'I like this city enormously. I can't believe it's ours!" exclaimed a leading Greek politician visiting Thessaloniki for the first time after it had been liberated from the Ottomans in 1912. Thessaloniki is one of the oldest cities in Europe, it was founded in 315BC to be the center of Alexander the Great's Macedonia. She has survived many histories and been the setting for many of Europe's key events..
...from the fall of Alexander's Macedon to the Romans in 168BC to Christianity's first visit to Europe through St Paul,
from the birth and glory of Byzantium to the cities eventual fall in 1430 to the Ottomans,
from being the key port of the Ottoman empire to giving birth to Mustapha Kemal Ataturk - the man who made modern Turkey,
from being accidentally burnt down by a fire started by the French army in 1917 to receiving 3 times its population in refugees 5 years later during the population transfer as the Ottoman empire crumbled and modern Greece and Turkey were born,
from the tragic loss of its unique Sephardic Jewish population in WW2 during the German occupation to its rebirth as a vibrant modern city in the 70's.
Its now the 2nd biggest city in Greece, a city of faded beauty and ghosts, a city of refuge and a city full of hope..
Thessaloniki was once the most multicultural city in Europe, for 600 years equal populations of Christians, Jews and Muslims shared the city. Now its population is almost entirely Greek, particularly refugees who came from Asia Minor in 1922 - from the ancient Kingdom of Pontos on the Black Sea and the Greek city of Smyrna (now Izmir in Western Turkey). The music on the left is Pontian, you hear it from Cafe Nio's and houses all over the city. After the population transfer the city was nicknamed "The Refugee Capital' and 'Mother of the poor' and even today the city's inhabitants and culture are distinctively Anatolian in character. Modern Thessaloniki is full of character and life and dominated by its universities, the biggest in Greece. Its famous for its vibrant nightlife and bars and for being the center of Greek fashion, cuisine and cool..
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