What I can see

The three-aisled, wooden-roofed basilica of Agios Athanasios is located at a lower level than Egnatia Street. It is spacious, has a women’s area, which extends to all its three sides and also has two rows of openings, arched at the bottom and rectangular at the top. It was built during the Ottoman years and that is why we see Islamic motifs, such as the beveled corners with pseudo-stalactites. These motifs do not necessarily serve practical purposes; they were simply an artistic style of the time. In the interior, the wood-carved despotic throne, the pulpit, the iconostasis and the portable icons (18th and 19th centuries) are of particular interest.

What I can't see

It was built on the ruins of a Byzantine church, which was destroyed by fire. According to a golden seal of 1298, as well as historical sources of the 14th century, it was a church of Saint Athanasius or the main church of a monastery, but nothing has been verified. It probably belonged initially (around 1550) to the former archbishop of Veria, Ioannis Malakis, and then passed into the ownership of the Vlatadon Monastery. During the Ottoman rule, it was the religious centre of the Greek quarter and the parish church of the most populous parish. After the Ottoman years, a big dispute broke out between the Vlatadon Monastery and the Thessaloniki Cathedral over the ownership of the church.

Info

• Address: Egnatia & Sokratous St.

Bibliography