The OTE Tower Thessaloniki is a seventy-six-metre tower in the grounds of the city’s international fair, and its top floor holds a cafe-bar that turns slowly above the gulf. Readers who want more ideas for the country can browse the tours in Greece collection.
Below are the tower’s story, the turning floor, the views, the way to get there, how a visit runs and the questions that visitors raise.
What is the OTE Tower Thessaloniki?
The OTE Tower Thessaloniki is 76 metres tall and stands in the city’s international exhibition grounds, in central Thessaloniki, Greece. Wikipedia tags it as a restaurant, an observation tower and a television tower. The city tourism page calls it a modern telecommunications tower with a cafe-bar on its revolving top floor. Wikipedia says the cafe-bar runs year-round.
Inside the city centre, says the tourism page, the tower stands on the site of the Thessaloniki International Exhibition. It gives the height as 76 metres, and the fact box on Wikipedia gives 76.4 metres. Both pages name the same architect, Alexandros Anastasiadis. Wikipedia also calls the tower a recognisable landmark of the skyline.
Wikipedia’s ownership section names the company that runs the Thessaloniki International Fair as owner of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki. It leases the tower to OTE, the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, which Wikipedia says was founded in nineteen forty-nine. A cellular mobile network uses the tower today. While the fair runs, events and exhibitions take place inside the tower as well.
A telecommunications tower, says Wikipedia, is a tall structure that holds antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, television included. An observation tower gives people a high point to look out over a landscape or a city. In a revolving restaurant, a circular floor turns like a turntable while the building stays fixed. The OTE Tower Thessaloniki is all three.
Thessaloniki is the second city of Greece by size, Wikipedia says, and the capital of Central Macedonia. The city sits beside the Thermaic Gulf, where the Aegean Sea reaches its north-western corner. Cassander of Macedon, who founded it in the fourth century BC, gave the city his wife’s name. Its Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments count as a World Heritage Site.
Visitors go up the OTE Tower Thessaloniki for the view. Wikipedia says tourists sit still while the platform turns, which shows them the city as one wide panorama. The home page of the cafe-bar describes a view of 360 degrees, set in the heart of the city. One tour listing in Thessaloniki joins the rotating tower with a light meal.
How did the OTE Tower Thessaloniki come to be built?
Alexandros Anastasiadis designed the OTE Tower Thessaloniki, and builders raised it in two phases. The first phase ended with a low first stage in nineteen sixty-nine. The second phase added the upper floors in nineteen seventy, and it welcomed visitors that September. Both stages stood ready for the Thessaloniki International Fair.
Wikipedia says the study ran between nineteen sixty-six and nineteen sixty-nine. The fair’s managers picked a plot of 435 square metres beside its South Gate. Early studies planned a one-floor pavilion for new technology. The tourism page and the cafe-bar’s history page both say the project came together in an unusually short time.
Within the year the builders laid the foundations and raised the basement and the first floor. The unfinished tower stood 8.4 metres tall. In September nineteen sixty-nine this low first stage stood as the OTE pavilion at the thirty-fourth Thessaloniki International Fair. Both pages say the OTE Tower Thessaloniki first operated that month.
Wikipedia dates the second phase to March through August nineteen seventy. Builders added the second, third, fourth and fifth floors and raised the antenna mast. Its introduction gives completion in nineteen sixty-eight, while its history section ends the work in nineteen seventy. At the thirty-fifth fair that September, visitors entered the tower in its current form for the first time.
Greek state television aired its first broadcasts in black and white from the tower in nineteen seventy-one. That was a year after completion. An experimental mobile telephone network also mounted its aerials on the tower in the nineteen seventies. For a while the OTE Tower Thessaloniki was only a broadcasting site, and the public came in during the fair.
Wikipedia says the rotation jammed in nineteen eighty-three and kept the top floor closed until the renovation. The cafe-bar’s history page dates the damage to nineteen eighty-eight instead. In two thousand the fair regained full ownership and leased the tower to OTE. The OTE Tower Thessaloniki reopened its top floor in two thousand five, with a new lift.
How does the rotating floor of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki work?
The top floor of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki is a rotating platform that carries the cafe-bar. The cafe-bar’s pages say one full turn of the platform takes sixty minutes. Its history page says this is the only building with rotating floors in Greece.
Wikipedia describes the rotating observatory platform of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki as state of the art at its opening. The Rohr company designed and built it. Wikipedia adds that tourists sat and took in the panorama of the city as the platform moved. The cafe-bar’s history page names the same maker and calls the movement system a technical achievement.
Wikipedia explains revolving restaurants in general. A revolving restaurant sits on a broad circular platform, a large turntable. The platform rests on wheels fixed to the floor structure of the building. It turns around a central core that holds features such as the lifts. The drive is a motor rated below one horsepower, and its speed varies by preference.
Wikipedia dates a jam of the rotation mechanism of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki to nineteen eighty-three. After that the observatory stayed shut for years. The cafe-bar’s own history page blames a damage in nineteen eighty-eight, which stopped the rotation for a time. Both pages say the result was a belief in the city that the floor no longer turns.
Wikipedia says the renovation upgraded the rotation mechanism to modern standards, and the renovated mechanism operates normally today. The cafe-bar’s history page puts it in three words: the tower rotates. The works also included a new lift system. Wikipedia says it keeps visitors out of the old mechanical levels, the art gallery and the radio-television floors.
Wikipedia calls the OTE Tower Thessaloniki a mix of modernist and futuristic styles. A main spire holds the elevators and the emergency staircase. Discs of varying diameter around it hold the usable spaces. The first floor is a small cylindrical chamber, the second a two-storey cylinder. The fourth floor is the main observatory level, the fifth a barrel-shaped space.
What can visitors see from the OTE Tower Thessaloniki?
On the turning floor of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki, visitors see the Thermaic Gulf and the centre of the city. The cafe-bar’s history page also names the acropolis with the Heptapyrgion, the White Tower and the Rotunda. It adds two museums, Mount Olympus and Mount Chortiatis.
Where the Aegean Sea reaches its northwest limit, Wikipedia puts the Thermaic Gulf. Thessaloniki lies at the far north-east end of the gulf. The gulf is roughly 100 kilometres long and takes its name from ancient Therma. Its largest and busiest port is the Port of Thessaloniki, says Wikipedia. The cafe-bar’s history page singles out the gulf at sunset.
On the waterfront rises the White Tower, 34 metres high. Wikipedia calls it a monument and museum and says the city has adopted it as its symbol. Wikipedia says the Rotunda of Galerius served as a mausoleum, a Christian basilica, a mosque and a church. Wikipedia’s gallery shows the OTE Tower Thessaloniki as seen from the White Tower.
Wikipedia calls the Upper Town the old town, set around the acropolis north of the centre. The Heptapyrgion fortress lies in the north-east of the acropolis. The cafe-bar’s history page lists two museums. Wikipedia says the Museum of Byzantine Culture focuses on early Christian, Byzantine and medieval objects. The Archaeological Museum holds finds from prehistoric to Roman times.
Two mountains frame the view of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki, as the history page names them. Mount Olympus has the highest peak in Greece. Wikipedia’s Upper Town article says it towers on the horizon on clear days. Wikipedia places it about 80 kilometres southwest of Thessaloniki. Mount Chortiatis rises southeast of the city and peaks at 1,201 metres.
A full turn covers 360 degrees in sixty minutes, so the view moves six degrees a minute. After an hour the view is back at the start. The history page also names Alexander’s garden, which it describes with dense vegetation. The listed hours run into the night, so the OTE Tower Thessaloniki shows the city by day and after dark.
Where is the OTE Tower Thessaloniki and how do visitors get there?
The OTE Tower Thessaloniki stands inside the grounds of the Thessaloniki International Fair in central Thessaloniki. The cafe-bar on its top floor gives the address as Egnatia 154. Wikipedia, Wikivoyage and a travel blog name the metro, city buses, taxis and airport buses as ways to get there.
Wikipedia puts the OTE Tower Thessaloniki inside an exhibition complex at the centre of the city. It gives the coordinates as 40.62612 north and 22.95455 east. The Thessaloniki tourism site describes it as a tower 76 metres high. Wikipedia says the planners chose land beside the fair’s South Gate for it. One travel blog gives the address as Stratou Avenue.
Wikipedia says the fair’s exhibition centre sits in YMCA Square in downtown Thessaloniki. It adds that the centre is accessible from the rest of the city. Wikipedia measures the whole site at 180,000 square metres. Seventeen pavilions hold 62,000 square metres of indoor exhibition space. A visit to the OTE Tower Thessaloniki therefore starts inside a large exhibition centre.
Wikipedia says the fair has been held every year since nineteen twenty-six, in September’s first week. It also says the tower opens up for events and exhibitions during the fair. The cafe-bar on the top floor of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki operates year-round, according to Wikipedia. So the top floor does not wait for fair week.
Wikipedia’s article on the fair says Sintrivani Station lies next to the grounds. Its article on the Thessaloniki Metro names Sintrivani as a station of Line 1. One travel blog lists nearby bus lines, among them 05, 10, 33 and 50. Wikivoyage lists two ways to get a licensed taxi: wave one down or go to a rank.
Wikipedia puts Thessaloniki Airport 13 kilometres out to the southeast. It notes a taxi service at the terminal building, open all day and all night. Buses 01X and 01N serve it day and night. Wikivoyage says the ride to the centre takes around forty minutes. The Port of Thessaloniki, says Wikipedia, serves passenger traffic through cruise and ferry.
How does a visit to the OTE Tower Thessaloniki work?
A visit to the OTE Tower Thessaloniki means going up to the top floor and sitting down in the cafe-bar. The floor turns once in sixty minutes. Guests enjoy a coffee, a snack, a drink or a cocktail while the view changes around them.
Wikipedia says the elevators and the emergency staircase sit inside the main spire of the tower. It adds that a new lift system was designed during the renovation. Wikipedia names the fourth floor as the main observatory level, which houses the revolving restaurant. The cafe-bar’s about page says it sits on the top floor of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki.
One travel blog says a visit means sitting in the cafe-bar and ordering a drink or food. It adds that the skyline slowly unfolds around guests who sit with a coffee or a dessert. The cafe-bar’s about page names coffee, snacks, wine and cocktails. So a visit runs in this order: lift, top floor, seat, drink, turn.
The cafe-bar’s pages split its hours into two groups of days. Monday to Thursday and Sunday, it opens at 10 in the morning and shuts at 1 at night. Friday and Saturday keep the same opening hour but close at 2 at night. Live piano music plays every day after 7 in the evening, says the home page.
One tour listing for the OTE Tower Thessaloniki carries the title “Thessaloniki: OTE Tower Rotating Experience with Light Meal”. Wikipedia explains that meze are small starters of the Eastern Mediterranean, served before bigger courses or as the whole meal. Wikipedia adds that a typical Greek meze is a plate of snacks that goes alongside ouzo or tsipouro.
In Wikipedia’s words, bougatsa is a breakfast food of Greece or a mid-morning or midday snack. Wikipedia traces the pastry’s modern form to two northern cities, Serres and Thessaloniki. Koulouri, says Wikipedia, is a round bread whose crust carries sesame seeds in its usual form. These show what a light meal can mean in Greece, not what any tour serves.
When is the right time to visit the OTE Tower Thessaloniki?
Wikipedia states that the revolving cafe-bar on top of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki operates year-round. A visit therefore works in any season. The cafe-bar’s pages list an opening at 10 in the morning and a closing at 1 or 2 at night.
The cafe-bar’s pages give two closing times. Sunday through Thursday, it shuts at 1 at night. On Fridays and Saturdays, it shuts at 2 at night, one hour later. A travel blog repeats these hours.
The floor completes one turn in 60 minutes, say the cafe-bar’s pages. A travel blog lists one hour as the time needed for a visit to the OTE Tower Thessaloniki. It says the tower works in daylight and at night, when the city lights up. On a clear day, it adds, even Mount Olympus joins the view.
Sunset gets special mention on the history page of the cafe-bar. It names the view of the Thermaic Gulf, especially when the gulf is embraced by the colours of the sunset. Wikipedia notes that the time of sunset changes during the year, even at the equator. A sunset visit to the OTE Tower Thessaloniki therefore depends on the date.
The cafe-bar’s home page lists live piano music between 7 in the evening and midnight. The about page says the piano starts as soon as it gets dark. An evening visit to the OTE Tower Thessaloniki therefore comes with music.
Wikipedia’s entry on the Mediterranean climate links it with hot summer conditions and mild winters. For Thessaloniki, it says the climate is transitional, generally cold semi-arid, with Mediterranean and humid subtropical influences. Summers there are hot and moderately dry, with July and August the hottest months. The breeze off the Thermaic Gulf softens the summer heat.
According to Wikipedia, winter weather in the city is cool and rather dry, and the nights are cold. Snow arrives in nearly every winter, but the cover lasts for days only. Wind is part of the city’s winter as well. Fog is sparse, the article says, at about 17 foggy days per year, concentrated in autumn and winter.
The Thessaloniki International Fair has its own Wikipedia article, which puts it in the first week of September. Wikipedia adds in its OTE Tower article that the tower is opened for events and exhibitions while the fair runs.
Who is the OTE Tower Thessaloniki for?
The OTE Tower Thessaloniki is for visitors who want a view of the city without a climb. A regional tourism page says the tower has a lift. A travel blog says visitors enjoy the view without climbing steps.
The regional tourism page says the lift is an alternative to the 166 internal stairs. A main spire stands at the core of the tower, and Wikipedia places the elevators and emergency stairs inside it. A new lift system, it adds, was designed in the renovation. That suits visitors who prefer to avoid stairs.
A guest at the OTE Tower Thessaloniki stays in a seat while the floor does the turning. Wikipedia describes the platform that way. The cafe-bar’s home page says guests have a coffee, a bite or a cocktail during that hour-long turn.
The tower fits a short stop in the city, because one turn of the floor takes 60 minutes. The travel blog presents it as a way to take in the view without joining crowded viewpoints. It also names large windows and soft lighting for photography.
The cafe-bar’s history page lists the sights in view, among them the White Tower and the Rotunda. A visitor who spent the day among such sights can look back at them from above. The OTE Tower Thessaloniki therefore also suits the end of a day of sightseeing.
The blog says guests can relax and socialize with friends, and that they can eat, chat and take photos there. It adds that the tower suits travellers who want to see Thessaloniki from a new angle. It calls the visit a calm, atmospheric way to enjoy the city from above.
Visitors who want exhibits do not find them in the tower. The blog says there are no exhibitions or historical displays inside. For displays, the Byzantine and archaeological museums, which the history page names, are the better match. The OTE Tower Thessaloniki is a place to sit and look, not a museum.
Coffee has its own place in the story of the city. Thessaloniki is the birthplace of the frappe, a cold Greek coffee drink, and Wikipedia dates its invention to nineteen fifty-seven. Wikipedia’s article on Turkish coffee says that in Greece the drink is called Greek coffee and the pot a briki.
What else do visitors ask about the OTE Tower Thessaloniki?
Which old monuments can visitors find in Thessaloniki besides the OTE Tower Thessaloniki?
Wikipedia describes the White Tower as a cylindrical drum topped by a turret. The turret is 12 metres wide and 6 metres high. A thorough remodelling and a coat of whitewash came in nineteen twelve, after Greece took control of the city.
Galerius commissioned two neighbouring monuments in the early fourth century, the Rotunda and the arch. The Rotunda served as a mausoleum, a basilica, a mosque and a church again. The arch shows scenes of the triumph over the Sassanids but never names Galerius. In the nineteenth century people guessed it honoured Constantine, Philip II or Alexander the Great.
Which squares and districts does Thessaloniki offer apart from the OTE Tower Thessaloniki?
Aristotelous Square, the main city square of Thessaloniki, began as a plan by Ernest Hébrard in nineteen eighteen, says Wikipedia. He meant it to bear the name of Alexander the Great, with a statue of Alexander in the middle. The facades of the nineteen fifties were more modest, which Wikipedia puts down to the financial situation of the country.
Near the port, Ladadika was a harbour marketplace. Wikipedia says its warehouses and shops once traded olive oil, spices and other foodstuffs. The Ministry of Culture listed the district in nineteen eighty-five. After the earthquake of nineteen seventy-eight, the old trading buildings were gradually abandoned. Regeneration began in the early nineteen nineties.
Which churches stand in the city that holds the OTE Tower Thessaloniki?
The Great Thessaloniki Fire of nineteen seventeen destroyed the roof and upper walls of Hagios Demetrios. Wikipedia says restoration took decades, and the church was reconsecrated in nineteen forty-nine. Wikipedia’s Thessaloniki article calls it the largest basilica in Greece. The crypt below displays sculptures, capitals, closure slabs and vessels from the church.
Wikipedia says the present Hagia Sophia went up in the seventh century. Its model was the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. In the thirteenth century, after the Fourth Crusade took the city, it became the cathedral of Thessaloniki. After the Ottoman capture in fourteen thirty, it served as a mosque until nineteen twelve. UNESCO inscribed both churches in nineteen eighty-eight.
How do Chalkidiki and Mount Athos fit into the region of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki?
Chalkidiki owes its name to Chalcis, an ancient city-state on Euboea. Chalcis sent settlers there in the eighth century BC. Wikipedia says Polygyros, the capital town, lies at the middle of the peninsula. Kassandra’s highest peak is 350 metres, and Sithonia’s is 817 metres. Further north, the range called Cholomontas peaks at 1,165 metres near Taxiarchis.
Athos has the highest peak of the three, at 2,033 metres. Wikipedia says the monastic community of Athos answers ecclesiastically to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Its monastic traditions go back to at least the ninth century. Chalkidiki sits in Central Macedonia, the region that also holds the OTE Tower Thessaloniki.
Where does the OTE Tower Thessaloniki sit in Macedonia, in Greek tourism and around the Aegean Sea?
Wikipedia treats Macedonia as a geographic region of northern Greece, home to 2.36 million people. The region is highly mountainous. Its southern coastline holds Thessaloniki, home of the OTE Tower Thessaloniki, as well as Katerini and Kavala.
Wikipedia ranks Central Macedonia fourth among the tourist regions of Greece and first among those that are not islands. Its tourism article lists Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, Corfu, Crete and Chalkidiki among the major destinations.
Wikipedia links the name Aegean to Aegeus, a figure of Greek myth, and notes that ancient grammarians gave different theories. The Dodecanese, in the southeast of the sea, include Rhodes, Kos and Patmos.