4 days to discover Thessaloniki

CITY GUIDE

Thessaloniki: Change has always been rapid here.

Despite the burden of history (ruled successively by the Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Turks, it was liberated from the last in 1912) it is a modern, restless city, a home to cinema, literature, the visual arts and an endless array of cultural events.

Fast development and extensive building have extended Thessaloniki almost to the enchanting peninsula of Halkidiki. Always a crossroads between East and West, conservative and innovative at the same time, it is a city of fertile contradictions, introverted and wide open, the key and the pass key to south-eastern Europe. It is a city of great quests, modern currents, the tens of thousands of students who come every year, a harbour and an embrace, a starting point and a vision of travel; it is a withdrawal into ourselves and at the same time a perfect place for warm, easy communication.

It is a city of long promenades, meetings, fun, and excellent food. It is a great lady and a simple mother; a Greek and a cosmopolitan city that has hosted an influential Jewish community for five centuries as well as many contemporary immigrants. It is a big, human city, suited to everyday pleasures but also the womb of many dreams.

Thessaloniki, city of the International Exhibition and of the International Film Festival, of the song writers Tsitsanis and Savvopoulos, of music, dance and theatre. Thessaloniki, city of books and reading and today, city of the International Book Fair.