The settlement

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The city: Around the top of the Thermaic Gulf there were several small ancient towns with intense commercial activity, which further expanded after the destruction of Olynthus by Philip in 348 BC. According to Strabo, King Cassander founded a new city in 316 BC, naming it Thessaloniki after his wife, sister to Alexander the Great. The few traces of Hellenistic buildings identified to date - an important administrative building complex in Governing House Square, and the east part of the wall - indicate that from the outset the city was intended to be a major political and military centre. Thessaloniki’s geographic location at a key point on Macedonia’s land and sea routes was an important factor in its growth down the centuries. From the mid 2nd century BC onwards it was the most important military and trading post on the Via Egnatia, which crossed the Balkan Peninsula from Durres to Byzantium (later Constantinople). Its port also began to flourish, lying as it did at the end of the road leading from the Danube to the Aegean. The city thus became the crossroads of the major trading routes heading East-West and North-South in the Roman Empire. Christian history in Thessaloniki began with the arrival of Paul the Apostle, who preached in the city’s synagogue in 51 or early 52 AD, though archaeological traces are thin on the ground until three centuries later. The 1st century saw the foundation of the Roman forum, along with several public buildings such as the library, the gymnasium and the Gallery of Figurines, which may have belonged to the imperial bath complex. In 298-299 Caesar Galerius moved his headquarters from Sirmium in Panonnia to Thessaloniki, adorning it with new monumental buildings such as the palace, the hippodrome, the theatre-stadium and the Rotonda, which was originally a temple modelled after the Pantheon in Rome. The famous Arch of Galerius, a dedicatory tetrapylon known locally as the Kamara, was erected at this time, decorated with scenes from Galerius’s victories against the Persians. In 322 Constantine the Great built the port at the southwest end of the shore. Thessaloniki became an important ecclesiastical centre from the late 4th century onwards. In 380, while staying in the city with his court in preparation for a campaign against the Goths, Emperor Theodosius I was baptized by Bishop Acholius (or Ascholios) and issued a decree forbidding sacrifices throughout the empire. Around the same time, the bishop of the city was promoted to archbishop and vicar (representative) of the Pope of Rome, with jurisdiction over the entire prefecture of East Illyria. The Christian churches built over the next two centuries changed the city, as they were the tallest buildings and most important landmarks in the new town plan developed on either side of the imperial road (the Via Regia), along the axis of what is now Egnatia Street. The Episcopal Church was a large five-nave basilica, possibly dedicated to Agios Markos; the Church of Agios Demetrios became the city’s major pilgrimage shrine. The large public buildings of the past either fell into gradual decline and were abandoned (such as the forum, which became a quarry for rocks and clay), or changed function (such as the Rotonda, which was converted into a Christian church). Excavations in the city’s historic centre have brought to light numerous early Christian buildings, the majority of which are houses. Most are urban villas in the city’s north and east section, with a spacious vaulted banquet room (triclinium) and a peristyle surrounded by rooms, baths, storage areas or cisterns. The cemeteries outside the city walls contained graves of all types, from pit graves to cist graves and tiled versions etc. Most important of all are the vaulted tombs, with fresco decorations in the interior. From the late 6th century Thessaloniki was repeatedly raided by the Avaro- Slavs and suffered earthquakes which destroyed many buildings. Combined with a general decline in the state economy, the raids and earthquakes altered living conditions in the city. This change can be traced in the construction of smaller, humbler houses with one or at most two rooms, erected on the ruins of old buildings. Descriptions of the houses preserved in legal documents of the Mount Athos monasteries provide an idea of life in the city; workshops and houses stood cheek by jowl, around shared courtyards with ovens and wells. House walls often incorporated earlier ruins and were constructed of various materials - some were of plaster coated wooden boards. Small churches and chapels were founded in the neighbourhoods on monastery-owned land. The Archbishop of Thessaloniki came under the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the new Cathedral of Agia Sophia was built in the late 8th century, decorated with mosaics sponsored by the emperor. The establishment of the Theme of Thessaloniki in the early 9th century offered security to the inhabitants and stability in the region. The markets filled with goods and the number of visitors grew. The city was proud of its scholar Bishop Leo the Mathematician and of two brothers: Constantine, who became a monk named Cyril, and Methodius. In 863 they travelled to Moravia, where they created the Old Slavonic alphabet and translated the Bible, the Divine Liturgy and important canonical texts into the language of the newly converted Slavs. Over the next centuries many more chapels and churches were built, such as Agios Euthymios, next to Agios Demetrios, and Panagia Chalkeon (1028). After Thessaloniki fell to the Saracens in 904, the next wave of destruction occurred when the city was wrested by the Normans in 1185. The Crusaders made it the capital of the Frankish kingdom from 1204 to 1224. From then onwards Thessaloniki frequently changed hands between Greek rulers who laid claim to the imperial throne, until 1246, when it was annexed to the Empire of Nicaea along with the rest of Macedonia. In 1303 Irene-Yolanda of Montferrat, second wife of Andronicus II, came to the city and remained there until her death in 1317, while in 1320 Emperor Michael IX died in the city. Important monuments of Paleologan art and architecture still survive from the first third of the 14th century, such as the churches of Agioi Apostoloi, Agia Aikaterini, Agios Panteleimon, Agios Nikolaos Orfanos and the Taxiarches (Archangels). Art production continued over the subsequent turbulent decades, though on various scales: the Church of Christ the Saviour, built after 1340, is the smallest church in the city, while that dedicated to the Prophet Elijah, built after 1360, is one of the largest. Several vacant plots within the city walls were turned into vegetable gardens or cemeteries. During the conflict between Andronicus II and his grandson Andronicus III, the Serbs and Ottomans became involved in the internal affairs of the empire as allies for one or other party vying for the throne, drawing ever closer to Thessaloniki and its surroundings. From 1342 until 1349 the city was tormented by discord between the Zealots and the Hesychasts. In 1387, following a four-year siege, the city was surrendered to the Ottomans. In 1403 it returned to Byzantine rule under Manuel II. In 1412 and 1416 it was besieged by Musa, one of the aspiring successors of Sultan Bayezid. Fearing a new conquest by the Ottomans, in 1423 Andronicus Palaeologus handed the city over to the Venetians, on conditions that were never honoured. Thessaloniki finally fell to the Ottomans in 1430.
The city- fortress: Platamonas is located by the sea, on a hill at the southeast foot of Mount Olympus. A city-fortress, it was founded during the mid-Byzantine period near the ancient city of Heraklion. The name Platamon is first attested in a chrysobull issued by Alexius III in 1198, granting the Venetians visiting privileges to the city. During the rule of the Franks, from 1204 to 1224, the castle came under the supervision of Rolando Piscia or Pise, who seems to have carried out repair works and lent the castle its present form. Platamonas then came under the rule of Theodore Comnenus Ducas, while in the 14th century it was used in wars waged by Catacuzenus and Apocaucus, then being referred to as a “small town” or “village”. Due to its important strategic position, the castle of Platamon remained in use even after its capture by the Turks, and was repaired and rebuilt many times during the Ottoman period; in 1897, heavy bombardment by the Greek naval commander Sachtouris forced the Turks to abandon the castle. It remained desolate until the Second World War, when the hill was reused as a fortified position. The Castle of Platamonas sits atop a hill next to the Thessaloniki-Athens highway, its central tower dominating the highest point. Archaeological excavations in the northeast side of the castle area unearthed a Christian church (Church A) surrounded by a cemetery. Evidence points to this having been built in the 10th-11th century, as a one-aisled church decorated with wall paintings and exquisite sculptures. A narthex was subsequently added (14th century), converting the church into a three-aisled basilica with a new series of wall paintings. An archaeological dig in area A brought to light a cemetery lying to the north and south of the church. More than 160 free burials, pit graves and burials in ciboria have been excavated, with offerings dating from the 13th-14th to the 16th-17th century. A second, small, one-aisled church (church B) was located in the southeast section of the wall, decorated with frescoes dating from the mid 17th century. Over 127 late and post-Byzantine tombs, mostly pit graves, were discovered in the area immediately outside this church, mainly containing burials of infants and children. Of interest are the mud walls of a building built around a courtyard with a well, and a small rectangular room at the north end of the yard with a hearth and fireplace. This building stands by the northern section of the city walls, and bears strong evidence of use as a forge, probably during the Ottoman period. Other private buildings – humble, one-roomed affairs surrounded by a cobbled courtyard - have also been uncovered at various points in the castle, as well as sections of the paved medieval city street plan.

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