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Historic site · Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia

Rotunda of Galerius

Ροτόντα

The Rotunda is a circular Roman building of around 306 AD in central Thessaloniki, built under Galerius and later used as a church and as a mosque.

Why go

The Ministry of Culture's Odysseus page says the Rotunda was built around 306 AD under Galerius, as a temple of Zeus or of the Kabeiros or, by other accounts, as his mausoleum, that it became a Christian church in the early Christian period and a mosque in 1590/1, and that mosaics of that early Christian phase survive in its dome and in the vaults at its base. The same page says a processional way linking the triumphal arch of Galerius with his palace complex ended on the Rotunda's axis, and Hellenic Heritage lists the Rotunda among the buildings of Galerius's palace complex; this record is the Rotunda alone, and XTOUR keeps the Arch of Galerius as a separate place. Hellenic Heritage says it was renamed the Church of Saint George in 1912. Hellenic Heritage's official ticket store sells timed-entry tickets for the Rotunda, and its page lists the Ephorate of Antiquities of the City of Thessaloniki as the contact.

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City

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki is a city in Macedonia, Greece, on the Thermaic Gulf; the Greek National Tourism Organisation describes it as inhabited since prehistoric times, with archaeological sites, Byzantine churches and Ottoman monuments, and the White Tower on its waterfront. XTOUR maps the Roman and Byzantine monuments, churches and museums in the city itself, and keeps places elsewhere in Central Macedonia, such as Pella and Aigai at Vergina, apart from it.

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