What I can see

Egnatia Street (by Gnaios Egnatios) is the city’s main avenue. It cuts through the city centre, offering a view of its social stratification and contradictions, evidenced in the co-existence of historic monuments with cheap hotels and spice shops with haute couture boutiques. Crossing it, one realizes that he is witnessing a historical and architectural timeline. One can see Roman antiquities (e.g. Galerius Arch, fountains), Byzantine and Ottoman period churches (e.g. churches of Ypapanti of Christ, Metamorfosi tou Sotiros, Agios Athanasios, Our Lady Chalkeon, Panagouda), Ottoman monuments (e.g. Sintrivaniou Square, Hamza Bey Mosque, Bey Hammam), modern landmarks (e.g. Vardari Square), eclectic architecture (e.g. Upper Aristotle Square, Great Britain, Minerva-Premier, Moderne, Helyssia and Vienna hotels), modern and contemporary architecture and history (e.g. AUTH, TIF, Dikastirion Square). Finally, although Egnatia does not have a lot of graffiti, it has interesting frescoes murals.

What I can't see

The Roman Via Egnatia (Egnatia St) used to start in Rome as an extension of the Via Traiana and ended in the Hellespont, thus uniting East and West. This contributed to the fact that Thessaloniki was a “co-capital” during the Roman period, then a “co- reigning” city of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires and is the present “co-capital” of Greece. This is why the current 670 km highway, which connects the Ionian Sea with the Turkish border, is called Egnatia Street. Egnatia is the first road axis (in the contemporary sense), that is over 2000 years old. During the 3^rd century AD (the start of the city’s era of great prosperity), it once again became a street of strategic importance that flourished for being a milestone on the way to the East. This prosperity can be seen in the luxurious public works, the embellishments and its many sarcophagi, honorary altars and private portraits. These findings illuminate details of the social life of that period, such as the intermarriage between Greeks, Romans and Jews. Nowadays, unfortunately, we don’t have the opportunity to admire the Arch of Galerius (Kamara) as a whole, or the arch of the Greek Orthodox community in Sintrivani Square, in honour of Sultan Mohammed Resat the 5^th which was constructed a year before the city’s annexation by Greece.

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