Thessaloniki_EN

16
2 nd walk:
HISTORIC CENTRE (1)
TRADITIONAL COMMERCIAL CENTRE
link the town’s civic centre
(Dikastirion Square, see p. 35)
and Kassandrou Street with
Aristotelous Square and the
seafront. All along the street
there are buildings the facades
of which all follow specific
architectural patterns with
colonnades and arcades, and
they house offices, bookshops,
stores, hotels, state agencies,
residencies etc. The junction of
Aristotelous and Ermou Streets
is the location of the church of
Agia [Saint] Theodora (1937)
built on an old monastery site
now housing a community of
monks; facing north you will
see upper Aristotelous square.
1.2 Shopping streets
(see p. 27)
2 NIKIS AVENUE
It starts at the harbour from
the west and goes eastward
to the White Tower (see p. 24)
and it is known as Palia Paralia
[Old Seafront]. The Turks
opened it up in 1882, following
an urban plan for modernising
the city, after the seafront city
walls were demolished. For
many decades, traders and
warships, fishing boats and
yachts would dock along the
wharf. Today, this is one of
the top places in Thessaloniki,
crossed daily by thousands of
locals and visitors. One side
of the avenue is lined with
cafés and cosy little bars and
the opposite wide pedestrian
area next to the sea gets
filled with strollers, cyclists,
street artists and vendors.
Among the modern blocks of
flats, you will see some of the
city’s major landmarks: past
Eleftherias square, the threestorey
interwar period mansion
where Olympos-Naousa a
once popular restaurant used
to be; Aristotelous square;
Koniordou Mansion (at the
corner with Kar. Dil street);
Tyroloi Mansion built during
the Interbellum (located
between Kar. Dil and Agia Sofia
Streets), where Tottis coffee
shop used to be for many
years; Mandalideio Mansion
(1931) and Exarchopoulos
Mansion (1935) - the two
last ones are situated at the
junction with Vogatsikou
street; at 63, Nikis Avenue
you will see the three-storey
building of the Thessaloniki
Club (1926); at number 73,
Pallas, an old cinema theatre,
houses the State Orchestra of
Thessaloniki.
3 ELEFTHERIAS SQUARE
The square is close to the
harbour and it is used as an
open-air car parking lot. This
is the spot where, back in
1943, the German Occupation
forces mustered about 50,000
Jewish residents in order to
ship them to concentration
camps. To commemorate
this event, the Holocaust
Memorial of the Jewish Greeks
of Thessaloniki was placed in
1997 at the square’s northeast
side, crafted by the sculptor
N. Glid. At the junction of
Mitropoleos and I. Dragoumi
streets stand the imposing
buildings of the National
Bank of Greece & the Bank
of Greece (1928) and of the
Ionian and Popular Bank (1929
– today Alpha Bank); elements
of late neoclassicism and
interwar period eclecticism are
evident on the outside of both
buildings.
MUST SEE:
3.1 Kalapothaki Street.
It starts at Ladadika area,
ends at Dimosthenous
street and its biggest part is
now pedestrianised. There
are some very interesting
neoclassical and Bauhausstyle
buildings with popular
cafés, bar restaurants, and
small hotels. Stein Building is
at the corner of El. Venizelos
and Kalapothaki Streets; it
was built in 1908 in order to
house a department store
and it is one of the very few
buildings that were spared
destruction at the 1917 great
fire. Notice the glass globe on
the top of the building, a point
of reference in Eleftherias Sq.
In the neighbouring Komninon
Street it is worth noticing the
eclectic style on buildings
such as Luxemburg Hotel as
well as Tourist and Excelsior
Hotels at the junction with
Mitropoleos streets.
4 PORT
The area is one of the biggest
ports of the country and of the
southeastern Mediterranean,
with a significant trade and
passenger traffic. This is where
the first artificial harbour of
the town was constructed by
Constantine the Great during
his short stay in Thessaloniki
(322-323 AD); later on during
the Turkish Occupation it
was banked up with earth.
2 nd walk:
HISTORIC CENTRE (1)
TRADITIONAL COMMERCIAL CENTRE
17
10
10.
Bustling Nikis
Avenue and
the White
Tower in the
background.