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The city: Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, was built on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium, on the triangular peninsula formed by the Golden Horn, the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara. This was an excellent location that controlled trade routes linking the Aegean to the Black Sea. Emperor Constantine founded Constantinople in 330 AD as a city to rival Rome in splendour, wealth and power. The city grew fast, leading to problems of space and facilities, so Theodosius I extended it to the west by building new strong walls that protected Constantinople until the end of the Byzantine Empire. The city was laid out after Rome. A main road, the Mese Odos, linked the palace to the Golden Gate. On this road was the Forum, a circular plaza with a statue of Constantine mounted on a column, surrounded by public buildings. Theodosius I and Arcadius later built more forums decorated with their own statues. Following the Nika riots in the 6th century, Justinian adorned Constantinople with magnificent edifices, palaces, baths and public buildings. This time also saw the construction of Agia Sophia (the Holy Wisdom), the church which served as the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate throughout the Byzantine period. During the 7th and 8th centuries Constantinople faced major problems that threw it into disarray: attacks by the Avars (a siege in 674) and Arabs (attacks in 674 and 717-718); natural disasters (a powerful, destructive earthquake in 740); and epidemics (plague in 747). Limited building activity resumed in the 8th and 9th century, mainly concentrated on strengthening the city's fortifications. With the recovery of the Byzantine Empire from the 9th to the 11th century, Constantinople became the most populated city in Christendom; the majority of inhabitants were Greek-speaking, but many other ethnic groups lived alongside them, such as Jews, Armenians, Russians, Italians merchants, Arabs and mercenaries from Western Europe and Scandinavia. Many public, private and church-owned buildings were erected at the time, with an emphasis on establishing charitable institutions such as hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages and schools. Higher education flourished, thanks to the care of the state and the emergence of important scholars. This renaissance lasted until the mid-11th century, when economic problems due to poor management set in, compounded by the adverse outcome of imperial operations beyond the borders. The Crusaders left Constantinople entirely unscathed when first passing through, but in the Fourth Crusade of 1204 the Franks conquered and ransacked the city, slaughtering those inhabitants they did not take prisoner or drive out. In 1261 the city was retaken by Michael VIII Palaeologus, who rebuilt most of the monuments and the walls but proved unable to restore the city to its former splendour and glory. Enfeebled as it was, the empire was incapable of checking the advance of the Ottomans, and in 1453 Constantinople finally fell into their hands. The fall signalled the end of the empire. Nevertheless, the Byzantine intellectual tradition remained significant, as many scholars settled in the Venetian dominions of Crete and the Peloponnese, as well as in European countries, conveying Greek learning to the West.
Τhe church of Panagia Chalkeon: The Church of Panagia Chalkeon (the Virgin Mary of the Coppersmiths) lies near the intersection of Egnatia and Aristotle Street, in an area taken up from antiquity by coppersmiths workshops. According to the inscription on the lintel of the west entrance, the church was erected in 1028 on the site of a pagan sanctuary by Christopher, Protospatharios and Catepano (Commander) of Longobardia, his wife Mary and his children Nicephorus, Anna and Katakali. The founder’s tomb is in an arcosolium in the middle of the north wall. The church is of particular architectural and morphological interest. It is a composite four-column cross-in-square church with a central dome and two further domes at the ends of the two-storey narthex, and a sanctuary with a three-sided apse to the east. It is built of alternating layers of thin and thick brick (using the so-called recessed brick technique), with the thinner, recessed layers covered in mortar to create alternating red (brick) and white (mortar) surfaces. Morphological features that lend the monument intense plasticity include slender domes, pediments, blind arches, brick half columns, arched ends, and successive openings and conches, all contributing to harmonious spatial composition and carefully balanced proportions. A marble cornice runs around the church; below this on the south side are clay tablets decorated with kufic ornaments to form a frieze. The columns in the church are crowned with tectonic capitals bearing cord-shaped ornaments on the edges, and circular frames with crosses, rosettes and whirls of fire on the sides. According to an inscription on the intrados of the sanctuary arch that mentions the same sponsor, the greater part of the painted decoration was carried out when the church was first erected. The iconographic programme includes scenes from the Christological cycle in the nave (Nativity, Presentation, Adoration of the Magi, Pentecost), with the Ascension in the dome. The sanctuary has a depiction of the Platytera (Virgin of the Sign), together with full face portraits of prelates and the Communion of the Apostles. The Second Coming is depicted in the narthex. The original decoration in parts of the north and south walls and on the west side seems to have been replaced in the Paleologan period. All that remains of the paintings are remnants of the Assumption, the Akathist Hymn and some individual saints. In Ottoman times the church became a mosque, but was restored to Christian worship thereafter. It suffered major earthquake damage in 1933, but was completely restored before World War II. Damage caused by quakes in 1978 led to a new series of restorations from 1980 onwards.
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.

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