Thessaloniki tours begin in the second-largest city of Greece, the capital of Macedonia on the Thermaic Gulf, where Roman monuments stand beside a Byzantine old town and a seafront tower. For more routes, see our tours in Greece page.
This page covers what Thessaloniki tours include, the Roman monuments, the Byzantine and Ottoman city, the waterfront and the White Tower, the day trips into Macedonia, the seasons, and where travellers stay.
What do Thessaloniki tours include?
Thessaloniki tours include walks through the old centre, the Roman and Byzantine monuments and the seafront. One operator lists a White Tower and waterfront walk, a sunset city walk and a Byzantine heritage walk. It adds day trips into northern Greece.
Thessaloniki is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the geographic region of Macedonia, according to Wikipedia. It counts over 300,000 people in the city proper and slightly over one million in the metropolitan area. The city sits on the Thermaic Gulf, at the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea.
Thessaloniki tours begin in a city with a long past. Wikipedia says King Cassander of Macedon founded it around 315 BC. He named it after his wife Thessalonike, a half-sister of Alexander the Great. The same article lists Roman, Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures. It places them next to the Byzantine monuments of a World Heritage Site.
Wikipedia places Thessaloniki Airport 13 km southeast of the city, in Thermi. It calls this the third-largest airport in the country. The city also has a metro. Wikipedia describes it as fully automated and driverless, with two lines and 18 stations. It is the first system of its kind in Greece.
Walking is the simplest way to see the city. One travel listing calls strolling the ideal way to explore it. The listing names the beachfront promenade, Aristotle Square, the Ladadika district and the Old Town. It names the old Roman and Byzantine sites too.
One operator’s page lists four Thessaloniki tours on foot. The list holds a food walk, a sunset walk, a Byzantine heritage walk and a seafront walk. The sunset walk promises 2,500 years of history. Longer trips exist too: one tour site lists trips of three to twelve days that start in Thessaloniki.
What do Thessaloniki tours show of Roman Thessaloniki?
Thessaloniki tours show the Roman city through four sites. They are the Arch of Galerius, the Rotunda, the palace ruins and the Roman Forum. Wikipedia ties the first three to the emperor Galerius, who commissioned them in the early fourth century.
Wikipedia says builders raised the Arch of Galerius in 298 and 299 AD and dedicated it in 303 AD. It celebrates the victory of Galerius over the Sassanid Persians. Only three of its eight pillars survive. The two beside the central passage keep their carved marble panels. On Thessaloniki tours the arch is the first Roman stop.
The Rotunda of Galerius lies 125 m northeast of the arch. Wikipedia says it was built around 306 AD, and that Galerius is thought to have meant it as his tomb. He was buried in Serbia instead. The Rotunda is 24.5 m wide. Its walls are more than 6 m thick, which helped it withstand earthquakes.
The Rotunda has been a church, then a mosque, then a church again, Wikipedia records. Its minaret still stands. Wikipedia calls it the oldest of the city’s churches. It adds that Greek publications claim it is the oldest Christian church in the world. Thessaloniki tours reach this layered past in one stop.
Wikipedia says Galerius also commissioned an imperial palace and a new hippodrome. It places the palace ruins within Navarinou Square, beside the site of the ancient Hippodrome. One travel listing puts these ruins close to the arch. The Roman Forum stands just above Aristotelous Square. Workers dug it up by accident.
The forum has two terraces with two-storey stoas, two Roman baths and a small theatre for gladiator games, says Wikipedia. Wikipedia also says UNESCO lists fifteen early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki. They include the city walls, the Rotunda and the Church of Saint Demetrios. Thessaloniki tours link the Roman and Byzantine city.
What do Thessaloniki tours show of Byzantine and Ottoman Thessaloniki?
Thessaloniki tours reach Byzantine churches, old city walls, a fortress and two Ottoman buildings. Two of the churches, Hagios Demetrios and Hagia Sophia, carry a UNESCO listing. Together they span a long stretch of the city’s story.
Wikipedia says the first church of Hagios Demetrios went up in the early fourth century. It replaced a Roman bath. In the seventh century a basilica with five aisles took its place. Thessaloniki took Demetrios as its patron saint, and his church served as the main shrine of the city.
Thessaloniki tours that include Hagia Sophia stop at a church whose present form dates to the seventh century. It is among the oldest churches in the city still standing. Its dome shows the Ascension, ringed by the Twelve Apostles, Mary and two angels. Under Ottoman rule it served as a mosque, and it became a church again after the liberation.
The Walls of Thessaloniki once ran for 4 kilometers around the city. Wikipedia dates the present walls to about the year 390. Large parts, including the whole seaward section, were torn down late in the nineteenth century. What remains still surrounds the Upper Town, Ano Poli, which lies around the old acropolis.
In the north-eastern corner of that acropolis stands the Heptapyrgion, the Seven Towers. Despite its name, it has ten. In Ottoman times the garrison commander lived there. Late in the nineteenth century the fort became a jail. The jail closed only in the last decades of the twentieth century.
The Museum of Byzantine Culture opens the Christian past of Macedonia with early Christian and Byzantine works. The Archaeological Museum lists the Derveni krater among its notable exhibits. Thessaloniki tours can add the Hamza Bey Mosque, built in the fifteenth century. Locals call it Alkazar, after an old cinema.
What do Thessaloniki tours show along the waterfront?
Thessaloniki tours along the waterfront centre on the White Tower, the symbol of the city. It stands on the seafront boulevard Nikis Street and holds a museum about the history of Thessaloniki.
The White Tower is a round drum 23 meters wide and 34 meters high. Wikipedia says Ottoman builders raised it after Sultan Murad took the city in the early fifteenth century. Soldiers held it, then prisoners. A convict painted it white late in the nineteenth century, in return for his freedom.
Inside, an exhibition about the city’s past is run by the Museum of Byzantine Culture. Visitors see a map of the monuments and a timeline of events. The tower has six floors, and one tourism page adds that it also served as a meteorology lab. Thessaloniki tours that enter it get a short history lesson.
The tower faces the Thermaic Gulf, also called the Gulf of Thessaloniki. Wikipedia places the gulf in the north-west of the Aegean Sea and gives its length as about 100 kilometers. The city lies at its northeastern tip. The gulf’s busiest harbour is the Port of Thessaloniki, so Thessaloniki tours by the sea pass working docks.
Aristotelous Square is the central city square, set on Nikis Avenue by the sea. Ernest Hébrard, an architect from France, drew it after the Great Fire wiped out two thirds of Thessaloniki. Builders finished much of it in the nineteen-fifties. His plan let people look uphill from the square to the old walls and the Upper Town.
Ladadika is a historic district near the port. For centuries it was one of the main marketplaces of the city. Its name comes from the olive oil shops there. Today old oil stores and merchant warehouses hold bars and restaurants. Thessaloniki tours that include Ladadika see its protected nineteenth-century buildings.
Which day trips do Thessaloniki tours add?
Thessaloniki tours add day trips to Vergina, Pella, Dion, Edessa, Halkidiki, Mount Athos, Mount Olympus and Meteora. Wikipedia places these sites across Macedonia and neighbouring Thessaly, and Greeka calls Thessaloniki a base for exploring northern Greece.
On Thessaloniki tours, Vergina means the site of ancient Aigai, the first capital of Macedon. Wikipedia says Philip II was assassinated in its theatre and his son Alexander the Great was proclaimed king. Researchers uncovered three tombs there in the nineteen-seventies, and UNESCO lists the site as a World Heritage Site.
Pella was the capital of Macedon from the fourth century B.C. until the Roman conquest, says Wikipedia. Philip II and Alexander the Great were both born there. The harbour and gulf have since silted up, so the site now lies inland. Edessa has a Greek name that means “tower in the water.”
Dion has its own trip: the Dion and Mount Olympus day trip from Thessaloniki pairs it with the mountain. Wikipedia places Dion at the foot of Mount Olympus and calls it the sacred place of the ancient Macedonians. For Thessaloniki tours, the same article puts the mountain about 80 km southwest of the city.
Thessaloniki tours also name Halkidiki, a peninsula with three “fingers”: Kassandra, Sithonia and Athos. The Athos finger reaches 50 km into the Aegean Sea. Wikipedia states one rule for visitors. By Greek law and religious tradition, women are prohibited from entering the area the monastic community governs.
Meteora lies in Thessaly, between the town of Kalabaka and the village of Kastraki. Wikipedia says twenty-four monasteries were established atop its rock pillars, and four of the original ones are occupied today. The name means “lofty” or “elevated.” The Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki goes there.
When do Thessaloniki tours run through the year?
Thessaloniki tours meet hot, moderately dry summers and cool winters, as Wikipedia describes the city’s climate. The article calls the climate transitional, with a cold semi-arid type for the city as a whole. Each season gives a different day out.
Summers in Thessaloniki are hot and moderately dry, says Wikipedia. Rain falls in summer now and then, mainly in thunderstorms. The Climate of Greece article places the north of the country between the continental, Mediterranean and humid subtropical climates. Walking Thessaloniki tours in July and August therefore means planning around the heat.
Winters are cool, with cold nights, and Wikipedia adds that morning frost is common. Snow falls more or less every winter, but the cover does not last long. The city is also quite windy in the winter months. A winter day in Thessaloniki asks for a warm coat rather than a sun hat.
The Thessaloniki International Fair gives September its own rhythm. Wikipedia says this annual exhibition takes place each year in early September and began in nineteen twenty-six. Its centre sits in the YMCA Square of downtown. The Prime Minister of Greece traditionally opens it with a speech. Greeka adds that the International Film Festival takes place every November.
Food shapes a day too. Wikipedia says the modern bougatsa grew up around Serres and Thessaloniki in the north. It is a breakfast food or a mid-morning snack with a semolina custard or feta filling. In Thessaloniki the custard is crunchy and not that sweet. Thessaloniki tours pass the city where the pastry took its modern shape.
For a bed between days, Greeka places hotels around Aristotle Square and near the sea. It says the areas of Thermi and Agia Triada Beach have hotels with swimming pools. Wikipedia also names the Upper Town, called Ano Poli, and the municipality of Kalamaria in the southeast. Compare hotels in Thessaloniki by area before choosing.
What else do travellers ask about Thessaloniki tours?
Why is Thessaloniki also called Salonika?
Wikipedia lists a string of English names for the city, among them Thessalonica and Salonika. Printed texts used Thessalonica until the early twentieth century and Salonika through the rest of it. Thessaloniki became the common name by the mid nineteen-eighties. Old maps and books name the same place that Thessaloniki tours visit today.
Greeks also call the city “the co-capital.” The nickname recalls its old rank beside Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire.
What was the Via Egnatia?
Wikipedia calls the Via Egnatia the road that joined Dyrrhachium with Byzantium. Thessalonica stood on it, and Rome made the city the seat of its Macedonian province. Mark Antony gave it free-city status in 41 BC. The road tied it to Rome and Byzantium.
Wikipedia adds that the Edict of Thessalonica made Christianity the official faith of the Roman world. Thessaloniki tours meet a trade city and a religious centre, not only monuments.
Is there a Jewish museum in the city?
Yes. The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki shows the history of Sephardic Jews and Jewish life in the city. The Jewish community of the city runs it, and its collection rests on documents, ritual objects and photographs.
The museum sits on Agiou Mina Street and opened in the year two thousand one, says Wikipedia. The Italian architect Vitaliano Poselli built the house in nineteen hundred and four.
Wikipedia says a new wing added four spaces and a museum shop in the late twenty-tens. The museum fits the city’s past. Wikipedia names Thessaloniki the one city in Europe with a Jewish majority between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. Thessaloniki tours can add this story. The museum also belongs to the Association of European Jewish Museums.
How does the city relate to the region of Macedonia?
Greek Macedonia is a mountainous region of the southern Balkans, says Wikipedia. Its population is 2.36 million. Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria lie across its borders. The cities of Katerini, Kavala and Thessaloniki crowd its southern coastline.
The article adds that the name Macedonia vanished for centuries under Ottoman rule. People revived it in the nineteenth century as a geographical term. Visitors on Thessaloniki tours see a name with a long history.
The same article places the city 40 km southeast of Pella, the old capital. The Axios delta bounds the city on the west. So Thessaloniki tours open the way into a whole region, not one city.
Is Thessaloniki a university city?
Wikipedia says Aristotle University is the largest university in Greece and the Balkans. The article also calls the city renowned for its festivals, events and cultural life. The Thessaloniki International Fair and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival both run every year. Students and festival crowds give the streets that Thessaloniki tours cross a lively feel.