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176-628: The Greek Mob was formed in southern Greece by the original boss Steve Pattakos. Pattakos also had strong ties with the Karakostas and Efthimiades families of Macedonia in Northern Greece . When the Karakostas family was run out of power in the 1960s, Pattakos decided to move his operations to the US. When Pattakos was sentenced to jail to serve life for murder, mobster Chelsais "Steve" Bouras of Upper Northeast Philadelphia took over. Throughout

352-580: A free city of the Roman Republic under Mark Antony in 41 BC. It grew to be an important trade hub located on the Via Egnatia , the road connecting Dyrrhachium with Byzantium , which facilitated trade between Thessaloniki and great centres of commerce such as Rome and Byzantium . Thessaloniki also lies at the southern end of the main north–south route through the Balkans along

528-726: A high speed railway . The Thessaloniki Suburban Railway links the regional capital with Florina , in Western Macedonia, and Larissa , in Thessaly . Thessaloniki Airport is the third-busiest in the country, and the Athens–Thessaloniki air route was the EU's tenth busiest in 2016. Macedonia's three other airports are Kavala Airport , Kozani Airport , and Kastoria Airport ; the two busiest airports, Thessaloniki and Kavala, are operated by Fraport . The Port of Thessaloniki

704-748: A humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ), while higher elevations border a humid continental climate ( Dfa ). Thessaloniki has a cold semi-arid climate ( BSk ) while downtown Thessaloniki and Neos Marmaras are the only areas of Macedonia with a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSh ). The coldest winters are found in Florina , while the mildest are found in Neos Marmaras and Great Lavra , which fall in hardiness zone 10a. Since 1987 Macedonia has been divided into three regions ( Greek : περιφέρειες ). These are Western Macedonia , Central Macedonia , and Eastern Macedonia, which

880-531: A kingdom (later, region ) named after the ancient Macedonians , who were the descendants of a Bronze-Age Greek tribe . Their name, Μακεδόνες ( Makedónes ), is cognate to the Ancient Greek adjective μᾰκεδνός ( makednós ), meaning 'tall, slim'. It is traditionally derived from the Indo-European root *meh₂ḱ- , meaning 'long' or 'slender'. Linguist Robert S. P. Beekes supports

1056-472: A lengthy siege in 1383–1387 , along with most of eastern and central Macedonia, to the forces of Sultan Murad I . Initially, the surrendered cities were allowed complete autonomy in exchange for payment of the kharaj poll-tax . Following the death of Emperor John V Palaiologos in 1391, however, Manuel II escaped Ottoman custody and went to Constantinople, where he was crowned emperor, succeeding his father. This angered Sultan Bayezid I , who laid waste to

1232-436: A Christian whom Galerius is said to have put to death. Most scholars agree with Hippolyte Delehaye 's theory that Demetrius was not a Thessaloniki native, but his veneration was transferred to Thessaloniki when it replaced Sirmium as the main military base in the Balkans. A basilical church dedicated to St. Demetrius, Hagios Demetrios , was first built in the fifth century AD and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site . When

1408-743: A branch of the Macedonians invaded Southern Greece towards the end of the second millennium B.C. Upon reaching the Peloponnese the invaders were renamed Dorians , triggering the accounts of the Dorian invasion. For centuries the Macedonian tribes were organised in independent kingdoms, in what is now Central Macedonia, and their role in internal Hellenic politics was minimal, even before the rise of Athens. The Macedonians claimed to be Dorian Greeks (Argive Greeks) and there were many Ionians in

1584-576: A centre of Ottoman administration in the Balkans. While most of Macedonia was ruled by the Ottomans, in Mount Athos the monastic community continued to exist in a state of autonomy. The remainder of the Chalkidiki peninsula also enjoyed an autonomous status: the "Koinon of Mademochoria" was governed by a locally appointed council due to privileges obtained on account of its wealth, coming from

1760-499: A decrease of 26.5%. Greece exited its recession, which began in 2009, in 2016 but data from that year onward is not available for the whole of Macedonia; Central Macedonia grew by 0.57% in real terms that year to €23.85 billion ($ 26.94 billion), while Western Macedonia contracted by 10.6% to €3.85 billion ($ 4.35 billion). Almost half of the economy, 49%, is centred in the Thessaloniki regional unit , which remained in

1936-629: A half-sister of Alexander the Great and princess of Macedonia as daughter of Philip II . Under the kingdom of Macedonia the city retained its own autonomy and parliament and evolved to become the most important city in Macedonia. Twenty years after the fall of the Kingdom of Macedonia in 168 BC, in 148 BC, Thessalonica was made the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia . Thessalonica became

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2112-521: A language spoken originally on the shores of the Black Sea in northeastern Anatolia and the Caucasus , as well as a dialect indigenous to Greek Macedonia and other parts of Northern Greece known as Sarakatsánika ( Greek : Σαρακατσάνικα ); spoken by the traditionally transhumant Greek subgroup of Sarakatsani . Macedonia is also home to an array of non-Greek languages. Slavic languages are

2288-681: A less developed region of the Union for its 2014–2020 funding cycle, and so the region has in recent years benefited from a number of megaprojects co-financed by the Greek government and the EU. These included the A2 motorway (Egnatia Odos) freeway (€5.93 billion) and the Thessaloniki Metro (€1.85 billion) while the railway network has also been partly electrified, allowing Thessaloniki to be linked with Athens in 3.5 hours through

2464-611: A major imperial city and trading hub. Thessaloniki and Smyrna , although smaller in size than Constantinople , were the Ottoman Empire's most important trading hubs. Thessaloniki's importance was mostly in the field of shipping , but also in manufacturing, while most of the city's tradespeople were Jewish . During the Ottoman period, the city's population of Ottoman Muslims (including those of Turkish origin, as well as Albanian Muslim , Bulgarian Muslim , especially

2640-836: A meeting of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in January 2007, declaring that "I myself am a Macedonian, and another two and a half million Greeks are Macedonians". In the early-to-mid 20th century Greece was invaded by Bulgaria three times with the aim of capturing portions Macedonia; during the Second Balkan War , during the First World War , and during the Second World War . Additionally, Nazi Germany had promised Thessaloniki to Yugoslavia as

2816-496: A political reform movement, which goal was to replace the Ottoman Empire's absolute monarchy with a constitutional government. The Young Turks started out as an underground movement, until finally in 1908, they started the Young Turk Revolution from the city of Thessaloniki, which lead to of them gaining control over the Ottoman Empire and put an end to the Ottoman sultans power. Eleftherias (Liberty) Square , where

2992-736: A puppet state such as the Hellenic State or an ally of Germany (Thessaloniki had been promised to Yugoslavia as a reward for joining the Axis on 25 March 1941). As it was the first major city in Greece to fall to the occupying forces, the first Greek resistance group formed in Thessaloniki (under the name Ελευθερία , Elefthería , "Freedom") as well as the first anti-Nazi newspaper in an occupied territory anywhere in Europe, also by

3168-490: A recession in 2015, declining by 0.4%. The recession had an impact on the per capita income of the region, especially when compared with the European Union average. Western Macedonia, the region with the highest per capita income, saw it drop from 83% the EU average in 2008 to 59% in 2016. The per capita income of Macedonia in 2015 was €12,900 in nominal and €15,900 in purchasing power terms. The Macedonian economy

3344-513: A republic, contrary to the rest of Greece. After the war, Thessaloniki was rebuilt with large-scale development of new infrastructure and industry throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Many of its architectural treasures still remain, adding value to the city as a tourist destination, while several early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988. In 1997, Thessaloniki

3520-616: A reward for joining the Axis powers . The perceived existence of a foreign danger had a particularly strong effect on the emergence of a distinct regional identity in Macedonia. The representation of the Macedonian Struggle in Penelope Delta 's popular 1937 teen novel Secrets of the Swamp solidified the image of the chauvinist clash between Greeks and Bulgarians in Macedonia in the minds of many Greeks. Bulgaria

3696-556: Is Greece's second-largest in domestic freight and fourth-largest in international freight by tonnage, while Kavala is Macedonia's other major port. Macedonia, being a border region of an EU member state, benefits from EU programs promoting cross-border economic collaboration both between members of the Union ( Bulgaria ), as well as the Republic of North Macedonia , an EU candidate country, and Albania . The EU invested €210 million ($ 237.24 million) in these three programmes for

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3872-581: Is Macedonia's most popular beach destination, combining 550 kilometres (340 mi) of sandy beaches with dense forests. There were 116 Blue Flag beaches in Macedonia in 2018, 85 of which were in Chalkidiki. Additionally, the region was home to three Blue Flag marinas and one sustainable boating tourism operator. Kavala is an important economic centre of Northern Greece, a center of commerce, tourism, fishing and oil-related activities. Pieria combines extensive plains, high mountains and sandy beaches and

4048-462: Is a self-governing part of Greece, and the powers of the state are exercised through a governor appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . The European Union takes this special status into consideration, particularly on matters of taxation exemption and rights of installation. Macedonia borders the sovereign states of Albania to the north-west, North Macedonia to the north, and Bulgaria to

4224-582: Is also a hub for urban tourism and gastronomy . Macedonia is also home to various lake and wetland tourist destinations. The main religion in the Greek region of Macedonia is Christianity, with majority of population belonging to the Eastern Orthodox Church . In early centuries of Christianity, the see of Thessaloniki became the metropolitan diocese of the ancient Roman province of Macedonia . The archbishop of Thessaloniki also became

4400-584: Is also the name for the region in Megleno-Romanian . Macedonia lies at the crossroads of human development between the Aegean and the Balkans. The earliest signs of human habitation date back to the palaeolithic period, notably with the Petralona cave in which was found the oldest yet known European humanoid, Archanthropus europaeus petraloniensis . The Ouranopithecus macedoniensis is perhaps

4576-461: Is another UNESCO World Heritage Site . These are important poles for cultural tourism . Thessaloniki is home to numerous notable Byzantine monuments , including the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki , a UNESCO World Heritage Site , as well as several Roman , Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures. Apart from being the cultural centre of Macedonia, Thessaloniki

4752-807: Is characterized by variety, since Western and Eastern Macedonia is mountainous with the exception of some fertile valleys, while the Thessaloniki-Giannitsa plain, the largest in Greece, is located in Central Macedonia . Mount Olympus , the highest mountain in Greece, is located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, between the regional units of Pieria and Larissa, about 80 km (50 mi) southwest from Thessaloniki. Some other mountain ranges are Vermio Mountains , Pierian Mountains , Voras Mountains . The islands of Macedonia are Thasos , opposite

4928-432: Is estimated to have further decreased to 2,382,857. In the 2011 Greek census the capital city, Thessaloniki , had an urban population of 824,676, up from 794,330 in 2001, while its metropolitan population increased to over a million. 281,458 people in Macedonia (or 12% of the population) were born in a foreign country, compared to 11.89% for the whole of Greece. 51.32% of the population was female, and 48.68% male. Like

5104-1068: Is first attested in Greek in the Chronicle of the Morea (14th century), and is common in folk songs , but it must have originated earlier, as al-Idrisi called it Salunik already in the 12th century. It is the basis for the city's name in other languages: Солѹнъ ( Solunŭ ) in Old Church Slavonic , סאלוניקו ( Saloniko ) in Judeo-Spanish (שאלוניקי prior to the 19th century ) סלוניקי ( Saloniki ) in Hebrew , Selenik in Albanian language , سلانیك ( Selânik ) in Ottoman Turkish and Selanik in modern Turkish , Salonicco in Italian , Solun or Солун in

5280-479: Is home to Greece's richest farmland, and the region accounts for 9,859 square kilometres (3,807 sq mi) of the country's agricultural area (30% of total). Macedonia's agricultural production has historically been dominated by tobacco, with the cash crop being grown in large quantities due to its value. Central and Western Macedonia still produce 41% of Greece's total tobacco, but it only represents 1.4% of these regions' agricultural production value. Nowadays

5456-543: Is located 502 kilometres (312 mi) north of Athens . Thessaloniki's urban area spreads over 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Oraiokastro in the north to Thermi in the south in the direction of Chalkidiki . Thessaloniki lies on the northern fringe of the Thermaic Gulf on its eastern coast and is bound by Mount Chortiatis on its southeast. Its proximity to imposing mountain ranges, hills and fault lines, especially towards its southeast have historically made

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5632-590: Is not an elected position, and is instead appointed at the pleasure of the Prime Minister of Greece . The current Deputy Minister in the Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis is Stavros Kalafatis  [ el ] of New Democracy . The various regions of Greece are also constituencies to the Hellenic Parliament , and Macedonia is represented through its 66 members of parliament. Thessaloniki

5808-521: Is part of the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace . These three regions are subdivided into 14 regional units ( περιφερειακές ενότητες ) which are in turn further divided into municipalities ( δήμοι – roughly equivalent to British shires or American Townships). They are overseen by the Ministry for the Interior , while the Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace is responsible for

5984-425: Is primarily service-based , with services contributing €16.46 billion (60.4%) of the region's gross value added in 2015. The industrial and agricultural sectors contributed €9.06 billion (33.3%) and €1.72 billion (6.3%) respectively. The regional labour force was similarly mostly employed in services (60.4%), with industry and agriculture making up 25.6% and 14.0% of the labour force. Macedonia

6160-402: Is split into two constituencies, Thessaloniki A and Thessaloniki B , while Grevena is the smallest constituency with only 1 seat. Thessaloniki A is the second-largest constituency in Greece with 16 MPs. Macedonia is bordered by the neighbouring Greek regions of Thessaly to the south, Thrace (part of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace ) to the east, and Epirus to the west. It also includes

6336-583: Is the most popular tourist destination in Greece that is not an island, and its fourth overall, outperforming all other regions of the Greek mainland with 9.7 million overnight stays in 2017. There were a further 2.1 million stays in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace and 294 thousand in Western Macedonia . Macedonia is a diverse region which allows it to cater to a variety of different types of tourism. The Chalkidiki peninsula

6512-458: Is the music of the geographic region of Macedonia in Greece , which is a part of the music of whole region of Macedonia . Notable element of the local folk music is the use of trumpets and koudounia (called chálkina in the local dialect). In 2011 the permanent population of the region stood at 2,406,393 residents, a decrease from 2,422,533 in 2001. As of 2017, the population of Macedonia

6688-424: Is the second-largest city and a major economic, industrial, cultural, commercial and political centre of Greece. Central Macedonia is Greece's fourth-most-popular tourist region and the most popular destination that is not an island. It is home to four UNESCO World Heritage sites , including Aigai (modern day Vergina , about 12 km (7 mi) from Veria ), one of the ancient Macedonian capital cities, where

6864-515: Is the second-largest city in Greece , with slightly over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area , and the capital of the geographic region of Macedonia , the administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace . It is also known in Greek as " η Συμπρωτεύουσα " ( i Symprotévousa ), literally "the co-capital", a reference to its historical status as

7040-555: Is today considered a Greek hero along with the unnamed Macedonians that fought with him. The fall and massacre of Naoussa marked the end of the Greek Revolution in Macedonia, and the region remained in the Ottoman Empire. In the early 20th century the region was already a national cause, contested among the states of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. After the Macedonian Struggle and the Balkan Wars (in 1912 and 1913),

7216-738: Is unknown). Many Aromanian villages can be found along the slopes of the Vermion Mountains and Mount Olympus . Smaller numbers can be found in the Prespes region and near the Gramos mountains. Megleno-Romanians can be found in the Moglena region of Macedonia. The Megleno-Romanian language is traditionally spoken in the 11 Megleno-Romanian villages spread across Greece and the Republic of North Macedonia , including Archangelos , Notia , Lagkadia , and Skra . They are generally adherents to

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7392-496: The Balkan Wars . In local speech, the city's name is typically pronounced with a dark and deep L , characteristic of the accent of the modern Macedonian dialect of Greek . The name is often abbreviated as Θεσ/νίκη . The city was founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon , on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and 26 other local villages. He named it after his wife Thessalonike ,

7568-548: The Battle of Maritsa (1371), Byzantine rule was reestablished in eastern regions, including Serres . During the 1380s, the region was gradually conquered by the advancing Ottomans , with Serres holding out until 1383, and Thessaloniki until 1387. After a brief Byzantine interval in 1403–1430 (during the last seven years of which the city was handed over to the Venetians), Thessaloniki and its immediate surrounding area returned to

7744-612: The Battle of Pydna (22 June 168 BC), in which the Roman general Aemilius Paulus defeated King Perseus of Macedon , ending the reign of the Antigonid dynasty over Macedonia. For a brief period a Macedonian republic called the "Koinon of the Macedonians" was established. It was divided into four administrative districts by the Romans in the hope that this would make revolts more difficult, but this manoeuvre failed. Then in 148 BC, Macedonia

7920-574: The Despotate of Epirus , all of which helped promote a distinct Greek Macedonian identity. In the contemporary period this is reinforced by Greek Macedonia's proximity to other states in the southern Balkans, the continuing existence of ethnic and religious minorities in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace not found in southern Greece, and the fact that migrants and refugees from elsewhere in the Balkans, southern Russia, and Georgia (including Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks from northeastern Anatolia and

8096-417: The Eastern Macedonia and Thrace division after 2010. The region is further divided between the third-level administrative divisions of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace , and the Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia . It also includes the autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos , which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through

8272-686: The First Balkan War , and expanded its share in the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria. The boundaries of Greek Macedonia were finalised in the Treaty of Bucharest . In World War I , Macedonia became a battlefield. The Greek Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos , favoured entering the war on the side of the Entente , while the Germanophile King Constantine I favoured neutrality. Invited by Venizelos, in autumn 1915,

8448-691: The Greek Communist Party and forced to flee to the Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Macedonia and other countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Some also immigrated to Canada, Australia, and the United States. Current Greek law still forbids the reentry and restitution of property by Macedonians that are not "Greek by origin." Macedonia is the largest and second-most-populous Greek region . The landscape

8624-485: The Greek War of Independence . The revolt spread from Central to Western Macedonia . In the autumn of 1821, Nikolaos Kasomoulis was sent to southern Greece as the "representative of South-East Macedonia", and met Demetrius Ypsilantis. At the beginning of 1822, Anastasios Karatasos and Angelis Gatsos arranged a meeting with other armatoloi and decided that the insurrection should be based on three towns: Naoussa, Kastania , and Siatista . In 1854 Theodoros Ziakas ,

8800-399: The Macedonia naming dispute in the aftermath of the break-up of Yugoslavia , in which Greece objected to its northern neighbour calling itself the " Republic of Macedonia ". This objection is the direct result of this regional identity, and a matter of heritage for northern Greeks. A characteristic expression of this self-identification was manifested by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis at

8976-423: The Macedonian Front , also known as the Salonika front. And a temporary hospital run by the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service was set up in a disused factory. In 1916, pro- Venizelist Greek army officers and civilians, with the support of the Allies, launched an uprising, creating a pro-Allied temporary government by the name of the " Provisional Government of National Defence " that controlled

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9152-423: The Macedonians to resist both Ottoman and Bulgarian forces, by sending military officers who formed bands made up of Macedonians and other Greek volunteers, something that resulted in the Macedonian Struggle from 1904 to 1908, which ended with the Young Turk Revolution . The Macedonians fought alongside the regular Greek army during the struggle for Macedonia. There are monuments in Macedonia commemorating

9328-411: The Makedonomachoi , the local Macedonian and other Greek fighters, who took part in the wars and died to liberate Macedonia from the Ottoman rule, officially memorialized as heroes. Greece gained the southern parts of the region (with Thessaloniki ), which corresponded to that of ancient Macedonia attributed as part of Greek history and had a strong Greek presence, from the Ottoman Empire after

9504-507: The Museum of the Macedonian Struggle ) served as the centre of operations for the Greek guerillas. During this period, and since the 16th century, Thessaloniki's Jewish element was the most dominant; it was the only city in Europe where the Jews were a majority of the total population. The city was ethnically diverse and cosmopolitan . In 1890, its population had risen to 118,000, 47% of which were Jews, followed by Turks (22%), Greeks (14%), Bulgarians (8%), Roma (2%), and others (7%). By 1913,

9680-413: The Nuremberg Laws , which saw some 43,000–49,000 of Thessaloniki's 56,000 Jews exterminated in the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps . In its own zone of annexation, Bulgaria actively persecuted the local Greek population with the help of Bulgarian collaborationists. Further demographic change happened in the aftermath of the Greek Civil War , when many Slavs of Macedonia who fought on

9856-478: The Ottoman Empire to the Kingdom of Greece on 8 November 1912. Thessaloniki exhibits Byzantine architecture , including numerous Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments , a World Heritage Site , and several Roman , Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures. In 2013, National Geographic Magazine included Thessaloniki in its top tourist destinations worldwide, while in 2014 Financial Times FDI magazine (Foreign Direct Investments) declared Thessaloniki as

10032-410: The Ottoman succession struggle that broke out following the crushing defeat and capture of Bayezid at the Battle of Ankara against Tamerlane in 1402. In exchange for his support, in the Treaty of Gallipoli the Byzantine emperor secured the return of Thessalonica, part of its hinterland, the Chalcidice peninsula, and the coastal region between the rivers Strymon and Pineios . Thessalonica and

10208-445: The Peloponnesian War , Macedonia became the theatre of many military actions by the Peloponnesian League and the Athenians, and saw incursions of Thracians and Illyrians, as attested by Thucydides. Many Macedonian cities were allied to the Spartans (both the Spartans and the Macedonians were Dorian, while the Athenians were Ionian), but Athens maintained the colony of Amphipolis under her control for many years. The kingdom of Macedon ,

10384-409: The Port of Thessaloniki being one of the largest in the Aegean and facilitating trade throughout the Balkan hinterland. On 26 October 2012 the city celebrated its centennial since its incorporation into Greece. The city also forms one of the largest student centers in Southeastern Europe, is host to the largest student population in Greece and was the European Youth Capital in 2014. Thessaloniki

10560-417: The Thessaloniki–Istanbul Junction Railway connected it to Constantinople in 1896. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , founder of the modern republic of Turkey , was born in Thessaloniki (then known as Selânik in Ottoman Turkish) in 1881. His birthplace on İslahhane Caddesi (now 24 Apostolou Street) is now the Atatürk Museum and forms part of the Turkish consulate complex. In the early 20th century, Thessaloniki

10736-427: The abdication of King Constantine in 1917. On 30 December 1915 an Austrian air raid on Thessaloniki alarmed many town civilians and killed at least one person, and in response the Allied troops based there arrested the German, Austrian, Bulgarian and Turkish vice-consuls and their families and dependents and put them on a battleship, and billeted troops in their consulate buildings in Thessaloniki. Most of

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10912-468: The centre-right New Democracy party, while Karypidis is an independent . Elections take place in a two-round system , where the two candidates with the most votes face each other in a second round if no one has managed to get a majority of more than 50% of the votes in the first round. Regional councils, mayors, and other officials are also elected in this way. The next local elections will take place in 2019. The Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace

11088-401: The civil administrator of Mount Athos ) in its political aspect, and of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in its religious aspect. The region remains an important economic centre for Greece. Macedonia accounts for the majority of Greece's agricultural production and is also a major contributor to the country's industrial and tourism sectors. The metropolis of the region, Thessaloniki

11264-454: The greater region had 1,092,919. It is Greece's second major economic, industrial, commercial and political centre, and a major transportation hub for Greece and southeastern Europe, notably through the Port of Thessaloniki . The city is renowned for its festivals, events and vibrant cultural life in general. Events such as the Thessaloniki International Fair and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival are held annually. Thessaloniki

11440-408: The local and neighboring South Slavic languages , Салоники ( Saloníki ) in Russian , Sãrunã in Aromanian and Săruna in Megleno-Romanian . In English, the city can be called Thessaloniki, Salonika, Thessalonica, Salonica, Thessalonika, Saloniki, Thessalonike, or Thessalonice. In printed texts, the most common name and spelling until the early 20th century was Thessalonica, matching

11616-495: The south Caucasus ) have usually gravitated to Greek Macedonia rather than southern Greece. Greek is the majority language throughout Greece today, with an estimated 5% of the population speaking a language other than Greek, and is the only language of administration and education in the region. Greek is spoken universally in Greek Macedonia, even in the border regions where there is a strong presence of languages other than Greek. The Greek government exhibits some tolerance toward

11792-426: The tomb of Philip II of Macedon is located. Pella (about 1 km (0.62 mi) from modern town of Pella and about 7 km (4.3 mi) from Giannitsa ), which replaced Aigai as the capital of Macedon in the fourth century BC and was the birthplace of Alexander the Great, is also located in the Greek region of Macedonia. The name Macedonia derives from the Greek : Μακεδονία ( Makedonía ),

11968-433: The vilayet of Selânik ( Thessaloniki ), 261,283 Greeks in the vilayet of Monastir ( Bitola ) and 13,452 Greeks in the villayet of Kosovo . Of those 648,962 Greeks by church, 307,000 identified as Greek speakers, while about 250,000 as Slavic speakers and 99,000 as "Vlach" (Aromanian or Megleno-Romanian). However, these figures extend to territories both inside and outside of Greek Macedonia. Hugh Poulton, in his Who Are

12144-440: The Συμβασιλεύουσα ( Symvasilévousa ) or "co-reigning" city of the Byzantine Empire alongside Constantinople . Thessaloniki is located on the Thermaic Gulf , at the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea . It is bounded on the west by the delta of the Axios . The municipality of Thessaloniki , the historical centre, had a population of 319,045 in 2021, while the Thessaloniki metropolitan area had 1,006,112 inhabitants and

12320-445: The "New Lands" (lands that were gained by Greece in the Balkan Wars , most of Northern Greece including Greek Macedonia, the North Aegean as well as the island of Crete ); the official government of the King in Athens , the "State of Athens", controlled "Old Greece" which were traditionally monarchist. The State of Thessaloniki was disestablished with the unification of the two opposing Greek governments under Venizelos, following

12496-402: The 1970s until 1981, Bouras headed the Greek Mob in Philadelphia, participating in mostly loansharking , extortion , methamphetamine trade, and illegal gambling . Bouras directed the mob efficiently, and he carried out business with more prominent families such as the Philadelphia Mafia . He was a close associate of Italian wiseguy and Scarfo soldier Raymond Martorano . On May 27, 1981, at

12672-603: The 2014–2020 funding cycle. A€10 billion ($ 11.3 billion) Egnatia Railway crossing Macedonia and linking Alexandroupoli in Western Thrace with Igoumenitsa in Epirus was proposed to the European Commission in 2017 but remains in planning with a projected start date in 2019. If completed, the 565 km (351 mi) railway line will be Europe's largest rail megaproject . Central Macedonia

12848-550: The 45,000 Jews deported to Auschwitz, only 4% survived. During a speech in Reichstag , Hitler claimed that the intention of his Balkan campaign, was to prevent the Allies from establishing "a new Macedonian front", as they had during WWI. The importance of Thessaloniki to Nazi Germany can be demonstrated by the fact that, initially, Hitler had planned to incorporate it directly into Nazi Germany and not have it controlled by

13024-549: The Allies landed forces in Thessaloniki to aid Serbia in its war against Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, but their intervention came too late to prevent the Serbian collapse. The Macedonian front was established, with Thessaloniki at its heart, while in summer 1916 the Bulgarians took over Greek eastern Macedonia without opposition. This provoked a military uprising among pro-Venizelist officers in Thessaloniki, resulting in

13200-562: The European face both of Thessaloniki and the Ottoman Empire. The city walls were torn down between 1869 and 1889, efforts for a planned expansion of the city are evident as early as 1879, the first tram service started in 1888 and the city streets were illuminated with electric lamp posts in 1908. In 1888, the Oriental Railway connected Thessaloniki to Central Europe via rail through Belgrade and to Monastir in 1893, while

13376-466: The Great and his father Philip II . Before the expansion of Macedonia under Philip in the 4th century   BC, the kingdom of the Macedonians covered an area corresponding roughly to the administrative regions of Western and Central Macedonia in modern Greece. The name Macedonia was later applied to a number of widely-differing administrative areas in the Roman and Byzantine empires. With

13552-553: The Great 's father. His discoveries were drawn upon as evidence of ethnic and cultural links between the ancient Macedonians and southern Greek city-states by Greeks in Macedonia. The distinct regional identity of Greek Macedonians is also the product of the fact that it was closer to the centres of power in both the Byzantine and Ottoman period, was considered culturally, politically, and strategically more important than other parts of Greece during these two periods, and also

13728-555: The Greek Despotate of Epirus , Theodore Komnenos Doukas in 1224, when Greek Macedonia and the city of Thessaloniki were at the heart of the short-lived Empire of Thessalonica . Returning to the restored Byzantine Empire shortly thereafter, Greek Macedonia remained in Byzantine hands until the 1340s, when all of Macedonia (except Thessaloniki, and possibly Veria ) was conquered by the Serbian ruler Stefan Dušan . After

13904-567: The Greek Navy, General Hasan Tahsin Pasha soon realised that it had become untenable to defend the city. The sinking of the Ottoman ironclad Feth-i Bülend in Thessaloniki harbour on 31 October [O.S. 18 October] 1912, although militarily negligible, further damaged Ottoman morale. As both Greece and Bulgaria wanted Thessaloniki, the Ottoman garrison of the city entered negotiations with both armies. On 8 November 1912 (26 October Old Style ),

14080-596: The Greek element dominant, while the Jewish population was reduced to a minority for the first time since the 16th century. This was part of an overall process of modern Hellenization, which affected nearly all minorities within Greece, turning the region into a hotspot of ethnic nationalism. During World War II Thessaloniki was heavily bombarded by Fascist Italy (with 232 people dead, 871 wounded and over 800 buildings damaged or destroyed in November 1940 alone), and,

14256-592: The Greek-dominated community of Orthodox Christians. The Slavs of Macedonia generally referred to themselves and were known as "Bulgarians". By the middle of the 19th century, peasant communities of Macedonia experienced the formation of deep divisions with rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire . From then, the Slavic speaking communities of northern Greece split into two hostile and opposed groups with two different national identities – Greek and Bulgarian. By

14432-458: The Italians having failed in their invasion of Greece , it fell to the forces of Nazi Germany on 8 April 1941 and went under German occupation. The Nazis soon forced the Jewish residents into a ghetto near the railroads and on 15 March 1943 began the deportation of the city's Jews to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps . Most were immediately murdered in the gas chambers . Of

14608-586: The Kingdom of Thessalonica was overrun by the Despotate of Epirus , a remnant of the former Byzantine Empire, under Theodore Komnenos Doukas who crowned himself Emperor, and the city became the capital of the short-lived Empire of Thessalonica . Following his defeat at Klokotnitsa however in 1230, the Empire of Thessalonica became a vassal state of the Second Bulgarian Empire until it

14784-481: The Latin name; through most of rest of the 20th century, it was Salonika. By about 1985, the most common single name became Thessaloniki. The forms with the Latin ending -a taken together remain more common than those with the phonetic Greek ending -i and much more common than the ancient transliteration -e . Thessaloniki was revived as the city's official name in 1912, when it joined the Kingdom of Greece during

14960-578: The Macedonians , notes that "assessing population figures is problematic" for the territory of Greek Macedonia before its incorporation into the Greek state in 1913. The area's remaining population was principally composed of Ottoman Turks (including non-Turkish Muslims of mainly Bulgarian and Greek Macedonian convert origin) and also a sizeable community of mainly Sephardic Jews (centred in Thessaloniki), and smaller numbers of Romani , Albanians , Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians . When Macedonia

15136-906: The Mafia; the FBI had been investigating her nephew, Joe "Crutch" Curro, a made member of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra, after they recorded him on a 1976 FBI wiretap at Frank’s Cabana Steaks in South Philadelphia, at the time a base of operations for Philadelphia Mafia capo Frank Sindone . After Bouras' assassination, the Greek Mob did get involved with the mob war in Philadelphia in the 1980s , attempting to gain rackets in Atlantic City , but activity declined after

15312-654: The Middle Ages to the early 20th century, the ethnic composition of the region of Macedonia is characterised by uncertainty both about numbers and identification. The earliest estimation we have is from the Greek consulate of Thessaloniki in 1884, which according to it the nowadays Greek region of Macedonia had 1,073,000 Greeks (Grecophones, Slavophones, Albanophones), 565,000 Muslims , 215,000 Bulgarians and 16,000 Aromanians . The 1904 Ottoman census of Hilmi Pasha people were assigned to ethnicity according which church/language they belonged, it recorded 373,227 Greeks in

15488-717: The Orthodox Church while the former majority in Notia was Muslim. Arvanite communities exist in Serres regional unit , while many can also be found in Thessaloniki. There are three Arvanite villages in the Florina regional unit ( Drosopigi , Lechovo and Flampouro ) with others located in Kilkis and Thessaloniki regional units. Other minority groups include Armenians and Romani . Romani communities are concentrated mainly around

15664-495: The Ottomans. In 1423, Despot Andronikos Palaiologos ceded it to the Republic of Venice with the hope that it could be protected from the Ottomans who were besieging the city . The Venetians held Thessaloniki until it was captured by the Ottoman Sultan Murad II on 29 March 1430. When Sultan Murad II captured Thessaloniki and sacked it in 1430, contemporary reports estimated that about one-fifth of

15840-428: The Ottomans. The capture of Thessaloniki in 1430 threw the Byzantine world into consternation, being regarded correctly as a prelude to the fall of Constantinople itself. The memory of the event has survived through folk traditions containing fact and myths. Apostolos Vacalopoulos records the following Turkish tradition connected with the capture of Thessaloniki: "While Murad was asleep in his palace at Yenitsa,

16016-581: The Pomaks and Greek Muslim of convert origin) and Muslim Roma like the Sepečides Romani grew substantially. According to the 1478 census Selânik ( Ottoman Turkish : سلانیك ), as the city came to be known in Ottoman Turkish, had 6,094 Christian Orthodox households , 4,320 Muslim ones, and some Catholic. No Jews were recorded in the census suggesting that the subsequent influx of Jewish population

16192-613: The Roman Empire was divided into the tetrarchy , Thessaloniki became the administrative capital of one of the four portions of the Empire under Galerius Maximianus Caesar , where Galerius commissioned an imperial palace, a new hippodrome , a triumphal arch and a mausoleum , among other structures. In 379, when the Roman Prefecture of Illyricum was divided between the East and West Roman Empires, Thessaloniki became

16368-487: The Roman period, Thessaloniki was the second largest and wealthiest city of the Byzantine Empire . It was conquered by the Ottomans in 1430 and remained an important seaport and multi-ethnic metropolis during the nearly five centuries of Turkish rule , with churches, mosques, and synagogues co-existing side by side. From the 16th to the 20th century it was the only Jewish-majority city in Europe . It passed from

16544-595: The Second World War and following the defeat of Bulgaria, another further split between the Slavic groups occurred. Conservatives departed with the occupying Bulgarian Army to Bulgaria. Leftists who identified as Macedonians (Slavic), joined the communist-dominated rebel Democratic Army of Greece . At the conclusion of the Greek Civil War (1946–49), most Macedonians of Slavic background were evacuated by

16720-525: The Slavic element in the area led two brothers from Thessaloniki , Saints Cyril and Methodius , to be chosen to convert the Slavs to Christianity. Following the campaigns of Basil II , all of Macedonia returned to the Byzantine state. Following the Fourth Crusade 1203–1204, a short-lived Crusader realm, the Kingdom of Thessalonica , was established in the region. It was subdued by the co-founder of

16896-561: The Venetis Greek restaurant in South Philadelphia , Bouras and his girlfriend, Jeannette Curro, were gunned down while dining with Ray Martorano and Philadelphia radio personality Jerry Blavat . Bouras was 50 years old and Jeannette Curro was 54. Though Bouras and Curro were killed, Martorano and Blavat were only wounded. It is reported that Nicodemo Scarfo of Philadelphia's notorious Philadelphia crime family ordered

17072-566: The Young Turks gathered at the outbreak of the revolution, is named after the event. Turkey's first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , who was born and raised in Thessaloniki, was a member of the Young Turks in his soldier days and also partook in the Young Turk Revolution. As the First Balkan War broke out, Greece declared war on the Ottoman Empire and expanded its borders. When Eleftherios Venizelos , Prime Minister at

17248-635: The autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos , which has existed as a religious sanctuary since the Middle Ages . The community of the mount Athos is under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and is inaccessible to women, punishable by a penalty of incarceration of up to twelve months. This has been criticised by the European Parliament . The territory of Mount Athos

17424-671: The best mid-sized European city of the future for human capital and lifestyle. The original name of the city was Θεσσαλονίκη Thessaloníkē . It was named after the princess Thessalonike of Macedon , the half sister of Alexander the Great , whose name means "Thessalian victory", from Θεσσαλός Thessalos, and Νίκη 'victory' ( Nike ), honoring the Macedonian victory at the Battle of Crocus Field (353/352 BC). Minor variants are also found, including Θετταλονίκη Thettaloníkē , Θεσσαλονίκεια Thessaloníkeia , Θεσσαλονείκη Thessaloneíkē , and Θεσσαλονικέων Thessalonikéon . The name Σαλονίκη Saloníki

17600-563: The burial sites of several kings of Macedon were found, including the tomb of Philip II of Macedon . It is also the site of an extensive royal palace. The archaeological museum of Vergina was built to house all the artifacts found at the site and is one of the most important museums in Greece. Pella , which replaced Aigai as the capital of Macedon in the fourth century BC, is also located in Central Macedonia , as well as Dion in Pieria and Amphipolis . Philippi , located in eastern Macedonia ,

17776-631: The capital of the Sanjak of Selanik within the wider Rumeli Eyalet (Balkans) until 1826, and subsequently the capital of Selanik Eyalet (after 1867, the Selanik Vilayet ). This consisted of the sanjaks of Selanik, Serres and Drama between 1826 and 1912. With the break out of the Greek War of Independence in the spring of 1821, the governor Yusuf Bey imprisoned in his headquarters more than 400 hostages. On 18 May, when Yusuf learned of

17952-640: The capital of the new Prefecture of Illyricum. The following year, the Edict of Thessalonica made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire . In 390, troops under the Roman Emperor Theodosius I led a massacre against the inhabitants of Thessalonica , who had risen in revolt against the detention of a favorite charioteer. By the time of the Fall of Rome in 476, Thessaloniki was

18128-529: The city continued through the 12th century as the rule of the Komnenoi emperors expanded Byzantine control to the north. Thessaloniki passed out of Byzantine hands in 1204, when Constantinople was captured by the forces of the Fourth Crusade and incorporated the city and its surrounding territories in the Kingdom of Thessalonica — which then became the largest vassal of the Latin Empire . In 1224,

18304-551: The city of Thessaloniki. An uncertain number of them live in Macedonia from the total of about 200,000–300,000 that live scattered on all the regions of Greece . Thessaloniki Thessaloniki ( / ˌ θ ɛ s ə l ə ˈ n iː k i / ; Greek : Θεσσαλονίκη [θesaloˈnici] ), also known as Thessalonica ( English: / ˌ θ ɛ s ə l ə ˈ n aɪ k ə , ˌ θ ɛ s ə ˈ l ɒ n ɪ k ə / ), Saloniki , Salonika , or Salonica ( / s ə ˈ l ɒ n ɪ k ə , ˌ s æ l ə ˈ n iː k ə / ),

18480-549: The city prone to geological changes. Since medieval times, Thessaloniki has been hit by strong earthquakes , notably in 1759, 1902, 1978 and 1995. On 19–20 June 1978, the city suffered a series of powerful earthquakes , registering 5.5 and 6.5 on the Richter scale . The tremors caused considerable damage to a number of buildings and ancient monuments, but the city withstood the catastrophe without any major problems. One apartment building in central Thessaloniki collapsed during

18656-532: The city was reunited with the rest of the Empire. The capture of Gallipoli by the Ottomans in 1354 kicked off a rapid Turkish expansion in the southern Balkans , conducted both by the Ottomans themselves and by semi-independent Turkish ghazi warrior-bands. By 1369, the Ottomans were able to conquer Adrianople (modern Edirne ), which became their new capital until 1453 . Thessalonica, ruled by Manuel II Palaiologos (r. 1391–1425) itself surrendered after

18832-494: The city's population expanded by 70%, reaching 135,000 in 1917. The last few decades of Ottoman control over the city were an era of revival, particularly in terms of the city's infrastructure. It was at that time that the Ottoman administration of the city acquired an "official" face with the creation of the Government House while a number of new public buildings were built in the eclectic style in order to project

19008-475: The city's population was enslaved. Ottoman artillery was used to secure the city's capture and bypass its double walls. Upon the conquest of Thessaloniki, some of its inhabitants escaped, including intellectuals such as Theodorus Gaza "Thessalonicensis" and Andronicus Callistus . However, the change of sovereignty from the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman one did not affect the city's prestige as

19184-458: The city's population. Some historians consider the Ottoman regime's invitation to Jewish settlement was a strategy to prevent the Christian population from dominating the city. The city became both the largest Jewish city in the world and the only Jewish majority city in the world in the 16th century. As a result, Thessaloniki attracted persecuted Jews from all over the world. Thessaloniki was

19360-545: The city. On 30 October 1944, after battles with the retreating German army and the Security Battalions of Poulos , forces of ELAS entered Thessaloniki as liberators headed by Markos Vafiadis (who did not obey orders from ELAS leadership in Athens to not enter the city). Pro-EAM celebrations and demonstrations followed in the city. In the 1946 monarchy referendum , the majority of the locals voted in favor of

19536-467: The coastal areas and nearer Thrace remaining in Byzantine hands, while most of the hinterland was disputed between the Byzantium and Bulgaria . The Macedonian regions under Byzantine control passed under the tourma of Macedonia to the province of Thrace . A new system of administration came into place in 789–802 AD, following the Byzantine empire 's recovery from these invasions. The new system

19712-474: The coastal regions. The rest of the region was inhabited by various Thracian and Illyrian tribes as well as mostly coastal colonies of other Greek states such as Amphipolis , Olynthos, Potidea, Stageira and many others, and to the north another tribe dwelt, called the Paeonians . During the late 6th and early 5th century BC, the region came under Persian rule until the destruction of Xerxes at Plataea . During

19888-434: The coasts of Eastern Macedonia and the port of Kavala , and Ammouliani , opposite the coasts of Central Macedonia, in Chalkidiki . Haliacmon , which flows through Kastoria , Grevena , Kozani , Imathia and Pieria regional units, is the longest river in Greece. Some other rivers are Axios ( Vardar ), Strymonas , Loudias . Macedonia for the most part enjoys a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen : Csa ). Some parts have

20064-504: The coordination and application of the government's policies in all three Macedonian regions. Prior to 1987 Macedonia was a single administrative and geographical unit. The heads of the various administrative units are elected. The last Greek local elections were in 2014 , and saw Apostolos Tzitzikostas elected regional governor of Central Macedonia , Giorgos Pavlidis in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace , and Theodoros Karypidis in Western Macedonia. Tzitzikostas and Pavlidis are members of

20240-554: The defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War and during the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, a population exchange took place between Greece and Turkey. Over 160,000 ethnic Greeks deported from the former Ottoman Empire – particularly Greeks from Asia Minor and East Thrace were resettled in the city, changing its demographics. Additionally many of the city's Muslims, including Ottoman Greek Muslims , were deported to Turkey, ranging at about 20,000 people. This made

20416-607: The east, Macedonia ended according to Strabo at the river Strymon , although he mentions that other writers placed Macedonia's border with Thrace at the river Nestos , which is also the present geographical boundary between the two administrative districts of Greece . The Acts of the Apostles ( Acts 16:9–10 ) records a vision in which the apostle Paul is said to have seen a ' man of Macedonia ' pleading with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us". The passage reports that Paul and his companions responded immediately to

20592-458: The end of the century for the city's Greek community to recover. Thessaloniki was also a Janissary stronghold where novice Janissaries were trained. In June 1826, regular Ottoman soldiers attacked and destroyed the Janissary base in Thessaloniki while also killing over 10,000 Janissaries, an event known as The Auspicious Incident in Ottoman history. In 1870–1917, driven by economic growth,

20768-514: The establishment of a " Provisional Government of National Defence " in the city, headed by Venizelos, which entered the war alongside the Allies. After intense diplomatic negotiations and an armed confrontation in Athens between Entente and royalist forces the King abdicated, and his second son Alexander took his place. Venizelos returned to Athens in June 1917 and Greece, now unified, officially joined

20944-466: The ethnic composition of the city had changed so that the population stood at 157,889, with Jews at 39%, followed again by Turks (29%), Greeks (25%), Bulgarians (4%), Roma (2%), and others at 1%. Many varied religions were practiced and many languages spoken, including Judeo-Spanish , a dialect of Spanish spoken by the city's Jews. Thessaloniki was also the centre of activities of the Young Turks ,

21120-411: The fact that the region had a far more ethnically and religiously diverse population in both the medieval and Ottoman periods. In the late Byzantine period Greek Macedonia had also been the centre of significant Byzantine successor states, such as the Kingdom of Thessalonica , the short-lived state established by the rival Byzantine emperor, Theodore Komnenos Doukas , and – in parts of western Macedonia –

21296-532: The feast day of the city's patron saint, Saint Demetrius , the Greek Army accepted the surrender of the Ottoman garrison at Thessaloniki. The Bulgarian army arrived one day after the surrender of the city to Greece and Hasan Tahsin Pasha, commander of the city's defences, told the Bulgarian officials that "I have only one Thessaloniki, which I have surrendered". After the Second Balkan War , Thessaloniki and

21472-493: The gold and silver mines in the area. There were several uprisings in Macedonia during Ottoman rule , including an uprising after the Battle of Lepanto that ended in massacres of the Greek population, the uprising in Naousa of the armatolos Zisis Karademos in 1705, a rebellion in the area of Grevena by a Klepht called Ziakas (1730–1810). The Greek Declaration of Independence in Macedonia by Emmanuel Pappas in 1821, during

21648-469: The gradual conquest of south-eastern Europe by the Ottomans in the late 14th century, the name of Macedonia disappeared as an administrative designation for several centuries and was rarely displayed on maps. With the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire , the name Macedonia was revived in the nineteenth century as a geographical term, and for educated Greeks it corresponded to the ancient historical land. The economic ascent of Thessaloniki and of

21824-610: The history of Macedonia began with the Makednoi tribe, among the first to use the name, migrating to the region from Histiaeotis in the south. There they lived near Thracian tribes such as the Bryges who would later leave Macedonia for Asia Minor and become known as Phrygians . Macedonia was named after the Makednoi. Accounts of other toponyms such as Emathia are attested to have been in use before that. Herodotus claims that

22000-490: The hit, as Bouras had refused to pay Scarfo's street taxes, specifically for his meth ring. There have also been speculations that Martorano arranged the hit for Scarfo because of eyewitness claims that the gunman motioned for Martorano to move out of the way before opening fire. To this day, no one has ever been connected with the hit. The assassination took place just one day after the murder of another Greek mobster, Harry Boulas of Upper Darby . Curro's family also had ties to

22176-598: The idea that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology. However, Beekes' views are not mainstream and De Decker argues that his arguments are insufficient. The region has historically also been known as Македония (Makedonija) in Bulgarian and the local South Slavic dialects , Makedonya in Turkish , and Machedonia in Aromanian . Machedonia

22352-557: The insurrection to the villages of Chalkidiki , he ordered half of his hostages to be slaughtered before his eyes. The mulla of Thessaloniki, Hayrıülah, gives the following description of Yusuf's retaliations: "Every day and every night you hear nothing in the streets of Thessaloniki but shouting and moaning. It seems that Yusuf Bey, the Yeniceri Agasi, the Subaşı, the hocas and the ulemas have all gone raving mad." It would take until

22528-443: The invitation. Subsequently the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly as well as other regions to the north were incorporated into a new Provincia Macedonia, but in 297 AD under a Diocletianic reform many of these regions were removed and two new provinces were created: Macedonia Prima and Macedonia Salutaris (from 479 to 482 AD Macedonia Secunda). Macedonia Prima coincided approximately with Strabo's definition of Macedonia and with

22704-459: The leaders' loss in the 1980s mob war in Philadelphia, which was initiated after Martineos' assassination. Macedonia (Greece) This is an accepted version of this page Macedonia ( / ˌ m æ s ɪ ˈ d oʊ n i ə / MASS -ih- DOH -nee-ə ; Greek : Μακεδονία , romanized :  Makedonía , pronounced [maceðoˈni.a] ) is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece , in

22880-540: The linguistic and ethnic minority groups in Macedonia is not known with any degree of scientific accuracy, as Greece has not conducted a census on the question of mother tongue since 1951. Aromanians form a minority population throughout much of Macedonia. They largely identify as Greeks and most belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, many refusing to be called a minority group. In the 1951 census they numbered 39,855 in all Greece (the number in Macedonia proper

23056-600: The modern Greek region of Macedonia became part of the modern Greek state in 1912–13, in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and the Treaty of Bucharest (1913) . It continued as an administrative division of Greece until the reform of 1987, when it was split into the second-level administrative divisions of Western Macedonia and Central Macedonia ; while the eastern part, into the Drama-Kavala-Xanthi Super-prefecture until 2010, and part of

23232-558: The modern administrative district of Greece and had Thessaloniki as its capital, while Macedonia Salutaris had the Paeonian city of Stobi (near Gradsko ) as its capital. This subdivision is mentioned in Hierocles ' Synecdemon (527–528) and remained through the reign of emperor Justinian . The Slavic , Avar , Bulgarian and Magyar invasions in the 6–7th centuries devastated both provinces with only parts of Macedonia Prima in

23408-573: The modern times. Contemporary Greek Macedonian cooking shares much with general Greek and wider Balkan and Mediterranean cuisine, including dishes from the Ottoman past. Specific influences include dishes of the Pontic , Aromanian , Armenian and Sephardi Jewish population. The mix of the different people inhabiting the region gave the name to the Macedonian salad . Music of Macedonia

23584-416: The most prevalent minority languages in the region, while Aromanian , Arvanitic , Megleno-Romanian , Turkish , and Romani are also spoken. Judaeo-Spanish , also known as Ladino , was historically the language of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, although the Holocaust nearly eradicated the city's previously-vibrant Jewish community of 70,000 to a mere 3,000 individuals today. The exact size of

23760-420: The name Eleftheria . Thessaloniki was also home to a military camp-converted-concentration camp, known in German as "Konzentrationslager Pavlo Mela" ( Pavlos Melas Concentration Camp), where members of the resistance and other anti-fascists were held either to be killed or sent to other concentration camps. In September 1943, the Germans established the Dulag 410 transit camp for Italian Military Internees in

23936-415: The ninth century, the Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius , both natives of the city, created the first literary language of the Slavs, the Old Church Slavonic , most likely based on the Slavic dialect used in the hinterland of their hometown. A naval attack led by Byzantine converts to Islam (including Leo of Tripoli ) in 904 resulted in the sack of the city . The economic expansion of

24112-494: The north-east. The table below is a concise list of the various subdivisions of Macedonia: The Gross Domestic Product of Macedonia peaked at €41.99 billion ($ 47.44 billion) in nominal value and €46.87 billion ($ 52.95 billion) in purchasing power parity just before the Great Recession in 2008; it has since then contracted to its lowest point in 2015, during the Greek government-debt crisis , to €30.85 billion ($ 34.85 billion) and €38.17 billion ($ 43.12 billion);

24288-475: The old centre of the city was destroyed by the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 , which was started accidentally by an unattended kitchen fire on 18 August 1917. The fire swept through the centre of the city, leaving 72,000 people homeless; according to the Pallis Report, most of them were Jewish (50,000). Many businesses were destroyed, as a result, 70% of the population were unemployed. Two churches and many synagogues and mosques were lost. More than one quarter of

24464-405: The oldest, dating to 9.6–8.7 million years ago. During the early Neolithic period, the settlement of Nea Nikomedeia was developed. In the Late Neolithic period ( c.  4500  – c.   3500 BC ), trade took place with quite distant regions, indicating rapid socio-economic changes. One of the most important innovations was the start of copper working. According to Herodotus ,

24640-403: The other urban centres of Macedonia coincided with the cultural and political renaissance of the Greeks . The leader and coordinator of the Greek Revolution in Macedonia was Emmanouel Pappas from Dovista (in Serres ), and the revolt spread from Central to Western Macedonia. Letters from the period show Pappas either being addressed or signing himself as "Leader and Defender of Macedonia" and

24816-405: The region are known. Macedonians came to be of particular importance prior to the Balkan Wars , during the Macedonian Struggle , when they were a minority population inside the multiethnic Ottoman Macedonia . The Macedonians now have a strong regional identity, manifested both in Greece and by emigrant groups in the Greek diaspora . This sense of identity has been highlighted in the context of

24992-406: The region's beauty gives it a great potential for further tourist development. The island of Thasos , lying close to the coast of eastern Macedonia, is another tourist destination. Chalkidiki is home to Mount Athos , which is an important centre of religious tourism . The mountainous interior allows for hiking activities and adventure sports , while ski resorts like Vasilitsa also operate in

25168-413: The regional agricultural economy is centered around cereal, fruit, and industrial crops . Overall Central and Western Macedonia account for 25% of the value of Greek agricultural produce (including 41% of fruit and 43% cereal). A brand identity for products made in Macedonia, called "Macedonia the GReat", was launched in 2019 by the Greek government. The European Union considers most of Macedonia to be

25344-546: The remaining Byzantine territories, and then turned on Chrysopolis, which was captured by storm and largely destroyed. Thessalonica too submitted again to Ottoman rule at this time, possibly after brief resistance, but was treated more leniently: although the city was brought under full Ottoman control, the Christian population and the Church retained most of their possessions, and the city retained its institutions. Thessalonica remained in Ottoman hands until 1403, when Emperor Manuel II sided with Bayezid's eldest son Süleyman in

25520-414: The rest of Greece Macedonia is faced with an aging population; the largest age group in the region is that of the over 70, at 15.59% of the population, while the 0–9 and 10–19 groups combined made up 20.25% of the population. The largest urban centres in Macedonia in 2011 were: The inhabitants of Greek Macedonia are nowadays overwhelmingly ethnic Greeks , and most are also Greek Orthodox Christians. From

25696-401: The rest of the Greek portion of Macedonia were officially annexed to Greece by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. On 18 March 1913 George I of Greece was assassinated in the city by Alexandros Schinas . In 1915, during World War I , a large Allied expeditionary force established a base at Thessaloniki for operations against pro-German Bulgaria. This culminated in the establishment of

25872-403: The rival Ottoman pretenders in 1412 (by Musa Çelebi ) and 1416 (during the uprising of Mustafa Çelebi against Mehmed I ). Once the Ottoman civil war ended, the Turkish pressure on the city began to increase again. Just as during the 1383–1387 siege, this led to a sharp division of opinion within the city between factions supporting resistance, if necessary with Western help, or submission to

26048-426: The second earthquake, killing many and raising the final death toll to 51. Thessaloniki's climate is transitional, lying on the periphery of multiple climate zones. According to the Köppen climate classification , the city generally has a cold semi-arid climate ( BSk ) while a hot semi-arid climate ( BSh ) is found in the center. Mediterranean ( Csa ) and humid subtropical ( Cfa ) influences are also found in

26224-463: The second-largest city of the Eastern Roman Empire . From the first years of the Byzantine Empire , Thessaloniki was considered the second city in the Empire after Constantinople , both in terms of wealth and size, with a population of 150,000 in the mid-12th century. The city held this status until its transfer to Venetian control in 1423. In the 14th century, the city's population exceeded 100,000 to 150,000, making it larger than London at

26400-414: The seeds for Thessaloniki's first Christian church. Later, Paul wrote letters to the new church at Thessaloniki, with two letters to the church under his name appearing in the Biblical canon as First and Second Thessalonians . Some scholars hold that the First Epistle to the Thessalonians is the first written book of the New Testament . In 306 AD, Thessaloniki acquired a patron saint, St. Demetrius ,

26576-403: The senior ecclesiastical primate of the entire Eastern Illyricum , and in 535 his jurisdiction was reduced to the administrative territory of the Diocese of Macedonia . In the 8th century, from Rome it came under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople , and remained the main ecclesiastical centre in the historical region of Macedonia throughout the Middle Ages, and up to

26752-420: The side of the Democratic Army of Greece and fought to separate Greek Macedonia from the rest of Greece under the auspices of Yugoslavia , left Greece. These expatriates were the primary source of ethnic Macedonian irredentism and the appropriation of ancient Macedonian heritage. Macedonians ( Greek : Μακεδόνες , Makedónes [makeˈðones] ) is the term by which ethnic Greeks originating from

26928-524: The son of the klepht Ziakas, together with Dimitrios Karatasos , who had been among the captains at the siege of Naousa in 1821, led another uprising in Western Macedonia that has been profusely commemorated in Greek folk song. To strengthen Greek efforts for Macedonia, the Hellenic Macedonian Committee was formed in 1903, under the leadership of Dimitrios Kalapothakis ; its members included Ion Dragoumis and Pavlos Melas . Its fighters were known as Makedonomachoi ("Macedonian fighters"). Greece helped

27104-433: The southern Balkans . Macedonia is the largest and second-most-populous geographic region in Greece, with a population of 2.36 million (as of 2020). It is highly mountainous, with major urban centres such as Thessaloniki and Kavala being concentrated on its southern coastline. Together with Thrace , along with Thessaly and Epirus occasionally, it is part of Northern Greece . Greek Macedonia encompasses entirely

27280-433: The southern part of the wider region of Macedonia , making up 51% of the total area of that region. Additionally, it widely constitutes Greece's borders with three countries: Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia to the north, and Bulgaria to the northeast. Greek Macedonia incorporates most of the territories of ancient Macedon , a Greek kingdom ruled by the Argeads , whose most celebrated members were Alexander

27456-466: The story has it that, God appeared to him in a dream and gave him a lovely rose to smell, full of perfume. The sultan was so amazed by its beauty that he begged God to give it to him. God replied, "This rose, Murad, is Thessalonica. Know that it is to you granted by heaven to enjoy it. Do not waste time; go and take it". Complying with this exhortation from God, Murad marched against Thessalonica and, as it has been written, captured it." Thessaloniki became

27632-401: The surrounding region were given as an autonomous appanage to John VII Palaiologos . After his death in 1408, he was succeeded by Manuel's third son, the Despot Andronikos Palaiologos , who was supervised by Demetrios Leontares until 1415. Thessalonica enjoyed a period of relative peace and prosperity after 1403, as the Turks were preoccupied with their own civil war , but was attacked by

27808-418: The time, was asked if the Greek army should move towards Thessaloniki or Monastir (now Bitola , Republic of North Macedonia ), Venizelos replied " Θεσσαλονίκη με κάθε κόστος! " ( Thessaloniki, at all costs! ). With the outnumbered Ottoman Army fighting a rearguard action against well-prepared Greek forces at Yenidje , Bulgarian troops advancing close by, and the Ottoman naval base at Thessaloniki blockaded by

27984-439: The time. During the sixth and seventh centuries, the area around Thessaloniki was invaded by Avars and Slavs, who unsuccessfully laid siege to the city several times, as narrated in the Miracles of Saint Demetrius . Traditional historiography stipulates that many Slavs settled in the hinterland of Thessaloniki; however, modern scholars consider this migration to have been on a much smaller scale than previously thought. In

28160-432: The total population in 1920 to 12% in 1928, with the Great Greek Encyclopedia noting in 1934 that those minorities that remained "do not yet possess a Greek national consciousness ". The population of Macedonia was greatly affected by the Second World War , as it was militarily occupied by Nazi Germany while its ally, Bulgaria , annexed eastern Macedonia. Germany administered its occupation zone by implementation of

28336-425: The total population of approximately 271,157 became homeless. Following the fire the government prohibited quick rebuilding, so it could implement the new redesign of the city according to the European-style urban plan prepared by a group of architects, including the Briton Thomas Mawson , and headed by French architect Ernest Hébrard . Property values fell from 6.5 million Greek drachmas to 750,000. After

28512-422: The use of minority languages, though Greece is one of the countries which has not signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages ; a number of court cases have been brought to the attention of the European Parliament regarding the suppression of minority linguistic rights. Apart from Standard Modern Greek, a number of other Greek dialects are spoken in Macedonia. This includes Pontic Greek ,

28688-423: The valleys of the Morava and Axios river valleys, thereby linking the Balkans with the rest of Greece. The city became the capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia. At the time of the Roman Empire, about 50 AD, Thessaloniki was also one of the early centres of Christianity ; while on his second missionary journey, Paul the Apostle visited this city's chief synagogue on three Sabbaths and sowed

28864-403: The war on the side of the Allies. In World War II Macedonia was occupied by the Axis (1941–44), with Germany taking western and central Macedonia with Thessaloniki and Bulgaria occupying and annexing eastern Macedonia. At the beginning of the 19th century, Slavic peasants identified themselves based on belonging to their family, village, or local region, or as " Rum Millet ", i.e. members of

29040-602: The war. They were also involved in the high profile prosecution of Mafia lawyer Robert F. Simone in 1994. Simone was a close associate in the 1980s. A two-year FBI investigation into a cocaine ring run by the Greek mafia in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. resulted in charges being filed in August 1987. Although rather prominent in the 1970s and 1980s, the Greek Mob has cooled down and remains rather dormant. However, there have been some occurrences of members being found loan sharking in Philadelphia in modern times. The reason for this dormant period could be traced back to

29216-448: The winter months. Macedonia is home to four of Greece's 18 UNESCO World Heritage sites . Vergina is best known as the site of ancient Aigai (Αἰγαί, Aigaí , Latinized : Aegae ), the first capital of Macedon . Aigai has been awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status. In 336 BC Philip II was assassinated in Aigai's theatre and his son, Alexander the Great , was proclaimed king. The most important recent finds were made in 1977 when

29392-496: Was based on administrative divisions called Themata . The region of Macedonia Prima (the territory of modern Greek administrative district of Macedonia) was divided between the Thema of Thessaloniki and the Thema of Strymon , so that only the region of the area from Nestos eastwards continued to carry the name Macedonia, referred to as the Thema of Macedonia or the Thema of "Macedonia in Thrace". The Thema of Macedonia in Thrace had its capital in Adrianople . Familiarity with

29568-431: Was celebrated as the European Capital of Culture , sponsoring events across the city and the region. Agency established to oversee the cultural activities of that year 1997 was still in existence by 2010. In 2004, the city hosted a number of the football events as part of the 2004 Summer Olympics . Today, Thessaloniki has become one of the most important trade and business hubs in Southeastern Europe , with its port,

29744-490: Was first incorporated in Greece in 1913, however, Greeks were a marginal plurality in the region. The treaties of Neuilly (1919) and Lausanne (1923) mandated a forceful exchange of populations with Bulgaria and Turkey respectively, and some 776,000 Greek refugees (mostly from Turkey) were resettled in Macedonia, displacing 300,000–400,000 non-Greeks who were forced to move as part of the population exchange. The population of ethnic minorities in Macedonia dropped from 48% of

29920-400: Was fully annexed by the Romans. The northern boundary at that time ended at Lake Ohrid and Bylazora , a Paeonian city near the modern city of Veles . Strabo , writing in the first century AD places the border of Macedonia on that part at Lychnidos , Byzantine Achris and presently Ochrid . Therefore, ancient Macedonia did not significantly extend beyond its current borders (in Greece). To

30096-431: Was in the centre of radical activities by various groups; the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization , founded in 1897, and the Greek Macedonian Committee , founded in 1903. In 1903, a Bulgarian anarchist group known as the Boatmen of Thessaloniki planted bombs in several buildings in Thessaloniki, including the Ottoman Bank , with some assistance from the IMRO. The Greek consulate in Ottoman Thessaloniki (now

30272-441: Was not linked to the already existing Romaniots community. Soon after the turn of the 15th to 16th century, however, nearly 20,000 Sephardic Jews immigrated to Greece from the Iberian Peninsula following their expulsion from Spain by the 1492 Alhambra Decree . By c. 1500, the number of households had grown to 7,986 Christian ones, 8,575 Muslim ones, and 3,770 Jewish. By 1519, Sephardic Jewish households numbered 15,715, 54% of

30448-410: Was recovered again in 1246, this time by the Nicaean Empire . In 1342, the city saw the rise of the Commune of the Zealots , an anti-aristocratic party formed of sailors and the poor, which is nowadays described as social-revolutionary. The city was practically independent of the rest of the Empire, as it had its own government, a form of republic. The zealot movement was overthrown in 1350 and

30624-485: Was reorganised by Philip II and achieved the union of Greek states by forming the League of Corinth . After his assassination, his son Alexander succeeded to the throne of Macedon and carrying the title of Hegemon of League of Corinth started his long campaign towards the east. After the death of Alexander the Great and the Wars of the Diadochi , Macedonia was a powerful state of Hellenistic Greece . Macedonia remained an important and powerful kingdom until

30800-413: Was specifically mentioned as the enemy in Greek Macedonia's unofficial anthem, Famous Macedonia , the reference only being replaced by vague 'Barbarians' with the normalization of Greco-Bulgarian relations in the 1970s. During the same period, Manolis Andronikos made major archaeological discoveries at Aigai , the first capital of ancient Macedonia , which included the tomb of Phillip II , Alexander

30976-433: Was the 2014 European Youth Capital . The city's main university, Aristotle University , is the largest in Greece and the Balkans . The city was founded in 315 BC by Cassander of Macedon , who named it after his wife Thessalonike , daughter of Philip II of Macedon and sister of Alexander the Great . It was built 40 km southeast of Pella , the capital of the Kingdom of Macedonia . An important metropolis by

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