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Map of Thessaloniki in Greece
You must book your flights
& tickets before reserving a hotel!
Blue Flag beaches in Thesaloniki Greece -
Municipality of Ag. Georgios
Asprovalta 2
Vrasna
Nea Vrasna
- Municipality of Rendina
Stavros/ Platania
Milies
- Municipality of Nea Michaniona
Nea Michaniona
- Municipality of Thermaikos
Perea
Aghia Triada/ Thermaikos
Aghia Triada/ camping
Nei Epivates Thessaloniki has
given Greece some of its greatest musicians, artists, poets and
thinkers. It has
some of the most beautiful beaches and has some of the finest
hotels and best restaurants in northern Greece.
I have always loved Thessaloniki. Its a very different city from
Athens but no less sophisticated and (some might say) culturally
superior. The influence of the east is more pronounced, not just
in the delicious food, but in the relaxed lifestyle.
Thessaloniki is a big city with an almost college town feel,
like Boston or Austin, but Greek. The nightlife in Thessaloniki
is exceptional, the bars and clubs play great music. The
restaurants and ouzeries are among the best in Greece. There are
many cinemas showing first-run English language films. The city
is also the site of the renown Thessaloniki Film Festival in
October-November. The women, considered the most chic in Greece,
support a high-fashion industry that rivals Athens so if you
like to shop for clothes, shoes and jewelry you will be quite
happy here. There are not a large number of ancient ruins within
the city but there are enough Roman and Byzantine sites to keep
any visitor occupied, plenty of museums and of course the ruins
of Vergina which include the tomb of Phillip, father of
Alexander the great. It's also a good starting point for seeing
the best beaches of Halkidiki and most beautiful spots in Greece
in the region known as Macedonia .
A Very Short History of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki is the capital of Macedonia and second largest
city of Greece. It was first established in 316 B.C. by
Kassandros and named after his wife, Thessaloniki, half sister
of Alexander the Great. It means Victory in Thessaly. It is here
that the Apostle Paul first brought the message of Christianity
(50 A.D.) and that Demetrius, a Roman officer died in martyrdom
(303 A.D.), thus becoming the holy patron of the city.
Thessaloniki was the second most important city of the Byzantine
Empire, next to Constantinople, and is full of beautiful
examples of Byzantine art and architecture. In the 15th Century
Thessaloniki became a haven for Jews exiled from Spain, who
became an important part of the culture, until they were sent to
the concentration camps during the Nazi occupation, thus ending
a period of four hundred years of Jewish influence both socially
and economically. This period roughly corresponds with the
occupation of Greece by the Ottoman Turks. See A Short history
of the Jews in Greece.
It became a part of the modern state of Greece in 1913, but
burned in 1917 creating a homeless population of 70,000. Add to
this mix the influx of refugees from Asia minor after the
'population exchange treaty' signed in Lausanne in 1923 between
Turkey, Greece and her former allies who abandened Greece after
their defeat in Asia Minor, and you have the makings of a social
revolution which took the form of Rembetika music. To this day
some of Greece's the most creative musicians including
Savopoulos, Tsitsanis and Papazoglou, come from Thessaloniki.
(See also A History of Greece.)
Thessaloniki Today
The city was rebuilt in the 1920s and today Thessaloniki is a
lively modern city bustling with life and movement. Large
avenues, parks and squares, lines of trees that frame commercial
streets with showy shop windows. Old houses, neoclassical
buildings, stand side by side with modern dwellings which makes
a walk through any section of the city an interesting journey.
The past and present merge at old taverns, "ouzeries",
restaurants next to hotels and luxury bars, "bouzouki halls" (Thessaloniki
is the cradle of modern Greek popular song, "rembetika"), cinema
halls, theaters and sidewalk cafes on street pavements and
squares. Small family run taverns and basement pastry shops
offer a delicious variety of famous Macedonian specialties, next
to stalls of ice-cream sellers for busy pedestrians.
The main squares are Platia Elefterias and Platia
Aristotelous, both on the waterfront and alive with cafes and
restaurants, children playing or people just strolling. The
Lefkos Pyrgos, or White Tower is the symbol of the city and is
close to the University area with its clubs and bars, and the
International Trade fairgrounds are located is nearby as is the
excellent archaeology museum. The White Tower itself is also a
museum of art and history. It was built in the 15th Century and
was at one time a prison for insubordinate Janisaries, the
soldiers of the sultan who had been taken from their Christian
parents as children and molded into his elite storm troopers.
Above the lively city is he world of the Epimenidou or Kastra,
an area of old neighborhoods with narrow streets and lovely
small gardens with children playing in front of wide open doors.
Popular songs from old gramophones fill the air along with the
sweet smell of flowers that emit their incredibly beautiful
aromas at night. This is the old Turkish quarter of the city and
is the remains of 19th century Thessaloniki and the walls that
surrounded the city are still standing.
A must-visit place is Moudiano, the meat market, in a restored
old building full of energy, smells, and some of the most famous
old ouzeries in Thessaloniki, some of them with live rembetika
music and spontaneous parties.
What's Happening in Thessaloniki
Every year in September the THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL TRADE
FAIR is held in Thessaloniki, exhibiting Greek and foreign
products of every description. After the International Trade is
over the GREEK SONG FESTIVAL takes place as well as the very
popular Thessaloniki Film festival. Saint Demetrios, the patron
of Thessaloniki has his name day celebrated throughout the city
on October 26th. During the year, trade fairs for special
interest groups are organized by the Thessaloniki International
Trade Fair administration. Almost all of the major hotels have
convention facilities. Lately the Thessaloniki Film Festival has
been gaining more and more attention and attracting film-makers
from all over the world.
If you have a few days to spare and you like cities then come to
Thessaloniki. Take a visit to Pella, the birthplace of
Alexander. Visit the nearby beaches or wander around the city
and see the Archeology museum which is according to Frommer's,
one of the best in the world. But be sure to save enough time to
the cafes, restaurants, bars and ouzeries of the city where you
will really feel the flavor of life in what is surely one of the
most interesting and hippest places in Europe.
Thessaloniki is also the birthplace of modern Greek basketball,
home of the team Aris and Greece's superstars Nick Gallis
(former Seton Hall), Panagiotis Yannakis, Panagiotis Fassoulis (NC
State), Yannis Ioandidis and others. It is also the subject of a
new book by Mark Mazower called Salonica: City of Ghosts which
is a magnificent history of Thessaloniki from 1430 to 1950.
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