Thessaloniki's Roman and Byzantine monuments: what kind of visit each one is

The short answer

Thessaloniki's Roman and Byzantine monuments are scattered through the modern city, and they are visited in four different ways.

• Ticketed state monuments. Hellenic Heritage's official ticket store sells timed-entry tickets for the Rotunda, the White Tower and the Heptapyrgion.[20][18][8]
• Museums. The same store sells the Museum of Byzantine Culture,[24] while the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki publishes its own ticket and visiting pages.[26]
• A monument on the street. The Arch of Galerius stands on Egnatia Street and, according to the Ministry of Culture and Sports, has free admission.[5]
• Working churches. Saint Demetrius and Hagia Sophia have their own church websites under the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki, each publishing a programme of services.[13][10] Beneath Saint Demetrius, the Ministry of Culture's portal describes an exhibition on display in the crypt.[11]

UNESCO inscribed the "Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonika" on the World Heritage List in 1988, as one property.[1] That property is a group of separate buildings, not a single site with one gate, and the Ministry's own grouping under the same name leaves out the Arch of Galerius and the White Tower,[2] the two monuments the Ministry's page on the arch calls the best known in Thessaloniki.[4]

What the UNESCO listing covers

UNESCO's decision page records the inscription (decision 12 COM XIV.A, property 456, criteria i, ii and iv) but lists no components.[1] XTOUR could not open UNESCO's property page and has not read UNESCO's own component list.

The Ministry of Culture's Odysseus portal groups twelve monuments under "Early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki": the Rotunda, the churches of the Acheiropoietos, Saint Demetrius, Hagia Sophia, Panagia ton Chalkeon, the Holy Apostles, Saint Nicholas Orphanos and Saint Panteleimon, the Latomou Monastery, the Trigonion Tower, the Byzantine Bath and the Heptapyrgion.[2] Hellenic Heritage separately says the Heptapyrgion is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[19]

XTOUR's reading is that the Ministry's group is the closest official list it could read, not proof of which buildings UNESCO inscribed. The Arch of Galerius, the White Tower and the Galerian palace are not in the Ministry's group, and XTOUR does not say whether they belong to the property. Each monument XTOUR maps is kept as its own place, and none is presented as the UNESCO property itself.

Monuments by kind of visit

Roman Thessaloniki: the arch, the Rotunda and the palace

Galerius chose Thessaloniki as his seat in AD 299, according to Hellenic Heritage, and built a palace complex covering more than 150,000 m², which included the Rotunda, the triumphal arch known as Kamara, the palace itself, the Octagon and the hippodrome.[3] Today these are three separate visits.

The Arch of Galerius. The Ministry's Greek-language page says the arch was first an eight-pier gateway, with four massive central piers, four secondary ones and a low dome; two main piers and one secondary pier survive, joined by a brick arch. The narrative of its relief panels dates it to 305 AD, after Galerius's final victory over the Persians.[4] The Ministry's information page places it on Egnatia Street and lists it as free admission.[5]

The Rotunda. The Ministry's description says the Rotunda was built around 306 AD under Galerius, as a temple of Zeus or of the Kabeiros or, in other readings, as his mausoleum, and that a processional way from the arch to the palace ended on its axis. It became a church in the early Christian period, the Ministry says, at a date that is not known, probably dedicated to the Asomatoi or Archangels, and the mosaics in its dome and vaults belong to that phase; it was made a mosque in 1590/1 and was badly damaged in the earthquakes of 1978.[6] Hellenic Heritage adds that it was renamed the Church of Saint George in 1912.[7] Its ticket store sells the visit as "Rotunda (Church of St. George)" with timed entry, a single entry at the time chosen, changes up to two hours ahead and no refunds.[8]

The two official pages describe the building differently. Hellenic Heritage gives a diameter of 24 m and a height of 28 m, and says the conversions to worship "started in the second half of the 4th century BC".[7] The Ministry gives 24.50 m across and 29.80 m to the top of the dome, and dates the building itself to around 306 AD.[6] XTOUR's reading is that "BC" on the Hellenic Heritage page cannot be right for a building of the 4th century AD, and that the Ministry's own wording, that the conversion date is unknown, is the safer statement.

The palace. Hellenic Heritage says the palace is open to the public, and that its restoration won an award from the European Union and Europa Nostra. Its page lists a ticket but, unlike the Rotunda's page, carried no link to the online ticket store when read.[3] XTOUR has not read how palace tickets are sold.

Three churches and a crypt

The great Byzantine churches are first of all places of worship. XTOUR has not read any visiting rules, dress requirements or visiting times outside services from any of them, and does not supply any; for how working churches and monasteries differ as visits in Greece, see Greek Orthodox monasteries as visits.

Saint Demetrius. The Ministry describes a five-aisled basilica with a crypt under its sanctuary and transept, and traces it from a small oratory built shortly after 313 AD over a Roman bath, to a 5th-century basilica founded by the eparch Leontios and burnt in 626-634, to the five-aisled church that followed. It was a mosque from 1493, was returned to Christian worship in 1912, burnt in the great fire of 1917, and functioned again from 1949.[9] The church's own website, published under the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki, dates Leontios's church to "the middle of the 5th century (413)", which in XTOUR's reading does not match its own "middle of the century", and says the ancient bath where the saint was held was kept as the crypt, which "remains a centre of worship".[10] The Ministry's crypt page says the crypt has been an archaeological site since its discovery in 1918 and holds an exhibition of early Christian and Byzantine sculpture rescued from the 1917 fire and finds from the 1985-1988 excavations.[11]

Hagia Sophia. The Ministry's Greek-language page says the church was built at the end of the 7th century on the site of a 5th-century basilica destroyed by an earthquake around 620, and that its first written mention dates from 795. It was the Latin cathedral in 1204-1224, the Orthodox see again until 1523/24, then a mosque, and it was reconsecrated for Christian worship on 29 June 1913. The same page dates the Ascension mosaic in the dome to the late 9th century.[12] The church's own website calls it the cathedral and pilgrimage church of the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki, near the Acheiropoietos.[13]

The Acheiropoietos. On Agias Sofias Street, north of Hagia Sophia, the Ministry describes a three-aisled, timber-roofed basilica with galleries from around the middle of the 5th century, built over a Roman bath, with 5th-century mosaics and early 13th-century wall paintings. The same page says the name Acheiropoietos is first recorded in 1320, and that the church was the first converted into a mosque after the Ottoman capture of 1430, known as Eski Cami.[14] In 1913, the Museum of Byzantine Culture's history records, a decree planned to house a Central Byzantine Museum in this church.[21]

The fortifications: White Tower, Heptapyrgion and Trigonion

The White Tower. The tower's own website says it was built in the 15th century, after the Ottoman capture of 1430, where the eastern land wall met the sea wall, on the site of an older Byzantine tower. It was the Lion Tower in the 16th century, the Tower of Kalamaria in the 18th, and the Tower of Blood when it served as a prison and place of execution, until it was painted white in 1883 on the orders of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Since 1911, when the walls around it were demolished, it has stood alone on the shore.[15]

Inside is a permanent exhibition on Thessaloniki from its founding in 316/15 BC to the present. The website says the tower's limited space and need for a stable climate cap the number of visitors inside at once at 70 and leave no room for toilets, a cloakroom or baggage storage.[16] The tower is tied to the Museum of Byzantine Culture: a 1999 ministerial decision placed the museum at both 2 Stratou Avenue and the White Tower,[21] and Hellenic Heritage lists the museum as a contact for the tower.[17] The ticket store sells the tower separately from the museum, with timed entry.[18]

The Heptapyrgion and the Trigonion Tower. Hellenic Heritage presents the two on one page but as two visits. The Heptapyrgion, or Yedikule, is the fortress at the north-eastern end of the walls; it was a prison from 1890 until 1989, when it passed to the Ministry of Culture, and is open to the public today.[19] Its ticket store sells it with timed entry.[20] The Trigonion Tower has its own address, and Hellenic Heritage says it is "open to visitors every Friday by appointment", arranged by telephone with the Ephorate of Antiquities of the City of Thessaloniki.[19]

The two museums

Museum of Byzantine Culture. It opened on 11 September 1994 with an exhibition that marked the return to Thessaloniki of Byzantine antiquities taken to the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens in 1916, according to its history page; the building is by Kyriakos Krokos.[21] Hellenic Heritage says its eleven halls show Byzantine and post-Byzantine culture through finds mainly excavated in Thessaloniki and wider Macedonia, and that the Council of Europe named it "Museum of Europe" in 2005.[23] The museum's visit page says groups visit after telephone confirmation and that visiting hours are subject to change without notice.[22]

Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. Its collections run from the prehistoric era to the end of antiquity, from excavations across Macedonia since 1912, according to the museum, and its building by Patroklos Karantinos, begun in 1960, is a listed monument.[25] Hellenic Heritage names the bronze volute krater of Derveni among the exhibits and describes an outdoor area of sarcophagi and funerary monuments.[27] The museum's own page says groups visit after telephone confirmation, and that hours can change without notice.[26] It is a separate museum from the Museum of Byzantine Culture, which covers the later periods.[23]

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not publish opening hours, prices, closing days or walking times for any of these monuments; Hellenic Heritage and the two museums publish hours and prices on their own pages. It does not know UNESCO's own list of components, the visiting arrangements of the three churches outside services, how Galerian palace tickets are sold, or whether the Acheiropoietos and the smaller churches in the Ministry's group keep set visiting times. For the city as a base, see the Thessaloniki destination page; for the royal tombs at Vergina, a separate place outside the city, see Aigai and the royal tombs.