Greek Macedonia: Kavala and Thessaloniki

Another (short) visit to Greece — my 4th. It was the first time Ferda or I had visited the Macedonian part of Greece, the east-west strip stretching from Albania to Turkey, bordering (North) Macedonia and Bulgaria.

Our first stop was Kavala. We arrived after dark:

It looks like this during the day:

Kavala’s most photographed attraction must be the Roman aqueduct right in the middle of the city.

Reminded me of Segovia.

It’s worth strolling around Panagia, the district on the hill overlooking the port,

but my goal in Kavala was to visit the nearby ruined Roman city of Philippi, named after its founder, Macedonian King Philipp, the father of Alexander the Great. Philippi makes it onto UNESCO’s list though it’s not terribly different from many of Turkey’s ruined Roman cities that don’t get UNESCO recognition.

On-site signs criticized the shoddy restoration work at the theater.

The basilica was closed to visitors for current restoration work.

US tourists on a Christian tour of Greece were very excited to see the jail where Paul from Tarsus was imprisoned until an earthquake (divine intervention?) opened an escape route for him.

My favorite thing was perhaps the portable solar clock, calibrated for Mediterranean latitudes, at the onsite museum:

How the heck would something like that work? Wouldn’t you have to know where north is?

A bit further west is Thessaloniki, Greece’s 2nd biggest city. The draw here are the UNESCO-listed Byzantine monuments. On the way to our hotel we happened upon Atatürk’s birth house and went inside to take a look.

A sign inside explained that this is the first place that Turks visit when they come to Thessaloniki — indeed that’s exactly what we did! It’s also interesting that legally you’re on Turkish soil in the complex (which also serves as the Turkish consulate) — just like the room in our neighbor’s house in Antalya for Slovenia since he’s the Slovenian honorary consul.

İstanbul has done a poor job of preserving its Byzantine heritage. I was excited to see these monuments in Thessaloniki.

A lot of the later churches (13th, 14th centuries) look similar from the outside to what we might see in Serbia or Kosovo. Some examples:

I was saddened to see so many damaged frescoes, just like in Turkey.

Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. The Ottomans were here as well, of course, and most of these churches were also used as mosques for many centuries.

From the outside the older churches (4th, 5th century) aren’t as interesting architecturally, but I loved the way they tried to preserve old walls, columns, mosaics, and frescoes. As an example here’s the 4th (7th?) century Agios Demetrius:

or the 5th century Church of Panagia Acheiropoietos with its impressive frescoes in the arches and above the columns (in the interior):

The 8th century Hagia Sophia was exceptional, modeled on the real deal in İstanbul. It had among the best preserved (recently restored?) frescoes and mosaics that I saw.

Nestled among modern apartment blocks tiny Church of the Metamorphosis (Transfiguration) of the Sotir (aka Christ Savior; 14th century) was one of my favorites.

I arrived at Latomou Monastery (aka Church of Osios David) as a guide was banging on the door trying to get the monk to let him in. The guide explained that the mosaic is a fine example of early Christian art and unique in Thessaloniki in that Jesus is portrayed without a beard.

Just up the hill is Vlatadon Monastery, like Latomou not so interesting architecturally, but it had some colorful frescoes.

For comparison Agios Panteleimonas is an example of a modern Greek church:

and its paintings:

We ran out of time and didn’t get into the 4th century Rotonta of St. George (aka Galerius):

or the Venetian Purgos Aluseos (aka Trigonion Tower):

or the Ottoman White Tower:

There’s a lot to see in Thessaloniki, and everything’s centrally located making it an easy city to visit.

Ferda and I caught a bus to Florina in the pretty, slightly mountainous area where Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia come together. Bus service only goes so far, and the next day we found ourselves walking north on a quiet highway, trying our chances at hitchhiking to North Macedonia.