2000 Years - The Cosmopolitan Message
First stop: The Rotunda
Erected by the Romans 306 A.D. and turned into an early Christian Church and Byzantine monument under Constantine the Great a good 100 years later, the Rotunda became a mosque in 1590, under the Ottoman rule in Thessaloniki.
The 20th century saw this unique building as a perfect place for a Macedonian Museum until the earthquake in 1978 did serious damage to the Rotunda. Since then the Rotunda is carefully reconstructed, some of its fantastic mosaics are lost for ever but its unique grandeur has remained untouched.
This superb edifice has been used since 326 by believers to worship Zeus, God and Allah and can be regarded as the oldest Church on earth.
The cosmopolitain character of the city is maybe most impressively represented in this peerless and uniquely beautiful building in the heart of Thessaloniki.
Here you find the welcoming greeting from the Mayor of Thessaloniki!