the Hilandar monastery in Mount Athos in 1314. The church has been linked to the Serbian king Stephen Uroť II Milutin (r. 1282–1321), who is known to have sponsored churches in the city, on account of the depiction in the main aisle of St George Gorgos, the Serbian ruler's patron saint, and of St. Clemens of Ohrid, a favourite motif of the Serbian churches. Vlatadon Monastery: Founded in the 14th century in the area that may have sheltered oldest temple. The first historical references to the monastery Vlattadon made in 1405 in the Russian travelogue browser Ignatius of Smolensk. In the 15th century the abbey flourished. After the capture of Thessaloniki by the Turks gave some privileges, and validated by a firman of Mehmed II in 1446. In 1633, with the signet of Patriarch Kirill Loukari, Moni Vlattadon succursal attached as the Monastery of St. Iberians' Mt. In 1801 it was renovated catholic, but in 1870 a fire destroyed part of it, including the library. The damages were repaired at the expense of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Today the monastery belongs to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. From the original building survives only sanctuary and a few other architectural elements. Near the church of the monastery is dedicated to the Transfiguration of Christ, there domed chapel of the 14th century with frescoes the Palaeologue. According to local tradition, the monastery was built in the place where he preached and lived by the Apostle Paul during his stay in the city


Made from material collected by Athena Keloglou, Konstantina Kotorli, Stefania Kampoyri, Kyriaki Gaitanidou, Maria Ntavrani, Aliki Tzioumaki, Pelagia Tsalabouni.

The History of Thessaloniki (part 2) In 1204, after the fall of Constantinople by Crusaders, the city became the capital of the Frankish Kingdom of Thessaloniki. In 1224 the “Despotis� of Epirus, Theodore I Comnenos liberated Thessaloniki, dissolved the Frankish Kingdom and established a Greek State with Thessaloniki as the capital. In 1246 the Emperor of Nicaea John III Vatatzes re-occupied Thessaloniki. Andronikos Comnenos Palaeologus was appointed Governor of the city. In 1260 Michael Palaeologus was crowned Emperor of the reborn Byzantine Greek State giving an end to Frankish occupation that lasted 57 years. The 14th century was an era of intellectual and cultural flourishing for Thessaloniki, during which however a severe deterioration of social, political and religious conflicts took place. In 1387, after a 4-year siege, Thessaloniki fell to the Ottomans, and became a vassal city to the Sultan Murad I. The first Ottoman occupation lasted until 1403, when the Byzantine Emperor Manouil liberated Thessaloniki. After a brief occupation by the Venetians lasted from 1423 to 1430, the Ottoman forces of Sultan Murad II seized the city. On 29 March 1430 the city was captured and looted by the Ottomans. Since then the Ottoman period begun and lasted approximately 500 years. Very rapidly, the Byzantine city acquired the character of an Islamic centre for the Ottoman Empire, as major public and religious buildings were erected. But Thessaloniki always retained its mix of ethnic groups, and this mix was enriched in 1492 by the arrival, in large numbers, of the first Jews from Spain, driven by the Edict of Alhambra. followed by successive waves from Italy and other


countries in central and eastern Europe. When the Ottomans gained control of the city in 1430, most of the churches, new or old, were converted to mosques, and other Islamic sanctuaries were built (Hamza Bey Cami in 1467-68, Alaca Imaret in 1484).

Alaca Imaret

Yeni Cami

Under Ottoman rule (1430-1912), Thessalonika regained the status of major cosmopolitan city it had enjoyed during the early Christian era. The multitude of cultural influences is reflected in the city's wealth of monuments, now sadly depleted, which were described by travellers such as Robert de Dreux (1665), Evliya Celebi (1668), Paul Lucas (1714), FÊlix de Beaujour (1797), and Abdul Mecid (1858). As the population of the city began to grow substantially in the 16 th century, the old residential and commercial districts underwent a process of differentiation. The various ethnic groups- mainly Jews, Muslims and Greek Christians – began to organize themselves into separate communities. The low-lying area of the city was inhabited mainly by Jews and Greeks, with the former living mainly in the centre, from Egnatia street down to the seafront and the area of the ancient forum, their houses located among the workshops, stores and warehouses. In around the 18th century, the Frangomahala neighborhood grew up close to the port and the forum, evolving into a crowded district populated by Franks and Levantines. The Greeks were scattered along Egnatia and the eastern walls, around the Metropolitan Church, the Church of Saint Minas and the Vardari area. The Muslims gathered in the Upper City, on the Bair hill, with its rocky ground and steep inclines. The history of the defences of the city during the long period of Ottoman rule (1430-1912) remains largely unknown.


The most significant interventions made by the Ottomans to the city walls can be seen at the Trigonio or Alysseos Tower, the White Tower and the Vardari Fort (Top-Hane) Seat of the Sancak Bey, a mullah and an Agha of the Janissaries, as well as the base for a major military force, the Ottoman city of Selanik was a vital trading centre, of critical importance in the commerce of the Ottoman Empire, not to mention the largest port in the Balkan region. Over the five hundred years from the Ottoman conquest to the liberation of 1912, Thessaloniki – a crossroad of ideas and cultures- played a critical civilizing role in the Balkan regions subject to Ottoman rule. The importance of Thessaloniki, especially in the 18th century, can be measured from the interest shown in the city by the great European powers, who took steps to open consulates here. France was followed by England, Holland and the Venetian Republic. Hundreds of ships, small and large, laden with every conceivable cargo, disgorged a colourful host of merchants and sailors from every corner of the earth. Coffee, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper were unloaded at the port, followed by silk, paper, tin and ivory. Luxury items were imported from Constantinople, while cargos of oil, citrus fruits and sponges came from the islands of the Aegean. Ships brought timber from Crete, cereals, tobacco and raw silk from the Orient. Every week, herd of livestock set off from Thessaloniki on the long road to Sofia, Skopje and Vienna. In the 18th century in the streets of Thessaloniki, like a second Babel, one could listen to many different languages, such as Turkish, Greek, Spanish, French, etc. By the 1830s, and mainly in the second half of the 19th century, the city went through economic, cultural and intellectual growth and at the same time its population increased. It was not until the second half of the 19th century that the look of the city began to undergo radical change. It was then that the modernization of the city began, with new technologies and the first industrial activities transforming the character of the old Thessaloniki. The eastern walls along the low-lying terrain and those along the seafront began to be demolished in 1866. In the wake of


the fire of 1890, in the old commercial centre, the district was rebuilt to a modern street plan, while new trends in architecture, imported from Europe, began to be seen, alongside the use of new construction materials. From 1904 until 1908 the Macedonian Struggle took place. The Greek Consulate in Thessaloniki became the strategic headquarters of the Macedonian Struggle, developing intense activity regarding the organization and supply of Greek guerrilla groups, aiming the liberation of Macedonia and of course Thessaloniki. As the First Balkan War broke out, in October 1912, Greece declared war on the Ottoman Empire and expanded its borders. When Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister at the time, was asked if the Greek army should move towards Thessaloniki or Monastir (now Bitola, Republic of Macedonia), Venizelos replied "Salonique Ă tout prix!" (Thessaloniki, at all costs!). As both Greece and Bulgaria wanted Thessaloniki, the Ottoman garrison of the city entered negotiations with both armies. On 26 October 1912, the feast day of the city's patron saint, Saint Demetrius, the Greek Army accepted the surrender of the Ottoman garrison at Thessaloniki. The Bulgarian army arrived one day after the surrender of the city to Greece and Tahsin Pasha, ruler of the city, told the Bulgarian officials that "I have only one Thessaloniki, which I have surrendered". After the Second Balkan War, Thessaloniki and the rest of the Greek portion of Macedonia were officially annexed to Greece by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. On 18 March 1913 George I of Greece was assassinated in the city. In September 1915, a few months after the outbreak of the First World War, the Entente forces landed in Thessaloniki. In the summer of 1916, after the surrender of Eastern Macedonia to the Central Powers, the Movement of National Defence was launched by Greek patriots in order to activate and organize Greeks in Thessaloniki and Macedonia in favour of the Entente. In September 1916 Venizelos arrived in Thessaloniki, taking over the leadership of the movement and formed the provincial


government of Thessaloniki, which was recognized by the Entente powers. In August of 1917 a catastrophic fire broke out in Thessaloniki, which lasted

thirty hours, burning down most of the city centre and destroyed 2/3 of the city, particularly the low-lying areas within the walls. In 1919, a new plan regarding the burned zone was prepared by a team of eminent planners, architect and archaeologist Ernest Hebrard, which envisaged a radical restructuring of the city. So the appearance of Thessaloniki was transformed from an oriental city with narrow streets into a modern city, designed and built in a really impressive architecture.

After the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War at 1922 and during the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, a population exchange took place between Greece and Turkey. Over 160,000 Greeks deported from the former Ottoman Empire and Asia Minor were resettled in the city, changing its demographics,

giving a new boost to the local economy. Additionally many of the city's Muslims were deported to Turkey, ranging at about 20,000 people. The vast need for housing, after the sudden increase of the population made obligatory the modification of the Hebrard plan for Thessaloniki and changed a lot its architecture. In 1925, the International Trade Fair of Thessaloniki and the University of Thessaloniki were founded.


During the interwar period Thessaloniki was noted for its intense poverty, underdevelopment and social inequality. Already since 1908 it was in Thessaloniki that the Workers Confederation (known as Federation) was founded. This situation is the main reason for which in Thessaloniki labor unions were flourished during the ‘30s, the union movements was born and culminated. Massive strikes and demonstrations with thousands of wounded and dead, during the 1936, expressed the needs, demands and protests of the working class, due to the social inequality and the spread of socialist ideas. During World War II Thessaloniki was heavily bombarded by Fascist Italy and, the Italians having failed to succeed in their invasion of Greece, it fell to the forces of Nazi Germany on 8 April 1941 and remained under German occupation until 30 October 1944, when it was liberated by the Greek People's Liberation Army. The importance of Thessaloniki to Nazi Germany can be demonstrated by the fact that, initially, Hitler had planned to incorporate it directly in the Third Reich (that is, make it a part of Germany) and not have it controlled by a puppet state such as the Hellenic State or an ally of Germany (Thessaloniki had been promised to Yugoslavia as a reward for joining the Axis on 25 March 1941). Having been the first major city in Greece to fall to the occupying forces just two days after the German invasion, it was in Thessaloniki that the first Greek resistance group was formed, as well as the first anti-Nazi newspaper in an occupied territory anywhere in Europe. Thessaloniki was also home to a military camp-convertedconcentration camp, known in German as "Konzentrationslager Pavlo Mela" (Pavlos Melas Concentration Camp), where members of the resistance and other non-favourable people towards the German occupation from all over Greece were held either to be killed or sent to concentration camps elsewhere in Europe. The Nazis soon forced the big Jewish population of Thessaloniki into a ghetto near the railroads and on 15 March 1943 began the deportation process of the city's 56,000 Jews to its concentration camps.. They deported over 43,000 of the city's Jews in concentration camps, where most were killed in the gas chambers. The Germans also deported 11,000 Jews to forced labor camps, where most perished. Only 1,200 Jews live in the city today, remains of the thriving Jewish community of prewar Thessaloniki (also known as the Jerusalem of the West, during the late 19th century).


After the war, Thessaloniki was rebuilt with large-scale development of new infrastructure and industry throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. In 1947 the Municipal Library of Thessaloniki re-opened and in 1951 the International Trade Fair of Thessaloniki did so too. Thessaloniki after the war, and under the Treaty of Yalta and the division of Europe into two rival camps, lost its natural hinterland, the Balkans. For four decades the city tried to adapt to the new international reality and claim for itself an autonomous economic and cultural role within a centralized State. At the same time urbanization brought to the city hundreds of thousands of people from rural areas and Thessaloniki expanded and grew rapidly. Many of its architectural treasures still remain, adding value to the city as a tourist destination, while several early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988. In 1997, Thessaloniki was celebrated as the European Capital of Culture, sponsoring events across the city and the region. Agency established to oversee the cultural activities of that year 1997 was still in existence by 2010. In 2004 the city hosted a number of the football events as part of the 2004 Summer Olympics. Since 1989, with the changes in the geopolitical European map, Thessaloniki regained its strategic position on the South-East European map and pursued a leading role, in the development of relations of Greece with the neighbouring countries, and as one of the economic and cultural centers of the broader region of the Balkans. Today Thessaloniki has become one of the most important trade and business hubs in Southeastern Europe, with its port, the Port of Thessaloniki being one of the largest in the Aegean and facilitating trade throughout the Balkan hinterland. On 26 October 2012 the city celebrated its centennial since its incorporation into Greece. The city also forms one of the largest student centres in


Southeastern Europe, is host to the largest student population in Greece and will be the European Youth Capital in 2014.

Bibliography 1. Heritage walks in Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki History Centre, Municipality of Thessaloniki. 2. http://www.thessaloniki.gr/portal/page/portal/DimosThessalonikis/Peripa toi-Klironomias/Peripatoi-Klironomias 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki 4. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/456/ 5. http://www.thessaloniki2012.gr/en/page/history-thessaloniki-brief 6. http://thessaloniki-gold.com/thessaloniki/history.htm 7. http://www.imma.edu.gr/imma/publications/cds-dvds/history-ofmacedonia.html 8. Thessaloniki, Scientific Yearbook of the Thessaloniki History Center, Municipality of Thessaloniki, Sixth volume, 2002


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