A Tour of Byzantine Thessaloniki

[@hakon5873]

These on location videos are an absolute treasure, As entertaining as it is relaxing to watch.

[@kingjoe3rd]

4:00 I had to watch this part over because I wasn't paying attention to what Garrett was saying. That lady taking a picture of her two kids was so precious seeing the little boy smile and pose for her.

[@JayRappa]

I’ve learned a lot of the Byzantines through your channel after visiting Turkey this summer. Your videos are great

[@dimostychalas9716]

You could have also shown the largely intact walls and perimeter towers of the city

[@Drewbinsky69]

Check out the Thessaloniki walls and the ano poli! It's full of Byzantine monuments!

[@aokiaoki4238]

There are also the Byzantine walls

[@jupite1888]

Great Video

[@draxnorix]

Very interesting

[@susangailkoch3935]

Truly, the frescos”speak”.

[@Blackadder75]

Americans: we have this really old church, it was build in 1720 by the ........ Greeks: sigh we have this old random church that was build in 470 CE ....

[@khalidalali186]

And yet America has dominated the world, allowing you to comment using their technology. Moreover, I don’t recall anything Greek, lasting long enough, to have anywhere close to 46 presidents, spanning 247 years. Unless maybe, you’re going to count the Ottoman Sultans born to Greek concubines. Let alone, dominating the global economy since the late 19th century, for 153 years and counting. But hey, let’s have a pissing competition-like joke, about who’s got the oldest Church, in a mostly PostChristian secular western world. Because, nothing is like whose got the oldest dilapidated building 😅

[@odietamo9376]

I’m not quite sure what is the point you are making.

[@jimjam6598]

​@@khalidalali186 extremely odd comment

[@odietamo9376]

@@khalidalali186Why do you think the comment you were replying to was even meant as a “pissing competition”? That is not how I understood it.

[@gotworc]

​@@jimjam6598the original is just as odd lmao

[@nozrep]

thess oh low nye kuh😅

[@darrinb1972]

Not an ancient fact, of course, but I was really surprised to learn recently that Thessaloniki was the only jewish majority city in Europe from the 16th to 20th century. Did you run into any Jewish architecture while you were there?

[@chrisd997]

There are a lot of mansions of the community as well as a centre from the greek jews of the city. A memorial place is planed also to be constructed. Indeed you are right, friends coming from Israel were telling me that it was called the Jerusalem of Europe.

[@horror11]

the jews of thessaloniki came here from spain in 1492 when they was expelled and thessaloniki was their main destination because it was under islamic rule and they was protected. jews displaced very often the christian greek and settled in the center of thessaloniki close to the harbour as they was trading ppl mostly. thessaloniki was the connection from traderoutes from east to west so they settled in a perfect place back then. in ottoman times all religions was separated by law and had to live in the districts of their religion. muslims lived in upper town, jews in center, christian greek in surrounding areas.

[@paulkoza8652]

How many Greeks today are aware of their heritage from this period?

[@johnberry3824]

Why do you speak so fast? Are you trying to rush through every word and sentence?

[@garyfrancis6193]

It’s /thes-sal-oh-NEE-kee/. Learn to pronounce names correctly before you record. If you don’t know this ask any Greek person and practice it until you get it right,

[@angrybirdo]

Learn how to be polite and respectful or else ask a normal person to teach you how to be

[@craigbhill]

The pronunciation of Thessaloniki is, according to the Thessalonikians, Thess-a-lo-NEE-kee, accent on the 4th syllable, not the 3rd, as widely supposed (by Garrett and) outside Thessaloniki. Also, primarily because Macedonia is a tourist backwater, and therefore a place people more into history and culture should visit, is pronounced, by EVERYONE who lives there, not Mass-a-DON-ee-ah, but MaKadonia. Yes, the C is pronounced a hard K. This is in part because Greeks don't like the MaKadonians, who are not pure Greek, more part of the Balkans than Greece, and who claim to be the real homeland of both Alexander the Great and his father Philip. Greeks are adamant those royals were Greek, and have gone to war with the MaKadonians over this dispute. For decades, in the UN, Greece insisted the country now known as North Makadonia (with a C, I am only using a K to remind readers it is NOT pronounced Massadonia by the actual MaKadonians). Greece had threatened war with Makadonia if they internationally insisted on calling themselves that until a compromise was reached a few years ago, to call the region around Thessaloniki, within Greece, "Makadonia" and the actual country where Philip's palace site is situated in the capitol of North Makadonia, Skopia, in a monumentally tall series of statuary so high above the palace site you need to fly up to it to make out the images of Philip and Alexander, which the non-Greek MaKadonians insist belong to them. After visiting Skopia and exploring North Makadonia and learning of this controversy there, I went to Thessalon-EE-ki and asked Greeks where Philip's palace was, and where exactly were he and Alexander born? I was never told anything but "We don't know exactly. But it's somewhere in Greece."

[@coolandhip_7596]

That's crazy but we're speaking English not Greek. Greek pronunciation or stress does not automatically apply to load words into English. Most English speakers would probably better recognize the city under the name Thessalonica anyways because of the Bible. English also always (pretty much) renders Macedonia with a soft c and there's no reason to not other than for political reasons between countries hundreds of miles away from the UK and thousands from the US.

[@FreeTibetFTW]

@@coolandhip_7596 I agree, it's just the way is pronounced in a different language rather than reading it from the original language and saying it wrong. In Spanish, we also put the accent on the antepenultimate syllable in TesaLÓnica and definitely go for Ce when saying Macedonia. Anyway, useful to know if one does not want to get on the local's nerves.

[@craigbhill]

@@coolandhip_7596 It's not necessarily crazy but arrogant to pronounce anything knowingly wrong. For instance, it's not Boy-zee Idaho, it's Boy-see. It's not New Or-LEEns, it's New OR-lens. Worst, the English, and arrogantly most English-language speakers, for over a century called (insistently corrected by the Chinese in the late 20th century) Beijing "Pay-KING", which is absurd, thanks to the snot-nosed English predilection to intentionally mangle most every place name outside their borders (Cal-AY, spelt Calais, as "CAL-us" even tho they knew better. Like "Peking", established by English missionaries to make anything Chinese sound as foreign as possible except to their little circular in-group instead of ACCURATE. Imagine your own name mangled by everyone throughout your life, would you succumb to others' stupid obnoxiousness or accept your mangled name like a slave to convention??

[@alexisgateley230]

There are 15 monuments in Thessaloniki designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites (Byzantine & Palaio-Christian monuments).

[@Pan472]

Fun fact: the excavations for the metro uncovered a lot more. And most of them are accessible to the public from now! An entire station for a fact will basically be a open air museum.

[@4ur3n]

if you look close enough you will see the finished Underground of Thessaloniki

[@josephtrahan8045]

Seeing that church with no lights on really feel like you’re back in that time. I feel like that’s what it would look like back in the day.

[@MrGbscott1954]

What is ironic is that the Byzantines never considered themselves Byzantines. They held throughout their history that they were Romans.

[@BunsBooks]

This is awesome, thanks for showing us around these wonderful places

[@gcountry100]

Seeing this brought back so many memories of my time studying there! Thank you - one could spend endless hours learning about every inch of that place.

[@eriktopolsky337]

Saints Cyril and Methodius, (respectively, born c. 827, Thessalonica, Theme of Thessalonica, Byzantine Empire (now in Greece)-died February 14, 869, Rome; born c. 815, Thessalonica-died April 6, 884, Moravia; feast day for both, February 14 [Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism] or May 11 [Eastern Orthodoxy]), brothers who, for Christianizing the Danubian Slavs and for influencing the religious and cultural development of all Slavic peoples, received the title “the Apostles of the Slavs.” Cyril (originally named Constantine) had missionary experience with the Arabs and had been a professor of philosophy at the patriarchal school in Constantinople when he began to work with his brother Methodius, the abbot of a Greek monastery, for the conversion of the Khazars northeast of the Black Sea in 860. In 862, when Prince Rostislav of Great Moravia asked Constantinople for missionaries, the emperor Michael III and the patriarch Photius named Cyril and Methodius. They started their work among the Slavs in 863, using Slavonic in the liturgy. They translated the Bible into the language later known as Old Church Slavonic (or Old Bulgarian) and invented the Glagolitic alphabet, a Slavic alphabet based on Greek characters that in its final Cyrillic form is still in use as the alphabet for modern Russian and a number of other Slavic languages.

[@t.vanoosterhout233]

Marvellous. But now I want to visit Thessaloniki for myself!

[@LeandroCapstick]

Great video! Have had Thessaloniki on my list for a while now for the byzantine sites alone, I'll definitely keep this video saved! Thanks for uploading!

[@D.Pap_Art]

Beautiful and very informative video. May I ask though why you decided not to mention Thessaloniki's Hagia Sophia in a video about byzantine Thessaloniki? If you ask me, it is the most important church of that period this city has.

[@xXcangjieXx]

Also a shame he didn’t show the amazing mosaics of the Rotunda

[@brick6347]

Beautiful churches. It's a pity that the modern buildings in the background don't inspire nearly as much awe as their ancient neighbours. Looks like post war suburb of Warsaw.

[@khalidalali186]

Hahaha touché

[@chrisd997]

Hahahahhaha. Dont compare depressing Warsaw with Thessaloniki . If you have ever the possibility to visit Thessaloniki just take down the street and in 200 Meters is the 12 Km long boardwark of Thessaloniki. Also where the palace was shown, is the place were many of the 100K plus students hang around giving it a very cool and vibrant atmosphere.

[@Lemma01]

Hold on, Chris - there are plenty of inspiring places in Warsaw - even if they've been rebuilt. And if you want a cool student vibe, head down to the river and the boat bars in Summer. Just saying...😊

[@chrisd997]

@@Lemma01 Not a comparison my friend at least in my opinion, nothing compares to Italian, Spanish and Greek South European cities. Ancient History, amazing food, beaches, sun and blue skies. Warsaw was indeed rebuild and very nicely but still the "Soviet" vibes are there. Again only my opinion and each one has his own preferences.

[@sigma7109]

Greece has no ancient neighbours, all the others came long after. . Have you ever been to Warsaw? Apart from the very center, most of the buildings are of soviet style, even today. Yet, almost the most important building, is Stalin's tower.

[@snotnosewilly99]

Thessaloniki is in the eastern panhandle of Greece...had to look up the location .Named after the sister of Alexander the Great.

[@qboxer]

Great video on a lesser known topic. Thessalonica was an incredibly important city.

[@airingcupboard]

Well, that's my next trip sorted. Did you manage to get to Vergina from there?

[@nerodoom]

What a treasure, unfortunately too much of it was ravaged in Ottoman times

[@gnas1897]

The Ottomans preserved this stuff. Most of the damage you see is due to the fires, war or general neglect.

[@starcapture3040]

its the other way around the city was rebuilt and all of its history was destroyed in modern times. it was so similar to Istanbul where history is build upon each other, some Greek fascist started a fire in the city to destroy its historical character which because it looked so oriental something they hated

[@10secondfilmschool]

This is so awesome! Bucket list location for sure. I can tell so much research went into this before your trip even began, and I like your adapting and parsing of info based on what you were able to film.

[@khalidalali186]

The surrounding modern architecture, from what looks like, mid-20th century, is unbelievably repulsive 🤢

[@babiyarnazarismaily6207]

Bulgaria was not exactly conquered but more like incorporated into the byzantene state and the empire left the bulgarian nobels to rule their lands up until the restoration of the bulgarian state by asen dynasty in 1185-1187 rebelion (also bulgaria kept her independent church wich was hard earned 140years before),when tesalonika was conquered by the vikings and the asen brothers used the time and said to the bulgarians that st dimitrius of tesaloniky left the city and is now with them,this boosted the rebelion and the state was renovated,only the bulgarian emperor and his family were moved to anatolia in 1018 not to rebel and was made governor....by the way bulgarian means the rebelius or the mixed,also the word vulgar comes from the word for bulgarian in greek wich is vulgarus,probably they had intense negotiations with the bulgars😂😂😂🎉

[@vasilis_k_97]

Very interesting video. Though you have to work on your greek pronounciations. Keep the good work!

[@MagnumGreenPanther]

Awesome!

[@12TribesUnite]

Is that the place were the leave the poor cats of the city that they didnt kill? If its not it there is a similar one around in rome

[@johnspizziri1919]

Excellent!

[@Evan490BC]

The sight of Thessaloniki with all these apartment buildings touching the ancient Roman and Byzantine ruins is appalling and a total shame.

[@chrisd997]

Thessaloniki is still a hidden touristic gem. Multiple historical buildings, musuems and sights to visit. The vibrant greek jewish community which was suddenly almost completely eliminated during the nazi occupation but still managed to survive. The 100K plus stundent population giving it a very special vibrant taste. A gastronomic paradise where you can taste unique food and patisserrie. Also mount Olympus is very close less than 90 km as well as Pella the same distance where you can visit the Vergina where the tomb of Phillip II lies there. Finally Chalkidiki for amazing beaches. Only bad thing is the terrible public infrastructure, that why the roads are always so busy. A Place to recommend highly!

[@oskmog]

Your videos are super interesting and the presentation is really concise and well informed! However, I think the viewing experience would be improved if you uploaded in 1440p (2k) or 2160p (4k). This would allow us to see the statues and frescos in much greater detail!

[@ludo9234]

Thank you so much for that informative video, of a place i could never afford to see.

[@Michistrasse97]

I was just there a few weeks ago! I visited a lot of the city, but wish I had known more about Galerius' palace and arch when I was there. Thanks for sharing

[@stepps511]

Thank you for this wonderful and illustrative video, Garrett. It's wonderful to see the history come to life in these ancient cities!

[@michaelpeeler7030]

I lived next to Galarius’ palace for about three months and loved exploring the city. This brings back so many great memories.

[@vincentkosik403]

Makes me wonder f Galerius could visit this city today what would he react to all modern changes... Galerius was one interesting Emperor an had a complicated reign

[@Jsmith2024]

Excellent! Now I need to add one more city to my bucket list.

[@LemonCamel]

Your on site monolog ability is quie something

[@NicholasLeonard089]

Thanks!

[@scenicroutestothepast]

Much appreciated!

[@christophesingio9801]

Il connait autre chose que les églises ?!!!

[@reeyees50]

Iconostasis i loved that word❤

[@nikostsatsis9478]

Its actually iconostasio or iconostasi

[@dave88272]

1st