Thessaloníki

Byzantine church of Áyios (Saint) Dimítrios, Thessaloníki, Greece

Thessaloníki, formerly Salonika, historically Thessalonica, city and dímos (municipality), Central Macedonia (Modern Greek: Kendrikí Makedonía), on the western Chalcidice (Chalkidikí) peninsula at the head of a bay on the Gulf of Thérmai (Thermaïkós). An important industrial and commercial centre, second to Athens (Athína) in population and to Piraeus as a port, it is built on the foothills and slopes of Mount Khortiátis (Kissós; 3,940 feet [1,201 metres]), overlooking the delta plains of the Gallikós and Vardar (Axiós or Vardaráis) rivers.

Founded in 316 bce and named for a sister of Alexander the Great, Thessaloníki after 146 was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia. As a military and commercial station on the Via Egnatia, which ran from the Adriatic Sea east to Byzantium (i.e., Constantinople), it grew to great importance in the Roman Empire. Two letters written by the Apostle Paul were addressed to its inhabitants (Thessalonians), and its first bishop, Gaius, was one of Paul’s companions. The city prospered in the Byzantine Empire despite repeated attacks by Avars and Slavs in the 6th and 7th centuries. In 732, two years after he prohibited icons, the Byzantine emperor Leo III (reigned 717–741) detached the city from papal jurisdiction and made it dependent on the patriarch of Constantinople. During the iconoclastic regimes of Leo and his successors, the city defended the use of icons in worship and acted to save some of these art treasures.

In the following centuries the city was attacked by Arabs, Bulgarians, Normans, and others, and many barbarities were committed on its people. Its allegiance was forced under one or another ruler until after 1246, when it passed into the revived Byzantine Empire. Harassed constantly by the Ottoman Turks, the desperate city ceded itself to Venice in 1423, but the Ottoman sultan Murad II took it with a terrible massacre in 1430. At the end of that century the severely reduced population was augmented by an influx of 20,000 Jews driven from Spain. Thessaloníki became a part of the Ottoman Empire and remained so for almost the next five centuries.

Thessaloníki was the birthplace of Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), and it became the headquarters for the Ottoman Liberty Society, a faction of the Young Turk movement that initiated the Turkish revolution of 1908. The city was captured by the Greek army in 1912 during the First Balkan War and was ceded to the Greek kingdom by the Treaty of Bucharest (1913). The Greek king George I was assassinated there on a visit on March 18, 1913. From 1915 to 1918 Thessaloníki served as the base for Allied operations in the Turkish straits. In 1916 the Greek premier Eleuthérios Venizélos formed a provisional government in Thessaloníki that declared war on Bulgaria and Germany. In 1941 the city was captured by Germans, during whose occupation most of the city’s approximately 60,000 Jews were deported and exterminated.

The Via Egnatia traverses the city from east to west, between the Vardar Gate and the Kalamaria Gate, respectively. A 4th-century brick and marble arch built by the emperor Galerius spans the road on the east. The upper citadel walls (built during the reign of Theodosius I, 379–395) survive with restorations. Once the second city of the Byzantine Empire after Constantinople, Thessaloníki is remarkable for its many fine Byzantine churches. The domed basilica of Ayía Sofía (early 8th century) was converted into a mosque in 1585–89. Its nave, forming a Greek cross, is surmounted by a hemispherical dome covered with a rich mosaic dating from the 9th to the 10th century. The Church of Áyios Dimítrios, the city’s patron saint, is early 5th century; it was entirely reconstructed in 1926–48. The Panaghia Chalkeon (1028 or 1042) is another excellent example of the Greek-cross design that inspired many later Byzantine churches. Dating from the 5th century, the little Church of Osios David is especially noted for its early mosaics.

Modern Thessaloníki is the terminus of rail lines to other areas of Greece and the Balkans. The harbour was opened to navigation in 1901. The city exports chrome, manganese, and numerous raw and processed agricultural products. Thessaloníki in the 1960s became a major industrial centre with the construction of a large complex including oil refineries, petrochemical plants, and steel works. The city’s other industries produce liquors, hides, textiles, carpets, bricks, tiles, soap, and flour. The city is the seat of a metropolitan bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church. It has a university (founded 1925) and an American college, a German school, and a French lycée. The city was damaged by fire in 1890, 1898, 1910, and especially in 1917 and was extensively damaged by an earthquake in 1978. Pop. (2001) city, 385,406; municipality, 397,156; (2011) city, 315,196; municipality, 325,182.