C. Sfikas - Thessaloniki|: A byzantine city
By C.Sfikas | Tourist Guide & UNESCO journalist
Thessaloniki, with the number “456” on the list, has been declared an UNESCO city for its most important churches. The extremely well-preserved city walls and Greece's most important Roman monument, the Rotunda of Galerius, is the first monument to be declared as an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Rotunda, almost intact from time to time, adds value to the city's architectural heritage with its famous mosaics, giving us a wonderful set of early Christian art.
Two steps away, the basilicas of Achiropoietos and Agios Dimitrios represent the early Christian face of the city while Hagia Sophia, the old metropolis of Thessaloniki, introduces us to the Post-Byzantine period.
Magnificent mosaics decorate the walls, the arches of the 3 churches and the dome of Hagia Sophia. The 11th- century Panagia Chalkeon and the palaeological temples of Agios Panteleimon, Agia Aikaterini, Metamorfosi tou Sotiros, Taxiarchon with the once dynamic Byzantine bath, Agios Nikolaos Orfanos and the most important temple of the 12 Apostles of the city in the West, create a rare set of a Byzantine city in Europe.
