Many forget that for centuries, while Athens had been reduced to a small hamlet under the Akropolis, Salonika was the biggest and most important city in the Byzantine (and later Ottoman) Empire after Constantinople/Istanbul. There is a continuity in the city’s history, which one can not find in Athens, whose sights flip-flop between ancient and […]
The strange cult of St Demetrius in Thessaloniki
Should you find yourself in Thessaloniki on Oct 26, consider yourself doubly lucky. Not only because you are there during the day of St Demetrius, but also because presumably you’ve found a bed for the night. This is not just any day, because Demetrius is a homeboy: the city’s patron, whose grave has been revered […]