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Photo: C messier, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Constructed in the mid-7th century on the ruins of a Roman bath complex, in honor of Demetrius, a Roman officer who was imprisoned and martyred here in 303 AD. An earlier small church, built on the site of martyrdom, burned down during the earthquake of 620 and a new large basilica was erected at expenses of Leontius, the Byzantine prefect of Illyricum and the Bishop of Thessaloniki. The new church of S. Demetrios became one of the most famous centres of pilgrimage for Orthodox Christians until its Muslim conversion in 1492. In the Great Fire of Thessaloniki of 1917 the basilica was gutted. The work of restructuring the church lasted fifty years. Most of the ancient mosaics in the western wall and in the inner central aisle survived the heat from the fire.
The Church of Saint Demetrius, or Hagios Demetrios, is the main sanctuary dedicated to Saint Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki, dating from a time when it was the second largest city of the Byzantine Empire. Since 1988, it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a part of the site Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki.
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Ancient Agora
Excavations and an interesting museum underneath.
A 14th-century church. Fragments of the church's original wall paintings survive.
An 11th-century church. The paintings are from the time the church was built, except a few from the 14th century.
Panayia Acheiropoietos
A 5th-century church. The surviving original decoration includes fine 5th-century Ionian capitals, the green Thessalian marble columns of the tribelon and fragments of 5th-century decorative mosaics. Early 13th-century frescoes adorn the southern side.
Fragments of its interior decoration are dated to ca. 1315.
The house where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born.