Thessaloniki: the White Tower, the Byzantine churches, the markets and the waterfront
Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, looks out over the Thermaic Gulf, with the White Tower on its waterfront and the castles of Ano Poli above it. Founded in 315 BC, it was one of the first bases for the spread of Christianity, and fifteen of its Early Christian and Byzantine monuments have been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1988. Much of the centre was rebuilt after the fire of 1917, but the hillside upper town escaped the flames and kept its winding lanes and low Balkan houses. Since 30 November 2024 a driverless metro has run beneath the main avenues, and in 2026 it reached the seaside districts of Kalamaria and Mikra.
The historic centre lies in the Municipality of Thessaloniki, and the Ministry of Culture files its monuments under the Prefecture of Thessaloniki, today the regional unit of Thessaloniki in the Region of Central Macedonia.
Getting there
Air
Thessaloniki Airport (SKG), with OASTH airport bus lines
Thessaloniki Airport (SKG) is linked to the city by public buses that leave from the stop in the Arrivals area, in front of Exit 4 of Terminal 1. Line 1X by day and 1N at night run to the city centre, the New Railway Station and the KTEL Makedonia coach terminal; line 2X runs to the metro at Nea Elvetia, line 3X to the metro at Mikra and line 79 to the eastern bus interchange by IKEA. Tickets are sold at the booth and at the OSETH ticket machines in the terminal. skg-airport.gr
Hellenic Train runs daily services on the Athens to Thessaloniki line, the main north to south rail axis of Greece, calling at towns including Livadeia, Larissa and Katerini. Trains arrive at the New Railway Station on the western side of the centre, which is also the western terminus of the metro. An independent guide that checked the timetable on 23 September 2026 gives a fastest journey of about 5 hours 12 minutes, with two direct Intercity departures a day; confirm times with the operator before booking. hellenictrain.grthessmetro.grtravelcoolplaces.com
Long distance coaches use the Macedonia Intercity Bus Station, known as KTEL Makedonia, at 244 Giannitson Street west of the centre; its website carries routes, tickets and timetables, and the airport lines 1X and 1N stop there. Coaches for the Halkidiki peninsulas leave instead from a separate KTEL Chalkidikis terminal in Pylaia, on the eastern side of the city, according to an independent guide. ktelmacedonia.grgtp.grskg-airport.grthessaloniki.city
The driverless metro opened on 30 November 2024 with 13 stations. The operator now lists 18 stations, from the New Railway Station through Dimokratias, Venizelou, Agias Sofias and Sintrivani in the centre, dividing after 25th Martiou for the terminals at Nea Elvetia and, via Kalamaria and Aretsou, Mikra; press reports date the Kalamaria extension to 27 August 2026. Trains run 05:15 to 00:30 from Sunday to Thursday and 05:15 to 02:00 on Friday and Saturday, timed from the three terminals, and every station has platform screen doors. en.protothema.grthessmetro.grthessalonikihub.gr
OASTH, the Organisation of Urban Transportation of Thessaloniki, runs the city buses, including the airport lines, and publishes routes, fares and ticket outlets on its website, which also describes a Cultural Line, created on 1 September 2009, that starts from the White Tower. For the steep climb to Ano Poli, an independent guide suggests buses 22 or 23 up and a walk back down. oasth.grthessaloniki.city
City centre: Aristotelous Square, the markets and the old waterfront
The flat streets between Egnatia and the sea keep the markets, Aristotelous Square and the White Tower close together, with metro stations at Venizelou, Agias Sofias and Sintrivani and the 1X airport bus serving the centre. thessmetro.grgreeka.comskg-airport.gr
Ladadika
The restored warehouse quarter by the port is the busiest area for eating out and nightlife, and the city's tourism site says the night is long there and the fun lasts until morning, worth knowing for light sleepers. Dimokratias is the nearest metro station on the western side. thessaloniki.travelthessalonikihub.gr
Ano Poli
The upper town is quieter, with low traditional houses, cafés and views over the city and the sea, but its streets are steep; buses 22 and 23 climb from the centre, according to an independent guide. thessaloniki.travelthessaloniki.city
Kalamaria and the eastern seafront
The seaside district of Kalamaria, south east of the centre, now has metro stations at Nomarchia, Kalamaria, Aretsou, Nea Krini and Mikra, and Mikra is the interchange for the 3X airport bus. thessmetro.grthessalonikihub.grskg-airport.gr
Places to stay here: hotels, apartments, guesthouses. Facts only; no hotel, star rating or price checked. See Where to stay and Rentals for prices and booking advice.
What to see and do (12 sights)
Opening hours, closures and ticket prices change by season: each card links to the official page we read on 9 Oct 2026, so check it again before you go.
Sight
White Tower and White Tower Museum
The emblem of the city on the old waterfront was built in the fifteenth century, after the Ottomans took Thessaloniki in 1430, where an older Byzantine tower had stood at the meeting of the eastern wall and the sea wall. Inside, a permanent exhibition follows the city from its founding in 316/15 BC to the present on the ground floor and six upper floors, with a balcony at the top. No more than 70 visitors are allowed in at once and there are no toilets, cloakroom or baggage storage. The Museum of Byzantine Culture, which publishes the tower's hours and tickets, lists tickets of €8 (reduced €4) and a closure for works from 12 to 15 October 2026.
Built in the early fourth century AD, probably as a temple or as a mausoleum for Constantine the Great, the Rotunda is 29.80 metres high and 24.50 metres across. It became a church decorated with Early Byzantine wall mosaics, served as a mosque from 1591 until 1912 and takes its present dedication to Saint George from a small neighbouring church. UNESCO counts its mosaics among the great masterpieces of Early Christian art. The Ministry of Culture lists it on St George Square, open 08:00 to 20:00, with tickets of €10 (reduced €5).
The Galerian Complex, which the Ephorate of Antiquities calls the most important monumental ensemble in the city, was begun at the end of the third and start of the fourth century AD, when Galerius chose Thessaloniki as the seat of the eastern part of the Roman empire. The Arch of Galerius was linked to the Rotunda by a processional road, and palace remains such as the apsidal hall and the buildings at Navarinou Square can be visited; the site won a European Union and Europa Nostra award in 2008 for its restoration.
The church of the patron saint is a five aisled basilica with a narthex and transept, built after an earlier basilica burned between 626 and 634, on a site where a small oratory had stood since shortly after 313 AD. It became a mosque in 1493, returned to Christian worship in 1912, was destroyed again in the fire of 1917 and reopened in 1949. Beneath the sanctuary, the crypt holds an exhibition of finds from the church and its excavations; the city's tourism site lists entry as free, with the crypt closed on Tuesdays.
The Church of Saint Sophia is one of the fifteen components of the UNESCO property, and the Agias Sofias metro station on the main line shares its name. The Church of the Acheiropoietos and the Panagia Chalkeon, also in the centre, are on the same UNESCO list.
Called the balcony of Thessaloniki by the city's tourism site, the upper town escaped the fire of 1917 and kept its winding streets of low houses in traditional Balkan style. A walk up from Agiou Dimitriou Street passes the churches of Saint Catherine, Agios Nikolaos Orfanos and Saint David, the Vlatadon Monastery and the Alatza Imaret mosque, rising along the walls to the Eptapyrgio fortress, known in Ottoman times as Yedi Koule, and the Trigoniou Tower with its wide view over the city and the sea. The Byzantine Bath on the edge of Ano Poli is the only secular building among the UNESCO monuments.
At 6 Manoli Andronikou Street, a short walk from the seafront, the museum presents Macedonia from prehistory to late antiquity, with exhibitions including The Gold of Macedon, in a listed building by Patroklos Karantinos in use since 1962. Its own site gives hours of 09:00 to 17:00 daily from 1 April to 31 October, with late opening to 22:00 on the first Thursday of the month from May to September, and 09:00 to 17:00 with Tuesday closing from 1 November to 31 March. Tickets are €10 (reduced €5).
Eleven galleries trace Byzantine and post Byzantine life, worship, art and trade through objects, audiovisual material and touchscreens, in a building designed by Kyriakos Krokos and built from 1989 to 1993; in 2005 it became the first Greek public museum to win the Council of Europe Museum Prize. The museum gives its address as 2 Stratou Avenue, tickets of €10 (reduced €5) from 1 April, and winter hours from 1 November to 31 March of 08:30 to 15:30, closed on Tuesdays.
The square lies in the part of the centre that the architect Ernest Hébrard redrew as a grid of broad avenues after the fire of 1917, according to My Greece Tours, and the Ministry of Culture includes Aristotelous Square in its list of monuments of the prefecture. The Olympion at 2 Aristotelous Square is a Dimitria festival venue and the home of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Greeka lists Venizelou among the metro stations serving the square.
Named after the oil (ladi) once stored and sold in its warehouses, the port quarter was also known as the Egyptian Market, declined in the twentieth century and was declared a preservable area in 1985. Its colourful two storey warehouses are now cafés, bars, restaurants and tavernas around pedestrian lanes and the Morichovou and Katouni squares.
Kapani, also called the Vlali market, has served the city since Ottoman times, its lanes of small shops selling meat, fish, spices, kitchenware and more at low prices; Thessaloniki Tourism calls it the oldest market place in the city and records that five Christian elders were hanged from a plane tree there in 1821. On the same block, the covered Modiano market, designed by Eli Modiano and opened in 1930, keeps produce, cheese, meat and fish shops on its street sides and tavernas, restaurants and bars inside; it is also linked to the city's Sephardic Jewish heritage.
Building the metro brought more than 300,000 archaeological finds to light, some of them displayed at the Dimokratias, Agias Sofias and Fleming stations, according to Greeka. At Venizelou the Roman Decumanus Maximus has been kept in place inside the station, which ThessalonikiHub describes as the first open archaeological site inside a metro station.
The waterfront and the New Waterfront (Nea Paralia)
The seafront runs from the port past the White Tower to the redesigned New Waterfront and on to the Concert Hall, close to five kilometres in all. The New Waterfront, opened in 2013 to designs by Prodromos Nikiforidis and Bernard Cuomo, covers 50,800 square metres with 1,100 trees, cycle paths, sports grounds, play areas and an amphitheatre for events. Along it stand George Zongolopoulos's Umbrellas, 13 metres tall. mygreecetours.orgthessalonikitourism.grthessalonikitourism.gr
Seih Sou forest
The Region of Central Macedonia calls Seih Sou, also known as Kedrinos Lofos, the largest suburban forest in Greece and the main green lung of the city: mostly pine, with oak, plane and beech, at altitudes of 50 to 450 metres, planted with about five million trees from the 1930s. Paths, rest areas, benches and picnic tables draw walkers and cyclists, and Thessaloniki Tourism puts it about 15 minutes from the centre, with free entry. visit-centralmacedonia.grthessalonikitourism.gr
The Thermaic Gulf by boat
The city overlooks the Thermaic Gulf, and from mid April into autumn small passenger boats link the port and the White Tower pier with the sandy suburbs of Nei Epivates and Peraia across the water, pausing on windy days, according to an independent guide that names karavakia.gr for schedules. visitgreece.grthessaloniki.city
Eat and drink
Our venue cards for Thessaloniki, with Google Maps, Tripadvisor and Review this place buttons, are on the Thessaloniki food page:
Visit Greece counts 'the gastronomic capital' among the names given to Thessaloniki, and in 2021 it became the first Greek city to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for gastronomy, with a cuisine the Municipality says was shaped by Ottoman, Jewish, Armenian and Asia Minor Greek communities (sources: Visit Greece; Municipality of Thessaloniki City of Gastronomy site; GTP Headlines, 10 November 2021).
Mornings start with bougatsa, thin filo baked crisp around semolina custard, cheese or minced meat, or with a koulouri Thessalonikis, the sesame bread ring that Thessaloniki Tourism traces back to Byzantium (sources: My Greece Tours; Thessaloniki Tourism).
Kapani, trading since Ottoman times, and the covered Modiano, opened in 1930 with produce, cheese, meat and fish shops outside and tavernas within, are the everyday food markets of the centre (sources: thessaloniki.travel; Thessaloniki Tourism).
Ladadika, the restored oil warehouse quarter by the port, and nearby Kalapothaki Street are lined with tavernas, restaurants, pubs and bistros serving Greek, Mediterranean and international cooking (source: thessaloniki.travel).
Dishes and local products to try
Bougatsa: layers of thin filo baked crisp and filled with semolina custard, cheese or minced meat, the sweet version dusted with sugar and cinnamon (source: My Greece Tours, 15 July 2026).
Koulouri Thessalonikis: the sesame bread ring that, says Thessaloniki Tourism, sellers in Constantinople and later Athens cried as the 'Thessaloniki koulouri' (source: Thessaloniki Tourism).
Trigona Panoramatos: crisp filo cones filled to order with custard cream, first made in the Panorama district (source: the independent Thessaloniki Travel street food guide, updated 2 March 2026).
Meze with tsipouro or ouzo, ordered in a mezedopoleio or tsipouradiko around the markets, Ladadika or Ano Poli (source: Vivid Greece food guide).
Loukoumades: small fried dough balls with honey and cinnamon, sold from street stalls and dessert shops in the centre (source: the independent Thessaloniki Travel street food guide).
Best time to go
Winters are cool: the Hellenic National Meteorological Service gives Thessaloniki a January mean of 5.4 °C, an average high of 9.3 °C and 37.7 mm of rain over 11.5 days. Summers are hot, with average highs of about 32 °C in July and August, while October averages about 22 °C by day and 12 °C at night (timeanddate.com, airport data for 1992 to 2021). oldportal.emy.grtimeanddate.com
September belongs to the Thessaloniki International Fair: the 90th edition ran from 5 to 13 September 2026, marking 100 years since the first fair in 1926, with Japan as honoured country and more than 1,000 exhibitors, and its opening traditionally brings the Prime Minister's annual policy address. thessalonikifair.grthessalonikifair.grthenationalherald.comnews.gtp.gr
October is the month of the Dimitria, the Municipality's arts festival, whose 61st edition runs from 1 to 26 October 2026 at 15 venues including the Rotunda and the Olympion. It leads up to 26 October, the feast of Saint Demetrius, the patron saint, and the anniversary of the city's liberation in 1912; 28 October is a national holiday with a parade, and state museums and sites are free that day. e-dimitria.gre-dimitria.grcityportal.grgreekconcierge.comsaloniki.netodysseus.culture.gr
The 67th Thessaloniki International Film Festival runs from 5 to 15 November 2026, with the Olympion on Aristotelous Square and the port warehouses as its main venues. filmfestival.grfilmfestival.grgreekconcierge.com
From 1 November to 31 March state museums are free on the first Sunday of each month, although winter opening hours are shorter. archaeologicalmuseums.gr
Practical notes
Museum tickets. Full tickets are €10 (reduced €5) at the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Byzantine Culture and the Rotunda, and €8 (reduced €4) at the White Tower, as published by the museums and the Ministry of Culture. Both museums say their hours can change without notice, so check on the day. amth.grmbp.grodysseus.culture.gr
Free admission days. The Ministry of Culture's museums directorate lists free entry for all visitors at state museums on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October and the first Sunday of each month from 1 November to 31 March. It adds that most state museums close on Tuesdays. archaeologicalmuseums.grodysseus.culture.gr
Closures in October 2026. The White Tower is closed for works from 12 to 15 October 2026, and on Sunday 11 October 2026 the first metro trains leave at 12:00 because of fleet testing. mbp.grthessmetro.gr
Metro tickets. A basic metro ticket costs €0.60 (reduced €0.30) for one journey, a daily ticket €2.50 for 24 hours of unlimited metro travel from first validation, and a 10+1 pack €5.80 (reduced €2.90). Children up to six travel free with an adult holding a validated ticket. Tickets are bought and reloaded at the machines in the stations, and passengers without a validated ticket can be fined. thessmetro.gr
Airport transfer. From the bus stop in front of Exit 4 of Terminal 1, take 1X by day or 1N at night for the centre, 2X for the metro at Nea Elvetia or 3X for the metro at Mikra, buying tickets at the booth or the OSETH machines first. ThessalonikiHub gives the airport lines a special fare of €2.00, separate from metro tickets. skg-airport.grthessalonikihub.gr
Taxis. Thessaloniki taxis are dark blue with a white roof, according to an independent guide, which also reports flat airport fares of €25 by day and €35 at night; no official tariff was read. thessaloniki.city
Accessibility. The Archaeological Museum states that it is accessible to people with disabilities. At the White Tower, visitors with limited mobility can take a virtual tour at the ground floor information stations. All metro stations have platform screen doors, Greeka reports escalators and lifts, and OASTH offers reduced or free fares for special groups and specialised vans for disabled passengers. amth.grlpth.grthessmetro.grgreeka.comoasth.gr
Public holidays. The Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Byzantine Culture close on 1 January, 25 March, Easter Sunday, 1 May and 25 and 26 December; the Ministry lists the same closures for the Rotunda. amth.grmbp.grodysseus.culture.gr
What we could not verify
Several figures come from official pages that print no date: Rotunda tickets and hours (Ministry of Culture Odysseus page), Archaeological Museum and Museum of Byzantine Culture hours and tickets, White Tower tickets, metro fares and hours, and the airport bus lines; they were shown on those pages on 9 October 2026 but carry no publication date.
The Archaeological Museum's own site gives tickets of €10 (reduced €5) and hours of 09:00 to 17:00, while the Ministry's Odysseus page still shows €8 and summer hours of 08:00 to 20:00; the museum's figures are used.
The thessaloniki.travel page for the Archaeological Museum gives Monday to Friday 09:00 to 17:00, which conflicts with the daily hours on the museum's own site.
The Museum of Byzantine Culture dates its summer season from 8 May, while thessaloniki.travel gives 1 April, so hours for April and early May need checking with the museum.
White Tower summer hours differ: the museum lists 08:00 to 21:00, with an extension to 21:00 announced until 1 November 2026, while thessaloniki.travel gives 08:00 to 20:00.
Crypt of Agios Dimitrios hours differ between thessaloniki.travel and the Ministry's museums directorate page, so they are not quoted.
The €2.00 fare for the airport bus lines comes from independent sites; the OASTH fares page showed no prices when read.
Airport taxi flat fares of €25 by day and €35 at night come only from an independent guide; no official tariff was read.
The train time of about 5 hours 12 minutes and the two direct Intercity departures a day come from an independent guide, not from the Hellenic Train timetable.
The opening date of the Kalamaria metro extension, 27 August 2026, comes from press; the operator's site lists the stations but gives no opening date on the pages read.
Metro ticket validity in minutes and any transfer rules between metro and buses were not confirmed on an official page.
Dimitria 2026 dates: the Municipality's festival calendar and Cityportal give 1 to 26 October, while some guides give 1 to 24 October.
Thessaloniki Tourism says the Modiano market reopened in September 2026 with 32 shops, while other guides say it reopened in 2022; the date and the shop count were not confirmed.
Kapani opening hours appear only on an undated Thessaloniki Tourism page and are not used.
Whether the OASTH Cultural Line from the White Tower still runs in October 2026 was not confirmed.
Gulf boat (karavakia) sailings for October 2026 were not checked; the season from mid April into autumn comes from an independent guide.
Lifts at every metro station are reported by Greeka and were not confirmed on the operator's site.
The Elliniko Metro (Hellenic Metro) website was not read; metro facts come from the operator site thessmetro.gr.
Ticket prices for the 2026 film festival were not published on the official pages read.
Climate figures other than January come from timeanddate.com, not from the national weather service.
The Region of Central Macedonia gives the Seih Sou area as 30,000 acres, which looks like a conversion of stremmata, so no area figure is used.
Thessaloniki Tourism (thessalonikitourism.gr) is treated as an independent source because its publisher was not confirmed.