For many Greeks Thessaloniki is on par with Athens. Stately Byzantine buildings , romantic boulevards and fantastic shopping miles unite ancient traditons with the dynamcis of a young metropolis.
Thessaloniki has already been the site of many historically important events. It was founded aroud 315 BC and named after Thessaloníke, a half-sister of Alexander the Great. Under Roman rule the city became an important commercial town at the Via Egnatia, the west-east main-road from Rome to Byzantium. The apostle Paul founded Europe's second Christian community in Thessaloniki. During the heyday of the Byzantine Empire the city became the second most important metropolis after Constantinople. Ottomans conquered Thessaloniki in 1430 and it only again became a part of the present Greece in 1913.
The lives of the most noted sons of the city reflect the highs and lows of Thessaloniki. Around 836 the "Slavic apostles" Cyril and Methodius were born in the city. They converted Slavic tribes to Orthodox Christianity and also developed an early form of the latter Cyrillic alphabet. In 1881 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was finally born who founded modern Turkey and thus became one of Greek's biggest enemies. A big part of the Greek who flew from Turkey in 1922 found a new home in and around Thessaloniki.
