Thessaloniki History

The history of Thessaloniki goes all the way back to 315 BC, when King Cassander of Macedonia founded it on the site of the pre-existing settlement of Therma. It was named after Thessaloniki, wife of Cassander and half-sister of Alexander the Great, who, in turn, had been given that name by her father, King Phillip II of Macedonia. Translating as “victory of the Thessalians” in Greek, this name was a commemoration of King Phillip’s victory over the Phocians with the help of Thessalian horsemen.

Roman times

Situated along the route that connected the Balkans with the rest of Greece, Thessaloniki evolved into an important urban and commercial center. Especially during the Roman era, it became the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia, as it was strategically located along the Via Egnatia, the road that linked Dyrrhachium to Byzantium and facilitated trade with other major centers, such as Rome. The town was fortified and a spacious harbor was built, contributing to the city's further prosperity.

In the 1st century AD, it also emerged as one of the early centers of Christianity, after Paul the Apostle visited it to preach in the local Jewish synagogue. Having laid the foundations for the town’s first Christian church, Paul subsequently wrote two letters known as Epistles to the Thessalonians, which now form part of the Biblical canon.

Byzantine times

After Constantinople was made the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Thessaloniki soon became the second-largest city of the whole Empire in terms of both size and wealth. In the seventh century, the Slavs repeatedly attempted to occupy it but they failed. To prevent such an attack from occurring again, the Byzantines tried another strategy: the Byzantine Emperor Michael III sent the brothers Cyril and Methodius, who had been born in Thessaloniki and were later declared saints of the Greek Orthodox Church, to convert the Slavs to the Christian religion. To do this, the two brothers developed the so-called Old Church Slavonic, the first Slavic literary language.

In 1204, after the Crusaders had conquered Constantinople, they also seized Thessaloniki. What followed was a turbulent period of struggles between the Byzantines and the Ottomans for control of the city and the wider area. It is actually remarkable how Thessaloniki managed to maintain a flourishing commerce amid those stormy times. The churches of that period with their magnificent frescoes and the surviving manuscripts still bear witness to a remarkable intellectual and artistic development.

Ottoman occupation

As the Byzantine Emperors of the early 15th century were unable to protect the city from the Ottomans, they ceded it to the Venetians. However, in 1430, the Turks managed to seize Thessaloniki. In the years that followed, they reinforced the Castle and built many mosques and baths, some of which have survived to this day. Throughout the five centuries of Turkish occupation, its development didn't stop and Thessaloniki maintained, along with Smyrna, its status as the Ottoman Empire’s most important trading hub.

It was during this time that Thessaloniki turned into an impressively cosmopolitan and multiethnic city, as besides the Greek and Muslim communities, it gave refuge to thousands of Sephardic Jews as well. In fact, it became the town with the largest Jewish population in the entire world at the time.

Liberation

In the early 20th century, Thessaloniki was a hub of political activity. Among others, it was the center of activities of the Young Turks reform movement, which sought to replace the Ottoman Empire’s absolute monarchy with a constitutional government. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern republic of Turkey, was actually a native of Thessaloniki and his residence now houses the Ataturk Museum.

Eventually, on October 27th, 1912, during the First Balkan War, Thessaloniki was annexed to the Greek State. King George I of Greece settled in Thessaloniki to highlight possession of the city, but he was later murdered near the White Tower in March 1913. In 1916, in the middle of World War I, a dispute arose between the King and Eleftherios Venizelos, the Greek Prime Minister, over the stance that the country should adopt during the conflict. This resulted in the National Defense Movement and the establishment of a provisional government under Venizelos in Thessaloniki.

Recent times

In 1941, during World War II, the Nazi troops entered the city and occupied it till October 1944. In the meanwhile, their bombs destroyed a large part of the city and most of the Jewish population was slaughtered. When the war ended, the city was rebuilt according to modern European standards.

In 1988, the Early Christian and Byzantine sites of Thessaloniki were declared World Heritage Monuments by UNESCO and became the European City of Culture in 1997. Today, Thessaloniki is a vibrant city with a flourishing economy and a strong cultural identity, thanks to its impressive number of museums and historical sites.