Thessaloniki travel guide — Thessaloniki tourism and travel information

Welcome to Thessaloniki Travel Guide, extensive source of tourist information and travel services offer related to Thessaloniki and Greece. Book cheap hotels, cheap flights and get car rental. We also offer Thessaloniki travel guide books and maps and atlases. Please visit Greece travel guide for more travel and tourism iformation and attractions in the Greece.

our Thessaloniki travel guide — Thessaloniki tourism and travel information content

Thessaloniki travel and tourist guide
Thessaloniki travel services
Thessaloniki travel books
- Thessaloniki travel guide books
- Thessaloniki maps and atlases

latest Thessaloniki and Greece discussion posts

Join our comprehensive travel discussion board! Share your Thessaloniki and Greece travel experience! Our Ask and Answer forum is geographically divided, the team of editors world-wide is ready to answer your questions.

insert new comment or question »

Thessaloniki travel guide

about Thessaloniki

The second-largest city of Greece, the principal city of the Greek region of Macedonia and the biggest city of the whole macedonian region (Greeks call it "capital of Macedonia"), Thessaloniki (Θεσσαλονίκη, also known as Selânik, Salonika or Salonica, Σαλονίκη, Солун, Solun) has a population (including its suburbs) of 1,550,000, and lies in a bay of the Thermaic Gulf.

Thessaloniki sights

A well-known landmark and symbol of Thessaloniki is the White Tower (Lefkos Pyrgos). Other notable sights include the Arch and Tomb of Galerius, the church of St. Demetrius, and the extensive town walls of Upper City (Ano Poli).

Thessaloniki has perfect squares with lots of cafes and bars, such as Aristotelous Square, Agias Sofias Sq, Nea Panagia sq, Navarinou sq.

It is home to the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Macedonia.

Thessaloniki history

Cassander was the founder of the city, and named it after his wife Thessalonica, also the sister of Alexander the Great. Thessalonica, respectively, was named so by her father, Philip, because he first heard of her birth on the day of his gaining a victory (nike) over the Thessalians.

After the downfall of the kingdom of Macedon, Thessaloniki became part of the Roman Empire. During the Roman era, Thessaloniki was the capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia, and was ruled by a praetor. It remained part of the Byzantine Empire until Constantinople was captured by the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

On his second missionary journey, Paul of Tarsus preached in the city's synagogue, the chief synagogue of the Jews in that part of Macedonia, and laid the foundations of a church. Opposition against him from the Jews drove him from the city, and he fled to Berroia.

For a time in the 9th century after the migration of the Slavs the city had a Slavic-speaking population. Saint Cyril and his brother Methodius were born in Thessaloniki and the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, saying that "the inhabitants of Thessaloniki speak Slavonic quite well", encouraged them to visit northern Slavic regions from there as missionaries; their South Slavonic dialect became the basis for Old Church Slavonic.

The city became the capital of the Crusader Kingdom of Thessalonica, until it was captured by the Byzantine despotate of Epirus in 1224. It was recovered by the Byzantine Empire in 1246, but, unable to hold it against the encroachments of the Ottoman Empire, the Byzantine Despot Andronikos Palaeologus was forced to sell it to Venice, who held it until 1430.

Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire until 1912, the city was known as Salonika and became noted for its majority Jewish population of Sephardic origin, the result mostly of Spain's expulsion of Jews after 1492 (few Romaniotes Jews where also included). The city's language of daily life was Ladino, a Jewish dialect of Spanish. The city's day off was Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

Salonika was the main prize of the first Balkan war (1912) during which it became part of Greece. During World War I a temporary government headed by Eleftherios Venizelos was established there taking the side of the British-French allies, against the will of the pro-neutral German King of Greece. The majority of the town was largely destroyed by a single fire in 1917 of unknown origin, probably an accident. One consequence of the fire saw close to half the city's Jewish population, their homes and livelihoods destroyed, emigrate. Many went to Palestine. Some stepped onto the Orient Express to Paris. Still others found their way to America. Their numbers were quickly replaced by refugees from another disaster.

Ethnic Greeks exiled from Smyrna and other areas of modern Turkey in 1922 following the Asia Minor Catastrophe arrived in Salonica and brought with them their original national character.

Venizelos forbade the reconstruction of the town center until a full modern city plan was prepared. This was accomplished a few years later by the French architect and archeologist Ernest Hebrard. The Hebrard plan swept away the Oriental features of Thessaloniki and transformed it to a European style city.

Despite efforts from the Greeks, nearly all of the city's Jews were killed during the German occupation of 1941-1944.

Near cities to Thessaloniki

Near webcams to Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki travel services

choose from our international travel services offer:

cheap flights to Thessaloniki

City Travel Guide is exclusive partner of four main cheap airline tickets and cheap flights online booking systems. We are happy to offer cheap airline tickets Thessaloniki, cheap flights Thessaloniki, also available cheap airline tickets to Greece and to the whole world. Up to date cheap flights Thessaloniki deals also available.

cheap Thessaloniki hotels

City Travel Guide is exclusive partner of main cheap hotels and accommodation online booking systems. We are happy to offer cheap hotels in Thessaloniki, Greece hotel guide and cheap hotels and accommodation in lot of other world-wide destinations. Up to date cheap Thessaloniki hotel deals and discount accommodation tips also available.

cheap Thessaloniki vacations

City Travel Guide is exclusive partner of main cheap vacations online booking systems. We are happy to offer cheap vacations in Thessaloniki, Greece vacation rentals and cheap vacations in lot of other destinations world-wide. Up to date Thessaloniki vacation deals also available.

cheap car rentals in Thessaloniki

City Travel Guide is exclusive partner of main car rentals online booking systems. We are happy to offer car rentals in Thessaloniki, car hire in Greece and cheap car rental in lot other world-wide destinations. Up to date cheap Thessaloniki car hire deals also available.

Thessaloniki travel insurance

City Travel Guide is exclusive partner of Essential Travel Ltd., leading online travel insurance company, we can offer you health travel insurance for Thessaloniki, accident health Thessaloniki travel insurance, all using our online Thessaloniki travel insurance form. We also offer travel insurance for other cities in Greece. This offer is available for UK residents only.

Thessaloniki real estate

City Travel Guide comes with Thessaloniki real estate guide with several tips on home valuation, realtors comparison, secrets on finding the "right" home, loans guide and other helpful real estate advices. Our partners also maintain Thessaloniki property for sale and rental listings, real estate laws and reviews. We will try to help you with buying property in Greece, choosing real estate agents, property finders, relocation help, and information for English speakers wanting to buy real estate in Thessaloniki.

Thessaloniki travel books

Thessaloniki travel guide books

Thessaloniki maps and atlases

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Thessaloniki".

Europe

North America

South America

Asia

Australia

Africa

world city travel guides

Europe city travel guide

Greece city travel guide

Thessaloniki, Greece travel guide