315 B.C. Thessaloniki founded by King Cassander of Macedonia and named after his wife, Thessaloniki, half sister of Alexander the Great. It means Victory in Thessaly.The city soon becames the commercial and cultural center of Macedonia and of the Balkan peninsula.

168 B.C. The Romans make Thessaloniki the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and the Southern Balkans. The construction of the famous Via Egnatia together with the cily's harbour contributes to Thessaloniki's growth and prosperity.

50 A.D. It is here that the Apostle Paul first brought the message of Christianity and that Demetrius, a Roman officer died in martyrdom (303 A.D.), thus becoming the holy patron of the city.

395 A.D. Founding of the Byzantine Empire. Thessaloniki is proclaimed "coregent" with Constantinople. The city takes on a Byzantine character which it has maintained to the present day, with more (and more significant) Byzantine monuments than any other city in Europe.

1430 Thessaloniki is occupied by the Turks. After a period of economic and cultural stagnation, the cily begins to exploit the reforming tendencies of the Ottoman Empire and becomes once again a commercial and cultural beacon for the peoples of the Balkans.

1912 Thessaloniki is liberated by the Greek army on the feast day of its patron saint, Aghios Dimitrios. It became a part of the modern state of Greece in 1913 and soon enters a new period of rapid economic and cultural growth.

1994 Thessaloniki is one of the major metropolitan centers in the Mediterranean basin.

1997 Thessaloniki: Cultural Capital of Europe.

Thessaloniki is an administrative and commercial centre with its own distinctive intellectual and artistic personality, and it serves as a major cosmopolitan crossroads whose cultural influence is far-reaching. It is only 150 km from the most distant point of Chalkidiki, and there is an excellent network of main roads leading there.

Thessaloniki is one of the oldest cities in Europe and it is also the second- largest city in Greece, after Athens, which is why Greeks often refer it as the country's "co-capital". The wealth of its surviving monuments from all the periods of its history has made the city a living museum of Byzantine art; as such it has been recognized by UNESCO.

Thessaloniki stands on a naturally amphitheatrical site at the head of the Thermaic Gulf. It is a harbour city, in whose life the sea plays an important part. The old town was surrounded by a strong wall, which ran east, from the harbour, for about two kilometres until it reached the White Tower (the city's best known symbol-15th century). The walls are among the finest surviving examples of city fortification and can be compared only with those of Constantinople itself. North of the historic is found the exhibition grounds where the city's popular annual International Trade Fair is held. The White Tower itself was built in the 15th century and has become the city's most prominent landmark.

The city's principal streets are Mitropoleos, Tsimiski and Ermou, which run parallel to Nikis on the waterfront. Along Egnatia Street, which is the city's main throughfare, you'll find most of Thessaloniki's Roman ruins as well as most of the action. Also nearby, you'll find the lively central food market bustling with vendors and hawkers selling an endless array of fresh fish and meat, to exotic fruit and locally grown vegetables.