Thessaloniki is the largest and most populous city in Macedonia
and Northern Greece. It is the seat of the Municipality of
Thessaloniki and the capital of the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki,
the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki, as well as the seat of the
Region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of
Macedonia - Thrace.
It was founded in 316/5 BC. from the
Macedonian general Kassandros, who gave her the name of his wife and
half-sister of Alexander the Great, Thessaloniki and came from the
union of 26 states that were located around the Thermaic Gulf. In
the 2nd BC. century the city was conquered by the Romans and became
the seat of the Roman province of Macedonia. It is alleged that it
was founded on the site of ancient Thermi, from where the Thermaic
Gulf took its name.
Due to its strategic location, the city
was chosen as the imperial capital during the reign of Galerius, who
built an imperial palace in Thessaloniki. After the completion of
the Egnatia Odos (120 BC), Thessaloniki, which was the most populous
city of the network with international radiation, became the most
important junction between East and West. After the division of the
Roman Empire, it was one of the candidate capitals of the Eastern
Roman Empire, to finally choose Byzantium. It acquired the title of
"ruling" city during the Byzantine Empire and was an important
administrative and military center while at the same time it became
a hub of intellectual and cultural development with flourishing
education, art, literature, philosophy, architecture and science,
with period of the 14th century which is characterized as the
Byzantine "golden age of Thessaloniki".
After its conquest by
the Ottomans in 1432, it remained in the Ottoman Empire for about
five centuries. After the expulsion of the Jews mainly from the
Iberian Peninsula in 1492 with the issuance of the decree of the
Alhambra, but also from Northern Europe, Thessaloniki became their
destination, thus acquiring its own Jewish community. The settlement
of the Jews in Thessaloniki made the city the important Jewish
metropolis until at least the beginning of the 20th century.
Especially since the middle of the 19th century, the city has been
the most cosmopolitan and multicultural urbanized center of the
Ottoman Empire and the most important pole of political movements
and movements that it has encountered in its long history.
With its accession to the Greek State in 1912, the population of the
city underwent significant changes, such as the Asia Minor
Catastrophe and the settlement of Greek refugees from Asia Minor and
then - during the Exchange of Populations - with the removal of the
Muslim population and its replacement. from refugee populations of
Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace. This is the reason why Thessaloniki
is often referred to as a "refugee". The population changes
contributed to the change of the population situation of the city,
with the strengthening of the Greek element. Its urban and
architectural reorganization was accelerated by the Great Fire of
1917 and the efforts of the new Greek administration to add ancient
Greek and European elements to the architectural style of the city,
which led to the destruction of several Ottoman religious and
functional buildings. The most significant population changes are
observed with the settlement of the Asia Minor and Thracian refugee
population after the Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922, with the
Holocaust of the prosperous Jewish community by the Nazi troops
during the period of the triple occupation during the Second World
War and the Second World War. observed in the 50s and later and
leads to internal migration to large urban centers.
From its
foundation by Kassandros, Thessaloniki as a prosperous Hellenistic
city, until the era of Ottoman rule, utilizes its strategic position
and develops into a multicultural city. Since 1912, with the end of
the Balkan Wars and the integration of the region into the modern
Greek State, Thessaloniki is the second most populous city in
Greece. It is often referred to as the co-capital of Greece. The
population of the Urban Complex is estimated at 788,191 inhabitants,
according to the 2011 Census. The population of the metropolitan
area amounts to 1,012,013 inhabitants while that of the peripheral
unit (former prefecture) to 1,110,912 inhabitants.
Etymology and forms of the name
Thessaloniki was founded by
Cassander and was named after his wife, Thessaloniki, who was the
half-sister of Alexander the Great and daughter of Philip II and his
fifth wife, Princess Nikisipolis of Thessaly. Its name comes from
the composition of the words Thessaly and Victory, in memory of the
victory of the Macedonians and the Common of Thessaly against the
tyrannical regime of Fera and their allies Phocaea, in the context
of the Third Holy War.
The name is found in various forms but
with slightly varied spelling and phonetic variations. Thessaloniki
is an aggressive form, found in the work of Strabo [6] and is used
in Hellenistic times as the name of the city, formed from the name
of a natural person, as was done for Seleucia by Seleucus,
Cassandreia by Cassander, Alexandria by Alexander the Great et al.
However, the predominant form of the name is Thessaloniki. From the
Hellenistic era there are reports with the name Thettaloniki, mainly
from the historian Polybius. while during the Roman period, as
inscriptions and coins show, the figures of Thessalonica and
Thessalonica [city] appeared.
The type Saloniki (h), is found
in the Chronicle of Morea (14th century, pp. 1010, 1075, 3603 etc)
and is common in folk songs. It seems to be older as the Arab
geographer Idris in 1150 mentions the city as Salunik (hence the
Turkish Selianik). In one sense, Salonika came from the long-term
use of the expression in Thessaloniki> st'T'Salounik '>
st'T'Salounik'> f (h) Salounik. The name of the city came from
Salonika (h) in other languages of the region during the medieval
times. The Turkophones and the Ottomans called the city Thessaloniki
(Ottoman: سلاني, Turkish: Selânik) as well as the Jews, who settled
in the city after the Ottoman conquest and spoke Spanish-Hebrew
Latin, the Balkan Slavic populations: Solun ( Солун) and the Vlachs
Saruna (Vlach: Sãrunã).
History
Establishment and
development in the Hellenistic world
In the area of today's
city and especially in Toumba, the International Fair, Karabournaki,
Polichni, Nea Efkarpia, Stavroupoli and Pylaia there were
prehistoric and later settlements and settlements. Until the 6th
century BC. the area was inhabited by tribes such as the Phrygians,
the Paeonians, the Mygdons etc. According to Hecataeus the Milesian,
in his time the Thracians and the Greeks prevailed. The period 510
BC-480 BC. the area had been subjugated to the Persians. The
Macedonians must have moved to the area of the Thermaic Gulf in
the 6th century BC.
An important settlement was Thermi, which
is placed by most archaeologists in Karabournaki. It had the largest
and safest port in the region, otherwise Xerxes I of Persia would
not have chosen it to anchor there and rest his fleet. Thermi was
occupied in 431 BC. by the Athenians, who two years later handed it
over to the Macedonian king Perdiccas II. In the second half of the
4th century BC, the Athenians again mediated in order for Thermi to
fall under the rule of the legal heirs to the throne of Macedonia
and not to the usurper Pausanias.
There are two main
testimonies regarding the founding of Thessaloniki. The first
belongs to the ancient historian Strabo and is the most prevalent
among modern historians with differences in the year of foundation.
According to Strabo, in 316 BC. or 315 BC. Kassandros, general
of Macedonia and curator of Alexander IV, the minor son of Alexander
the Great, founded Thessaloniki. In fact, Thessaloniki was one of
the two cities founded by Kassandros. The other was Plataea,
Boeotia.
The second testimony is of Stephen of Byzantium, who
considers Philip II as the founder of the city.
The
prevailing view of the founding of Thessaloniki by the usurper of
the throne of the kingdom of Macedonia, Kassandros, relates his
choice to the perception of the strategic location of this innermost
cavity of the Macedonian coastline, which could easily connect the
hinterland with the sea. creating the conditions for a prosperous
trade movement, while also providing security from raids.
In
addition, Kassandros considered the armament of Thessaloniki as a
second act, which would legitimize his claims to the Macedonian
throne after his marriage to a descendant of the royal dynasty. In
Hellenistic Thessaloniki, as far as we know, there were the tribes:
Antigonis, Dionysia and Asklipia and the municipalities of
Voukefalia and Kekropis.
With the ancient city of Thermi as its main axis, Kassandros
forced the populations of 26 local coastal settlements and villages
of the wider region and western Halkidiki to relocate, creating the
new state, which he named in honor of his wife, Thessaloniki. Due to
its location, which connected Macedonia with the Aegean Sea,
Thessaloniki in a very short time became the most important city in
all of Macedonia. The commercial importance of the city attracted
from early (3rd century BC) various settlers (Egyptians, Syrians,
Jews) increasing its population and topographic size, while
maintaining trade contacts with all ports of the East. From the
historical data it seems that the city had a permanent guard of
Galatian mercenaries.
Very little is known about the
Hellenistic history of the city. In the first years of
Thessaloniki's life, the competition with the also Macedonian colony
of Demitriados in the Pagasitic Gulf began. One could say that it
surpassed the capital Pella in glory and splendor, since it was the
base of the Macedonian fleet. The ancient Macedonians believed that
the city was protected by the gods of Olympus. A section of a
magnificent building has been unveiled in the modern Dioikitirio
square, which may have been the royal residence of the Macedonian
kings.
In 287 BC. When the kings Pyrrhus of Epirus and
Lysimachus defeated the king of Macedonia Demetrius the Besieger, it
seems that Thessaloniki fell temporarily to the possession of the
first and later of the second. In all probability, Thessaloniki was
walled up at the same time as its founding. However, the walls saved
the city in 279 BC, when the Celts attempted to conquer it and were
forced to leave for Delphi and Aetolia. After a series of upheavals,
the Macedonian city fell to the Antigonids (277 BC). In 273 BC. In
the city, the defeated by Pyrros, Antigonus Gonatas, took refuge in
an attempt to regroup the army, in order to beat the invader Pyrros.
There, in fact, a powerful fleet was built in its port, defeating
the Ptolemaic. This benefited the nymph of Thermaikos. From the
years of the reign of Antigonus II began the period of dense
habitation of Thessaloniki. In a decree of Istiaia (270 BC-200 BC),
two Thessalonians are mentioned in the list of its consuls, while in
another of 224 BC / 223 BC. mentions a famous priest of
Thessaloniki. At the same time between the years 239 BC. with 221 BC
The visits of the two Antigonid kings to the city, Demetrius II and
Antigonus III, are reported.
In 197 BC. Philip V took refuge
in Thessaloniki after his defeat in the battle of Kynos Kefalos by
the Romans. In 187 BC. the city minted its first coins with the
inscription THESSALONIKI and depicted Dionysus, Hermes, Pegasus, the
goat and the goat. Also on the 15th of December of the same year,
Philip V issued a royal decree in a marble column, addressed to
Andronikos' trusted representative, for the management of the
Serapion. In 185 BC. King Antigonides accompanied the Roman embassy
to Thessaloniki through the Valley of the Temples. There was a
meeting between Macedonians and Romans about the fate of the
Macedonians under Macedonian rule. After the end of the Thracian
campaign (184 BC-183 BC) a conspiracy was revealed against Philip by
his pro-Roman son, Demetrius, to overthrow him.
In order to
overthrow the pro-Roman hearths of Macedonia that focused on the
coastal cities, Philip transported settlers from the interior of the
country to the coast and vice versa. These harsh measures displeased
Thessaloniki, although this measure promoted its economy and
military security. Eventually he devised his plan of extermination
in Thessaloniki. This happened after wintering in the city in the
winter of 181 BC / 180 BC. During the spring of 179 BC. Philip
toured from Demitriada to Thessaloniki, showing the lords the
successor he intended: Antigonus, nephew of Antigonus Doson.
It is worth mentioning during this period a child of Hellenistic
Thessaloniki, Ion. He was the leader together with Artemon of
Dolopia, a corps of 400 javelin throwers and an equal number of
slingers during the battle of Kallinikos (May 171 BC), which ended
with the victory of the Macedonians. He was also the protector of
Perseus' sons, whom he later handed over to the Romans after the
battle of Pydna. During the Roman-Macedonian wars, in June 169 BC,
the city, along with Aeneas, Cassandria and Antigoneia, heroically
repulsed the attacks of the Roman fleet of Gaius Mark Figos, in
which Eumenes II assisted. of Pergamon and Prussia II of Bithynia.
Then 500 Gauls of Thessaloniki, strengthened the defense of
Cassandreia, which again repulsed a naval attack by the Romans. At
the administrative level the city enjoyed controlled autonomy, which
was managed by the Church of the Municipality and the Parliament,
being at the same time under the sovereignty of the king, who
exercised his political power through civil servants - agents, the
Royal, while appointing the military administrator , the
Superintendent, who had as subordinates the Superintendent and the
Commissioners.
Roman rule
The overthrow of the kingdom of
Antigonids by the Roman troops of the high White Emilius Paul in 168
BC. brought Thessaloniki to the borders of the Roman Republic (Res
publica). Two days after the defeat of Perseus at the Battle of
Pydna, Thessaloniki was surrendered to the Romans (June 24, 168 BC).
Perseus temporarily took refuge in the city, where he ordered its
guard, Eumenes, to gather the Macedonian fleet in the port and set
it on fire.
Until 148 BC, Thessaloniki was the capital of one
of the four administrative districts into which the Romans had
divided the Hellenistic kingdom, stretching from Strymon to Axios
(Macedonia Secunda). However, after the suppression of the
revolution of Andriskos, which seems not to have been supported by
the Thessalonians, an administrative restructuring took place and
Macedonia, with more extensive borders of the kingdom of Antigonids,
was declared a Roman province (Provincia Macedonia), ruled by a
viceroy with a capital praetor in Thessaloniki.
The
construction of the Egnatia Road by the Romans between 146 BC-120
BC, the main military and commercial channel of the eastern
administration, which connected the Adriatic Sea with the Hellespont
and Asia Minor, promoted its significant importance. city and
consolidated its protagonist's paradox within the growing state.
Thus until the second half of the 2nd BC. century, Thessaloniki
had emerged as a dominant crossroads and a base of commercial and
military activity. In fact, in the following years, the gradual
expansion of the Roman state to the east and north resulted in the
removal of the danger of barbaric invasions. The dangers reappeared
on both the eastern and northern borders much later, when the Goths
besieged the city in 254 and 268 AD.
In the civil conflict
between the democrats and the imperialists, which followed the
assassination of Julius Caesar (44 AD), the inhabitants of
Thessaloniki sided with the latter. The complete victory of the
emperors Antonios and Octavian against Brutus and Cassius in 42 AD.
in Philippi led to the granting of more privileges to the city and
the actual self-government with its proclamation as a "free city" -
Civitas Libera.
During Roman rule, many deities were
worshiped in Thessaloniki. Apart from the Dodecatheon, honors and
worship were attributed to Dionysus, the Kaveri and the Egyptian
deities Serapis, Isis and Arpocrates.
During the last
pre-Christian century, more and more Jews moved to Thessaloniki,
creating a large Jewish community, located near the port. In the
synagogue of this community, the Apostle Paul preached the Christian
faith in 50 AD. His two letters to the portion of its Christianized
members, as well as former nationals of the city, are the oldest
texts of the New Testament. However, there is no historical evidence
that the Apostle Paul preached in a Jewish synagogue and the only
reference in his letters has more to do with the concept of
"synagogue" as a gathering.
The Christian community of Thessaloniki prospered and became a
model for all other Greek communities, as can be seen from the First
Epistle of the Apostle Paul, where he praises the local church.
Thessaloniki, like all of Macedonia, followed the long period of
prosperity guaranteed by Pax Romana, the eponymous Roman peace that
ruled the empire until about the end of the Antonin dynasty. The
magnitude of its value is evident from the honorary titles bestowed
on it by a number of emperors. During the main imperial period, many
Thessalonians were granted the right of Roman citizenship (civitas
Romana).
The secular regime ended when Caesar Galerius
settled in Thessaloniki. Then began a fierce persecution of
Christians. Among other things, Agios Dimitrios martyred in 305 in
the city. However, apart from the religious persecutions,
Thessaloniki benefited greatly when it was declared the seat of the
Gallery, as it was decorated with many public buildings and upgraded
politically. Its prosperity continued in the following years, when
the emperor Constantine I built a port in front of the walls, which
was used until the fall of the Byzantine Empire.
At the stage
of the decline of the traditional Roman national-pagan state and the
shift of its center of gravity to the east in order to transform in
less than a century into the new state entity, which was later
called Byzantine, Thessaloniki again played a significant role.
Initially as the capital of Galerius and then as a candidate for the
new capital of the state, it modeled the dynamics that would be
involved during the Christian empire of the East.
The
Byzantine Colonial city
The city was associated from the
beginning with the historical figure who would transform the pagan
Roman Empire into the longest-lived Christian kingdom, the founder
of the Byzantine state, Constantine. In 324, Constantine, in the
context of his dispute with Licinius, used Thessaloniki as a
military base, building a new port, the nickname "digging port", in
order to gather in it a fleet of 200 "three-masted" galleys and 2000
merchant ships, the which would carry his army of 120,000 men.
After the final domination of Constantine over Likinios in the
battle of Chrysoupoli, the latter with the intervention of his
sister and husband Constantine the Great was sent into exile to the
fortress of the Acropolis of Thessaloniki. There, according to the
historian Zosimos, he was assassinated on the orders of Constantine.
The transfer of the capital of the empire to the east, to the
old colony of Megara, Byzantium, from here to Constantinople or New
Rome, will contribute to the further promotion of Thessaloniki. The
growing perception of its geostrategic importance and the works that
are being built in the city, with the providence of the emperors
Julian and Theodosius the Great, make it "the eye of Europe and,
above all, of Greece". It becomes "Conqueror", is called
"Megaloupolis" and holds the position of the next city of the empire
after Constantinople (Thessaloniki after the great first Roman
city).
Theodosius the Great, as Augustus of the East
initially, used Thessaloniki as his seat. After repelling the Goths
in 378, he embraced Christianity, at the urging of the bishop of
Thessaloniki, Ascholio, and proceeded to the systematic
fortification of the city, a task he assigned to the Persian
Hormisdas. From Thessaloniki he issued the imperial decree which
defined Christianity as the official religion of the state. Contrary
to what one might expect, Theodosius was not popular with the
Thessalonians, due to the gradual penetration of the Goths into the
Byzantine army and especially into the imperial guard. Thus, in 390,
when the commander of the Gothic garrison, Buterichos, captured a
popular chariot race, riots broke out, during which he lost his
life. In retaliation, Theodosius ordered the trapping and slaughter
of 7,000 Thessalonians at the Hippodrome. Since then, the Hippodrome
has not been reused.
Theodosius was imitated by other
emperors, who settled in Thessaloniki in order to fight the invaders
or the barbaric invaders. The trials of Thessaloniki from the
invasions of the Gothic tribes continued until the end of the 5th
century, when the city managed to ensure a short period of peace and
prosperity. The Macedonian emperor Justinian also helped her, by
giving special weight to her problems and reducing Thessaloniki to
the capital of the Illyrian praetor (ie the Balkans).
By the time of the Iconoclasm, impressive public buildings and
many temples had been erected in the city. However, its walls, in
which enemy raids and siege attempts were crushed, proved more
useful. Between 527-688, the city repulsed dozens of raids by Slavs,
Avars, Persians, Draguvites, Sagudites and Verzites. The
Thessalonians said that they saw Saint Demetrius many times on the
walls, fleeing the invaders.
At the end of the 6th century
the Slavic threat appeared, which was to plunder the city for the
next two centuries. The Slavic tribes, initially under the
leadership of the Avars and later autonomously, made many raids
against Thessaloniki with the most important ones of 586 and 597.
Finally, the Slavic aspirations were given in 688 by the emperor
Justinian II, invoking Rinotmitos, who defeated the Slavs entered
the city triumphantly.
When the Iconoclasm began,
Thessaloniki became a place of exile for the iconoclasts of the
queen. Among them was Saint Theodore the Studite. In reaction to the
iconoclastic attitude of the Church of Rome, the emperor Leo III
Isaurus seized the eastern Illyrian from the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of Rome and returned it to the Patriarchate of
Constantinople. After this event the archbishop of Thessaloniki
ceased to be the vicar of the Pope and the local church connected
its course with the eastern ecclesiastical administration. In the
second half of the 9th century, the mission to the Slavic peoples of
the Thessalonian brothers Cyril and Methodius took place, whose
action was connected with the beginning of Christianity and the
literature of the Slavs. From Thessaloniki Cyril and Methodius
started in 863 in order to Christianize the Arabs, the Khazars (in
Georgia) and the Slavs (in Great Moravia).
In 904 the city
was attacked by the Saracens (Arabs of the West) led by the
Islamized Leo the Tripoli. The intensity of the attack and the
unpreparedness of the siege led to its conquest and plunder.
Thousands of inhabitants were slaughtered, while more were captured
and sold as slaves. The following centuries were marked by
unsuccessful attempts to occupy Thessaloniki and by the constant
wars of the Byzantine Empire with its enemies, mainly in the
Balkans. Nevertheless, the 10th and the beginning of the 11th
century were characterized as a period of reconstruction and the
empire was divided into "subjects". Thessaloniki became the capital
of a subject that survived until the 15th century.
From the
Norman conquest to the top of the Byzantine administration
In
1185 the Norman invaders occupied Durres and then Thessaloniki, a
milestone in the history of the city. In the siege, which began on
August 15, 1185, the Normans used 200 ships and 80,000 men to
blockade the city from land and sea. The supply of the city was not
sufficient, the commander of David Komnenos was not able to properly
organize the defense, he abandoned the defenders and the
reinforcements from Istanbul arrived too late. So the Normans,
within a few days (August 24, 1185) after losing 3,000 soldiers,
captured Thessaloniki, despite the heroic defense of the
inhabitants, and looted it, killing 7,000 of its inhabitants. The
main historian of the fall was the Archbishop of Thessaloniki
Efstathios, from whose work "History of the fall of Thessaloniki
under the Normans" most information is derived.
The
occupation of Constantinople by the Franks in 1204 and the overthrow
of the empire led the Thessalonians to negotiations with the
Frankish ruler Boniface of Momferrato, the result of which was the
surrender of the city on the condition of maintaining the old local
privileges. Boniface founded the Kingdom of Thessaloniki, which was
short-lived, as the city remained under Latin occupation for 20
years.
In 1224 the Despot of Epirus, Theodoros Komninos
Doukas, occupied Thessaloniki and was anointed King and Emperor of
the Romans by the Archbishop of Ohrid Dimitrios Chomatianos.
Thessaloniki was proclaimed co-ruler (Constantinople remained king
even though it was still occupied by the Latins) and became the
capital of the Despotate of Epirus. Theodoros Doukas extended his
territory to Edirne. But before launching the conquest of Istanbul,
he wanted to subjugate Bulgaria.
The decline of Theodoros Doukas's state began with his defeat in
1230 at the Battle of Klokotnitsa by Ivan Assen II. Most of its
territory was occupied by the Bulgarians while in Thessaloniki the
successors of Theodore continued to reign until 1246, when it was
occupied by the emperor of Nicaea John III Dukas Vatatzis. In 1261,
Michael XVI Palaiologos occupied Constantinople, which again became
the capital of the Byzantines. Over the years, the position of
Thessaloniki was upgraded. In the 14th century it became a real
empire, as the Byzantine Empire was now based in the Balkans and not
in Asia Minor. The city was usually ruled by the emperor's son or
another member of the imperial dynasty.
The Zealots Movement
and the Palaeologan Renaissance
Thessaloniki as a ruler was
involved in the two civil wars, the first between Andronikos II and
Andronikos III (1320-1328) and the second between John VI
Kantakouzinos and John V Palaiologos (1341-1354). In fact, the
attempt of Ioannis Kantakouzinos to occupy the city in 1342 led to
the manifestation of a social revolution. The leaders of the
insurgents were the Zealots, who came from the middle and lower
social strata.
The revolutionary movement of the Zealots
emerged as an original democratic island in the medieval world,
where hegemony, the separation of the nobles from the people and the
"mercy of God" administration were the absolute establishments. The
struggle between the Grand Duke Alexios Apokafkos and Ioannis
Kantakouzinos for dominance over the Byzantine throne led the empire
into a civil war, which resulted in the creation of thousands of
economic refugees, crowded in large urban centers such as
Thessaloniki.
The growing dissatisfaction of the popular
classes against the nobles, who supported Kantakouzenos, brought the
attitude of the Zealots in 1342. At the beginning of the year the
people of Thessaloniki, sided with Anna of Savoy and the Apocalypse
and led by the Zealots, revolted. and looted the houses of the city
governor and the wealthy nobles, while those aristocrats who could
not escape were exiled and slaughtered. After imposing themselves
completely in the city, the Zealots took power.
This early
movement of proletarian claim prevailed until 1349 when a regime of
self-government was imposed. The Zealots then tried to reach an
agreement with the Serbian ruler Stefan Dusan, in order to
strengthen their position. The people of Thessaloniki reacted and
the counter-revolution, organized by members of the imperial court,
overthrew the Zealots, whose leaders were forced to leave the city.
In 1350 Anna of Savoy settled in the city, who ruled in the name
of her son, John V. Contrary to what might be expected, the
political unrest did not prevent the city from flourishing. During
the first half of the 14th century, many scholars lived in
Thessaloniki and temples, monasteries and secular public buildings
were built. Especially in the field of art, the schools of
Thessaloniki influenced the entire Balkan Christian world and
Russia. This whole spiritual movement was called the Palaeologan
Renaissance and is the period during which the ruling Thessaloniki
claims the spiritual primacy of the empire. After 1350, the greatest
theologian of the 14th century and pioneer of the Hesychasm
movement, Saint Gregory Palamas, settled in Thessaloniki. The
hesychastic movement, although it was a brake on the teaching of
philosophical studies and classical education, nevertheless renewed
the monastic movement and art that continued to survive on Mount
Athos even after the overthrow of the Byzantine Empire.
Ottoman period
The Ottoman advance into the European territories
of the Byzantine Empire and the gradual occupation of the Balkan
Peninsula manifested their effects in Thessaloniki, which, excluded
from the land and without the possibility of receiving foreign aid
in 1387, after a four-year siege, became a tax haven. AD and
accepted an Ottoman guard. Two years later, and in a climate of
uncertainty that temporarily prevailed after the assassination of
Sultan Murad I, the Thessalonians drove out the Ottoman garrison of
the city.
The historian Doukas mentions the destruction of
Thessaloniki in 1391 by Bayezid I due to the escape of Manuel II
from the sultan's court and his rise to emperor. From that time
there is the first reference in Greek sources for child molestation,
the forced Islamization of children. This happened in 1395 and
refers to a consoling speech of the then Archbishop of Thessaloniki
Isidoros to the parents of the children. Thessaloniki is considered
to be the first major Greek city to pay this "blood tax".
The first Ottoman occupation of the city lasted until 1403 when
Emperor Manuel, taking advantage of the defeat of Bayezid by the
Mongols of Tamerlane at the Battle of Ankara (1402) and the ensuing
civil strife between his sons for succession, succeeded in
Thessaloniki in exchange for his contribution to Bayezid's son,
Suleiman Tselebi.
The alleviation of the internal problems of
the Ottoman hegemony, its new aggressive momentum against the
Byzantine lands but also the weakness of the decadent empire in
their defense led in 1423 Andronikos Palaiologos, son of the emperor
of Thessaloniki Manolos to Paul to the Venetians.
The
seven-year occupation by the troops of the Venetian Republic was
essentially a period of decline for the city. Its naval and land
blockade by the Ottomans meant its economic weakening, which in
combination with the dynastic behavior of the Venetians intensified
popular discontent.
During the siege under Sultan Murad II
the city resisted and did not accept the sultan's proposal for
surrender. Then the sultan "preached with a trumpet (to his army)
saying: I give you everything in the city, men, women, children,
silver and gold, just leave the city to me". Finally, the "ruling
city" of the Eastern Roman Empire was finally occupied by the
Ottomans on March 29, 1430 after a strong siege of three days. Wild
plunder and captivity of the inhabitants followed. The captives are
estimated at about 7,000. Some of them were released after being
bought by relatives and friends, others were not sold, while part of
the population had already left before the fall and did not return.
The sultan allowed those who were liberated to settle in the city
and keep their property, while he confiscated all the property that
was left homeless and distributed it to the Ottomans who settled in
the suburbs (Genitze Vardar). At first he did not bother the
churches and monasteries, but after he returned two years later and
after the Ottomans had settled in the suburbs, he confiscated
churches and monasteries with their property and income. He donated
the most important of them to his confidants or changed them into
mosques and seminaries. He left to the Christians only four small
churches, including that of Agios Dimitrios.
The first years
of the Ottoman conquest were difficult, as the war fronts were still
close, the population had greatly decreased and trade was steadily
declining. In fact, according to sources of the time, the
inhabitants of the city did not exceed 2,000 people at the time
immediately after its conquest. Sultan Murad II brought 1,000
families of Yuruks from Giannitsa and Christians from Halkidiki. The
multinational character of the Ottoman Empire and its relative
tolerance of the "peoples of the Bible", as indicated by the
prevailing Islamic law, helped to settle the persecuted Jews.
Thessaloniki received Ashkenazi Jews from Central European countries
and Sephardim, who were expelled from Spain after the final
overthrow of the Arab state of Granada. It is estimated that by the
end of the 15th century, almost 20,000 Jews from Spain had settled
in Thessaloniki, which radically changed the image of the city. In
the census of 1519, Thessaloniki had 29,220 inhabitants, of whom
53.8% were Jews, 23.5% Muslims and 22.7% Christians.
Between
1520 and 1530 the city had 2645 Jewish families, 1229 Ottoman and
989 Christian. The Jews of Central Europe (Ashkenazim), who began to
settle in Thessaloniki in 1376, were not assimilated by the larger
Jewish population that arrived after 1492 from Spain, as they
remained committed to their own traditions. The Jews were the
dominant element of the city, both demographically and economically.
The different religious communities lived in different
neighborhoods. At the beginning of the 17th century there were 56
Jewish quarters, 48 Muslim and 16 Christian.
The population of the urban center fluctuated considerably,
mainly due to the frequent fires and the many epidemics that plagued
the city until the 18th century. Disagreements were also frequent,
not so much between the three religious communities, but within each
other. Most important was the presence and action of the
pseudo-media Sabethai Sevi, who initially presented himself as the
Messiah to the Jews of Thessaloniki, but later (1666) embraced Islam
along with many thousands of his followers, who were called
"donmedes". [70] Most disputes among Muslims were caused by social
inequalities and janissary uprisings. The most important dispute
concerning the Greek Christian community was the dispute over the
management of the community between the metropolitan of Thessaloniki
and the rulers of the city.
From an economic point of view,
the city began to prosper after 1520. At that time, handicrafts
(textiles, goldsmithing, carpet weaving, tannery) and international
trade developed. This flourishing continued until the middle of the
17th century. Then the economic data changed, as world trade moved
to the Atlantic and the Ottoman Empire itself entered a phase of
decline. The hardship lasted until the second decade of the 18th
century, when trade resumed, this time to Austria and Russia, mainly
through tobacco, wool and cotton. Growth was to continue until the
Napoleonic Wars (1798-1814), when the recession that struck Europe
did not leave the Ottoman Empire unaffected. Freight traffic began
to increase steadily after 1840.
Although at the beginning of
the 19th century the Greeks had come to compete in population and
economy with the Jewish community -especially after the great
massacre at the outbreak of the Greek Revolution of 1821-
Thessaloniki continued to be until 1912 a unique, global city
phenomenon with such a large Jewish community, and was called by the
Jews themselves "Jerusalem of the Balkans" and "Mother of Israel".
Thessaloniki or Thessaloniki, according to the Turkish variant
of its name, continued throughout its stay within the borders of the
sultanate to be an important administrative, economic and religious
center with a role similar to that held in the Byzantine period.
Bath complexes, Islamic monasteries, mosques were erected, and
several Christian temples were converted into places of Muslim
worship. The church of Agios Dimitrios was converted into a mosque
in 1491 and remained so until its liberation in 1912. Until the
Hati-Humayun decree (1856) it was not allowed to build new Christian
churches in places where there were no pre-existing temples. In
1669, the French monk Robert de Dro mentioned Thessaloniki as one of
the most beautiful and famous cities in Greece. In 1737, the French
priest and writer Joseph de la Porte reported that Thessaloniki
numbered 48 mosques, 30 churches and 36 synagogues.
The Greek
revolution of 1821
The Thessalonians organized and organized
Hellenism from a very early age, in order to create the conditions
for a universal Greek revolution. The scholar from Thessaloniki,
Grigorios Zalykis, was the pioneer of the establishment of the
secret organization Ellinoglosso Hotel, the forerunner of the
Friendly Society, in Paris in 1809.
The merchant Michael
Ouzounidis was one of the original members of the Friendly Society.
Also, the teacher and scholar Miltiadis Agathonikos contributed a
lot as a teacher to the awakening of the Greeks. Other notable
members of the Friendly Society from Thessaloniki were the diplomat
Dimitrios Argyropoulos, Ioannis Skandalidis, Nikolaos Ouzounidis,
Pantazis Bakaloglous and the merchants Moschos Sakellios, Athanasios
Skandalos, Christodoulos Palos. Sporadic uprisings with mainly
social demands, coming from the Greek population, were relatively
easily suppressed by the administration. However, the Ottomans
showed special cruelty with the outbreak of the revolution in
Halkidiki in March 1821 by the banker and merchant Emmanuel Papa,
when retaliation was applied against the Greeks in Thessaloniki.
Firman of May 3, 1821 reported:
The movement of the unbelievers
and cursed Greeks in Moldavia, spread to the country beyond
Thessaloniki, provoked anarchy and turmoil among the inhabitants
there ... From these events it was once shown that this revolution
of the unbelievers has a general character. devised and pre-planned
after consultation of the whole tribe.
At the proclamation of the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman army
to the Muslims of Thessaloniki, all Muslims aged 16-60 were called
to take up arms against the revolutionaries. A fee of four piastres
was announced for each head that would be delivered to the camp.
Signed by Abdul Kabul Mohammed, "commander of the faithful of
Macedonia and Thessaly".
Initially about 400 Christians, 100
of whom were Mount Athos monks, were taken hostage, most of whom
were later executed. Most of the massacres took place in May 1821,
marking the beginning of a period of terrorism, which lasted until
1823, the year in which the Macedonian revolutionary movements were
suppressed.
During the Greek Revolution of 1821 the Ottomans
also killed the commissioner of the metropolitan of Thessaloniki and
bishop Kitros Meletios, the nobles (members of the Friendly Society)
Georgios Vlalis, Christos Menexes (commissioner of the church of
Agios Minas), Christodoulos Georgios Balaos Polydoros, Athanasios
Skandalidis, Anastasios Gounari, Dimitrios Pappas, Anastasios
Kidoniatis, Argyros Tapouchtsis from Epanomi etc. in the then
Alevragoras square (today's market Kapani - Vlali), on May 18 [80].
Massacres also took place in the area of Rotonda and at the Axios
Gate. Similar scenes unfolded in the courtyard of the metropolitan
church of St. Gregory of Palamas, where 2,000 Greeks had taken
refuge, and many of them were eventually killed by the Turkish mob.
Later, in 1822, the Greek prominent and consul of Denmark, Emmanuel
Kyriakou, was strangled after many days of imprisonment.
In
total, the Greeks of Thessaloniki who fell victim to the executions
of the Ottomans are estimated at 25,000 in 1821 alone, which caused
an irreparable blow to the Greek community of the city (the Greek
community recovered in the 1880s, ie 60 years later). Important
personalities of Thessaloniki who led the Greek games at that time
were Grigorios Zalykis, Miltiadis Agathonikos, Konstantinos Tattis,
Ioannis Goutas Kaftantzoglou, Ioannis Michael (who participated in
the General Assembly of the National Assembly, Ioannis Troizinas,
Paikos, Antonios Papachristou, Anastasios Boudelis and others.
It is characteristic that the first secretary of the Parliament
of the First National Assembly of Epidaurus was Ioannis Skandalidis
from Thessaloniki, one of the proxies of Macedonia, while the
beginning of the Revolution was proclaimed by Dimitrios Argyropoulos
from Thessaloniki on February 21st, February 21st. The revolution in
Macedonia ended around the end of May 1822. After that many warriors
landed in Central and Southern Greece where they continued the
struggle.
The villages near Thessaloniki also suffered great
damage, especially to the area of Halkidiki, even those that did
not revolt. The situation of the province during June and July 1821
is reported by an English eyewitness. After the uprising of Greek
villages in Halkidiki, many Muslims took refuge in Thessaloniki for
protection while their villages were burned. The Turkish army
counterattacked and looted and burned Vasilika, Karabournou, Epanomi
and Galatista and others, even those that had not revolted like
Zagliveri. The monks of the Monastery of Agia Anastasia (Pharmacist)
were beheaded despite opening the doors and welcoming the Turks.
Large numbers of Jews followed the Turkish army and bought booty at
low prices. Women and children were sold as slaves, old women for
40-60 piastres and women and children for 200-300. The entire area
of Kalamaria (meaning western Halkidiki) which numbered about
60,000 inhabitants was destroyed and deserted.
Prominent and
ordinary Greeks were held hostage or even killed by beatings, while
the Greeks also killed the Turks they captured. The Turkish
administration forcibly extracted large sums of money that the
Greeks, in order to save, pledged valuable objects and church
utensils at low prices or borrowed from the Jews at an interest rate
of 30-50%.
Development course and Macedonian Struggle
The
end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 brought calm to the
European territories of Turkey and the consequent economic
development. The positive climate was intensified by the Tanzimat
reforms from the end of the 1830s. Thessaloniki further increased
its commercial power while at the same time the reconstruction of
important administrative, educational and private buildings began.
The last decades of the 19th century saw a significant increase in
population, from 50,000 in 1865 to 90,000 in 1880 and 120,000 in
1895.
In 1877, while international fermentations were taking place that
led to the Treaty of Agios Stefanos, Romanian newspapers published
statistics with Romanian populations in Thessaly, Epirus and
Macedonia in an attempt to appropriate the Vlachs. In this context,
they presented statistics of the Romanian consulate in Thessaloniki,
presenting Thessaloniki with a population of 20,000 Romanians. This
was followed by strong reactions and incidents caused by the Greek
students from Thessaloniki outside the Romanian consulate which
ended in a majestic silent parade (several thousand protesters)
ending at the Romanian consulate. Representatives of the Israeli
community of the city also participated in the silent demonstration,
in order to support the Greekness of the Christian population of the
city.
The consequence of the reactions was that the Ottoman
Governor of Thessaloniki published official statistics presenting
the Greek population at 25,000 (out of a total of almost 90,000
inhabitants) and expelled the Romanian consul. During the Macedonian
Struggle, the Thessalonians organized, founding the Philoptochos
Brotherhood of Men of Thessaloniki in 1871 which developed intense
national action. The prominent of the city Konstantinos Matsas tried
as early as 1899 to equip the Hellenism of the city, realizing the
impending danger. Important Thessaloniki chiefs were Georgios Savvas
and Georgios Pentzikis. On January 20, 1904, a large anti-Bulgarian
rally took place in the city, with the participation of 6,000 Greek
protesters. By 1908, the Thessalonians succeeded in overthrowing the
Bulgarian effort to create nuclei of the Bulgarian population in the
city, by transporting and settling Bulgarian immigrants.
The
Neo-Turkish movement and the national liberation movements
The
current of nationalist ideology, which followed the French
Revolution and spread throughout the Old Continent, began, gradually
growing in the 19th century, to influence the Balkan ethnic groups,
which were in Ottoman territory. A first case of these was the
massacre of consuls in Thessaloniki that took place on May 6, 1876.
The Greek element strongly clashed with the Bulgarian, which
with the action of the komitatzids tried to convert the Orthodox
populations from the normal jurisdiction of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate to the Bulgarian Exarchate Church with the aim of
Bulgarianizing them. After the Aprilians of 1903, this conflict
culminated in the years 1904-1908, during the Macedonian Struggle,
where the headquarters of the Greek fighters was the Greek consulate
in Thessaloniki (today the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle).
Along with the nationalist movements, another movement was
developing with executives from the military and intellectual elite
of the Ottoman Empire and its center in Thessaloniki. The aims of
this movement were the democratization, the modernization and the
transformation into a European-style constitutional monarchy of the
faltering and declining Empire and its political springboard was the
"Committee for Unity and Progress" (İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti) -
Committee of the Union and Progress whose action began in 1896 and
in its ranks included progressive personalities from the dominant
Macedonian ethnicities led by the Turks. The members of this
committee became known as the Neo-Turks (Jön Türkler - Jones Türkler
from the French Jeunes Turcs) and in its first steps became a body
of bourgeois change with anti-imperialist rhetoric.
In June
1908, the Neo-Turks had the power to demand from Sultan Abdul Hamid
II a change of state to a constitutional monarchy. Thus, with an
impressive military move, the third corps of the Ottoman army
started from Thessaloniki in the direction of the headquarters of
the House of Ottomans, Istanbul, where the Neo-Turkish Revolution
culminated, resulting in the concession of the Constitution on July
24, 1908.
The conservative Paleo-Turkish counter-revolution
of 1909 helped the authoritarian Abdul Hamid abolish constitutional
privileges. Soon, however, the Neo-Turks regained control of the
situation, forcing the Sultan to resign and detaining his moderate
brother, Mehmet E. Resat. Abdul Hamid was taken to the political
center of the Neo-Turks, Thessaloniki, where he remained under guard
at the Allatini Mansion (today's historic building of the Region of
Central Macedonia) until 1912.
The last important event of the Ottoman rule in Thessaloniki was
the visit to the city of Mehmet on May 31, 1911, as part of his tour
of the European territories of the Empire. The highlight of the
visit was the parade of ethnic groups in front of the monarch and
his impressive pilgrimage to the Hagia Sophia, according to the
official formal of Friday's pilgrimage to the Hamidiye Mosque in
Istanbul.
Liberation from the Ottoman Empire
The proof of
the real political intentions of the leading group of the Neo-Turks,
whose main goal was the Turkification of the Ottoman Empire, through
the elimination of the minorities, and the hardening of the state
policy towards them brought the outbreak of the First Balkan War.
The four Balkan kingdoms, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro,
declared war on the Ottoman Empire, seeking to conquer and divide
its European territories, inhabited by a significant portion of
their "unredeemed" compatriots.
The city of Thessaloniki was
the disputed "booty" between Greeks and Bulgarians. The victories of
the Greeks in important battles had created a positive atmosphere in
the army, which was heading for the conquest of the Monastery, a
Balkan city with a prosperous Greek population. The head of the army
of Thessaly and commander-in-chief, Successor Constantine, after the
victorious Battle of Sarandaporos was moving towards the Monastery.
The information to the Greek government, however, referred to the
advance of the Bulgarian troops further south, with the aim of
occupying Thessaloniki. Venizelos telegraphed to Konstantinos to
move quickly to Thessaloniki, but when he found out that the
successor was obstructing, he sent the famous telegram:
Army
Chief
Once you have received this, hand over the command of the
army to its Commander.
General Staff Lieutenant General Daglin
and leave immediately for Athens,
at the disposal of the Minister
of the Army.
E. Venizelos, Minister of the Army
After the
intervention of King George, the Greek army of Thessaly, changing
course, moved to Thessaloniki, where it arrived after the Battle of
Giannitsa (October 19) on October 25, 1912, encircling it.
The Ottoman military officers of Thessaloniki, led by the commander
of the 8th corps of the Ottoman army, Hasan Thaksin Pasha, realized
that possible resistance would not bring substantial result and made
proposals for surrender to Constantine. After all, from the Ottoman
point of view, there was a preference for the surrender of the city
to the Greeks due to the perception that the Bulgarians would commit
atrocities against the Muslim population. Constantine, however, did
not accept the Ottoman proposal and demanded "unconditional"
surrender of the city. At the same time, the Prime Minister,
Eleftherios Venizelos, being aware of the movements of the 7th
Bulgarian Division, which was approaching Thessaloniki, warned the
Successor to speed up the process with the following telegram:
Army Chief
Please accept the offered hymn tradition of
Thessaloniki and enter
this without delay. I make you responsible
for any postponement even for a moment.
Minister of Defense E.
Venizelos
Thus, on the night of October 26-27, 1912 (Julian
calendar), the plenipotentiary officers, Victor Dousmanis and
Ioannis Metaxas, signed in Thessaloniki the protocols for the
surrender of the city by the Ottoman administration to the Greek
army and on the afternoon of October 27 the first two Greek eunuch
divisions of the Kleomenos division.
Meanwhile, the
Bulgarians, who had approached the city, pressured Hassan Thaksin
Pasha to sign a similar protocol with them. Their proposal, however,
was not accepted with the characteristic answer of the Ottoman
general: "I have only one Thessaloniki, which I have already
surrendered". Nevertheless, the Bulgarian claims did not stop until
the Second Balkan War, when its victorious result, for the Greek
side, brought a final solution to the issue.
Another factor
that tried to influence the territorial regime of Thessaloniki, was
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which with the support of Germany
unsuccessfully sought the internationalization of the city. Another
section of the Jewish community promoted a proposal for an
autonomous regime under Israeli rule abroad.
On October 29, King George I entered the city at the head of army
units and on October 30, Metropolitan Gennadios of Thessaloniki
performed a eulogy at the then Cathedral of Agios Minas "on the
liberation of the city" after 482 years of continuous Ottoman
occupation.
Modern history
After the liberation in 1912,
the Ottoman administrative structure of the city was maintained for
a long time to avoid the economic and social disintegration of the
city. It is characteristic that in the days after the surrender of
the city, the Ottoman gendarmerie continued armed to maintain order,
while the mayor Osman Sait remained mayor, with a few breaks until
1922. In March 1913, King George I was assassinated in Thessaloniki.
Greece has not participated in World War I since its outbreak
despite calls for an alliance from both rival factions. However,
with the excuse of helping Serbia, but also indifference to the
national independence of Greece, Entente forces landed in the city
in October 1915 in order to blackmail Greece's entry into the war.
The Balkan Front was formed, consisting of tens of thousands of
men and intended to provide support to Serbia and Russia. The
National Divide, as the controversy (1916) between King Constantine
IBS and Eleftherios Venizelos was called over Greece's exit from the
First World War, led to the formation of a second government by
Venizelos, based in Thessaloniki. The "Provisional Government of
National Defense" consisted of Venizelos, Daglis and Koundouriotis
the so-called "Triandria". Thus Greece entered the war, on the side
of Entente, leading at the same time to the expulsion of King
Constantine I in favor of his son Alexander.
The great fire
of 1917 was the worst disaster the city suffered in recent years. It
completely destroyed buildings of rare architectural value in the
city center, shops, churches, mosques and synagogues and mainly
thousands of houses, leaving 72,000 residents homeless, and caused
huge economic and social problems in the city already burdened by
the influx of refugees. war zones and Thrace under Bulgarian rule.
The new city was built on the site of these buildings, based on
a plan drawn up by the French architect Ernest Emprar. After the
Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922, but also in the period 1923-1924, in
the framework of the Greek-Turkish Population Exchange agreed with
the Treaty of Lausanne, refugees from Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace
settled in the city. The influx of refugees was so intense that it
forced the establishment of new, exclusively refugee neighborhoods
and settlements, such as Naples and Kalamaria, while the Muslim
population of the city was included in the "interchangeable" who
were forced to move to Turkey.
In 1925, with the help of
Alexandros Papanastasiou, the University was founded in the city,
which later (1954) was renamed Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
in honor of the philosopher Aristotle and today is the largest
educational institution in Greece. The first International
Exhibition of Thessaloniki was inaugurated on October 3, 1926.
Throughout the interwar period, the social upheavals caused by
the activism of a large number of refugee workers and the capacity
of Jewish workers, gave a great impetus to the already developed
labor movements in the city. As early as 1908, the socialist
organization Federation was founded under the leadership of Abraham
Benaroya, which pioneered the organization of the trade union
movement and later the creation of SEKE / KKE. At the beginning of
the 1930s and until the imposition of the dictatorship of Ioannis
Metaxas, in Thessaloniki there were continuous demonstrations and
strikes by groups of workers such as tobacco workers, tram workers,
etc. The workers' mobilizations culminated in the city in May 1936,
with the great strike and demonstration of the tobacco workers,
which was drowned in blood by the dictatorial government of Metaxa,
with a total of twelve dead, including the 25-year-old motorist
Tassos Tousis More than 280 people were injured. The photo that
immortalized Tasos Tousis's mother mourning him alone in the middle
of the street, at the intersection of Venizelou and Egnatia streets,
was published in the press and was the inspiration for Giannis
Ritsos.
At the same time, several nationalist / anti-Zionist
organizations appeared in response to the large presence of Jewish
workers, with various problems, most notably the burning of
Campbell, a Jewish slum in Kalamaria, on June 29, 1931.
Occupation and National Resistance
During World War II, on April
9, Thessaloniki was occupied by Nazi forces. The Jews were confined
to the Hirsch community, their property confiscated and divided
between German officers and Greek collaborators. Eventually, the
entire Jewish population of the city was taken to the Nazi
concentration camps of Auschwitz II Birkenau and Bergen-Belzen.
About 46,000 Jews from Thessaloniki were exterminated during that
period. On May 15, 1941, a month after the occupation of the country
by the occupiers, the first resistance organization in Greece,
"Eleftheria", was founded in the Eptalofos refugee district of Asia
Minor, with its newspaper of the same name and the first illegal
printing house in the same district. . Executions of Greeks during
the occupation took place systematically at the Dudular (Diavata)
positions, at the Sedes airport and mainly at the "Pavlos Melas"
Camp, at Eptapyrgio and at the Red House in Damari.
On May
11, 1944, the Nazis executed eight young resistance fighters, aged
20-30, in the area of Kaistri between Eptalofos and Xirokrini. The
city was liberated on October 30, 1944.
Second half of the
20th century until today
In 1954 the Minister of Public Works K.
Karamanlis demolished the tram lines of Thessaloniki and abolished
the tram line Depo-Tsimiski. The tram operated from 1893 as a horse
and from 1908 as an electric one. In 1957, K. Karamanlis, as Prime
Minister, abolished the rest of the tram network and in his place
founded the monopoly private Urban Transport Organization of
Thessaloniki.
On May 27, 1963, Grigoris Lambrakis, a
physician, athlete and politician, was assassinated by
paramilitaries, causing an international outcry over the
authoritarian practices of the Karamanlis government that fueled the
uncontrolled paramilitary mechanism in Greece, culminating in the
assassination in Thessaloniki. The Lambraki case revived George
Papandreou's relentless struggle and played perhaps the most
important role in the fall of the Karamanlis government in the same
year.
During the Dictatorship, many persecutions and tortures
of resistance fighters took place, culminating in the murder - after
torture - by the security organs of George Tsarouchas, a former
member of the EDA. and executives of the K.K.E. In Thessaloniki on
September 5, 1967, Giannis Chalkidis (member of the Lambraki
Democratic Youth of Ampelokipi and the United Democratic Left and
member of the resistance-dictatorship organization Patriotic Front)
was cold-bloodedly killed by the gendarme Antonis Lepitis .
On June 20, 1978, a major earthquake caused a total of 49 deaths and
property damage of 1.2 billion euros, which were soon repaired. 220
people were injured. This earthquake was the first to hit a large
urban center in Greece.
The European Center for the
Development of Vocational Training - Cedefop, one of the
decentralized agencies of the European Union, was established in
1995 in Thessaloniki with the mission of developing and implementing
European policies for vocational education and training.
In
1997 Thessaloniki was the European Capital of Culture and in 2014
the European Youth Capital.
During the period 26 - 28 October
2012 the city celebrated the 100th anniversary of its liberation. In
2017, during the celebrations, the arrival of the historic
Battleship Averoff took place in the port of the city.