Thessaloniki: a Dialogue with History

Thessaloniki and Athens differ greatly in style and history;it was the capital of ancient Macedonia. In 315 BC,the king of Macedonia finished building Thessaloniki city and put his wife’s name on this city,undoubtedly,it’s really suitable for her to represent this scenic city.

The native Thessaloniki people pride themselves on their Macedonia history.The most glorious era of Macedonia was during Alexander’s reign,its territory extended east to south from the Pamir and Indus Plains to the Persian Gulf and Egypt,west to north from the Thrace and Greece to the Black Sea and Amu Darya. This effectively established the second greatest empire that crossed over the three continents of Asia, Europe,and Africa.The Ancient Greek,Ancient Rome, Byzantium and Osman have all left footprints in this city.

The White Tower is powerful evidence that the foreign invaders left after wars,when it comes to their tragic history, the Thessaloniki people usually behave as enraged tigers. In 1430,Thessalonikiwas occupied forcibly and permanently by the Venetians and then they built the coast defense.However, the Venetians were driven out by the rising Turks before its completion. From the late 19th centuryonwards, the White Towerbecame the prison for Turkish criminals.At that time,the building was surrounded by water and no one could escape from it- no one was able to survive.In 1826,the Greece’s national independent movements picked up, Mehmed the Conqueror foresaw that his doomsday was coming and he ordered to kill all the prisoners in the White Tower,staining it with blood. People later whitewashed the wall repeatedly and then the bloody tower turned back into a white tower.The tower was named after the movement and is still in use today.In 1944,after the epic fighting of the Greeks, they managed to drive out the invaders and raisedthe Greek flag in the White Tower,which becomes the symbol of freedom for Thessaloniki.

The White Tower, standing 33 meters high,is located at the southwest corner of the coastal. The bottom half of the tower was shaded in the green trees and the tower’s body was extraordinarily beautiful against the blue sky. I ascended the circular stairs and directly reached the cement patio of the top. Stand by the fence and the cool sea breeze will blow through,I felt refreshed.

After the war, the hard-working and intelligent Thessaloniki citizens rebuilt their homesteads on the remains and a lot of changes had taken place in this city. In the urban planning and construction aspect of things, Thessaloniki thought that oldness enhanced the worth of buildings,just like many European cities.Hence the reason most buildings in this city are only six levels high. The ancient architectures on the street can be seen everywhere,even some modern architectures are taken fully into account of ancient styles before design and construction. Today, Thessaloniki is a city with millions of people and the development of the city depends on their coastal ports, which has been a natural sea port of Balkans and southeast countries.As the door of Balkans,Thessalonikihas been the economicand trade center in theBalkans and also the center of Northern Greece.

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