Monument
The city's largest church, dedicated to its patron saint, with a crypt beneath the floor.
A five-aisled basilica in Thessaloniki, a UNESCO monument, with a crypt in the Roman baths where the city's patron was martyred. What to see and how far it is.
The church is dedicated to Thessaloniki's patron saint. The first basilica here was three-aisled, built in the fifth century by the prefect Leontios, and the five-aisled building you walk into now dates from 629 to 634. It belongs to the Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessaloniki, on the UNESCO list since 1988.
Beneath the floor is the reason the church exists at all. It was a Roman bath, and tradition places Demetrios's imprisonment and martyrdom there in 303. Today it holds finds from the excavations, reached by stairs to the right of the central nave. Go quietly.
The great fire of 1917 destroyed the roof and the upper walls, and many of the mosaics with them. The church was rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1949. The mosaics that survived are on the piers flanking the sanctuary, and you look at them knowing what passed over them.
Thessaloniki's monuments sit close together, and most of the distances are measured in minutes. The times below are from our door.
From our door: 16 minutes on foot, uphill. Our suites are in Ladadika, in the historic centre, and most of the city's monuments are walkable from our door.
No. Entry to both the church and the crypt is free.
Yes, by the stairs to the right of the central nave. The crypt's hours do not always match the church's and they change, so ask us before you set off and we will check.
Sixteen minutes on foot, with a climb in the last stretch.
