Thessaloniki
Greece'S Second City; UNESCO World Heritage Site: Paleochristian And Byzantine Monuments Of Thessaloniki (1988) Fifteen Monuments Including The Rotunda And Hagios Demetrios · Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia
Thessaloniki is Greece's second city, a busy port on the Thermaic Gulf founded around 315 BC and named after Alexander the Great's half-sister. For more than two thousand years it has been a crossroads: a Roman imperial seat on the Via Egnatia, the second city of the Byzantine Empire, an Ottoman port for almost five centuries and home to one of the great Sephardic Jewish communities of Europe, almost destroyed in the deportations of 1943. Its early Christian and Byzantine churches, the Rotunda and the city walls form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Around them runs a lively modern city: the long waterfront promenade from the White Tower, Aristotelous Square, the Ladadika bars, the Modiano and Kapani markets, strong museums and a food scene many Greeks rate above Athens. People come for the history, the eating, the student nightlife and as a base for Halkidiki, Vergina and Mount Olympus. The caveats: much of the centre was rebuilt in concrete after the 1917 fire, summers are hot and humid, and the sea in the city is not for swimming.
Central Thessaloniki: the waterfront from the White Tower to the port, Aristotelous Square, Ladadika and the Ano Poli upper town, Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece
A living city, open all year and at all hours. State museums and monuments such as the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Byzantine Culture and the Rotunda typically open about 08:00 to 20:00 in summer and until mid-afternoon in winter, closed on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and 25-26 December - confirm. Working churches such as Hagios Demetrios usually open early morning to about midday and again in the late afternoon, with services on Sundays. Getting there: flights to Makedonia airport (the 01X bus or taxi to the centre), trains from Athens in roughly 4-5 hours (confirm the current timetable), KTEL buses or the national road. Book hotels ahead for the September Trade Fair and the November film festival.