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LandmarkHub · 5 stops2nd c. BC – 7th c. ADTicketed

Thessalonica – Thessaloniki

Θεσσαλονίκη, Saloniki

city · Thessaloniki, Greece

What it is
Thessaloniki is Thessalonica, the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and, at the end of the 3rd century, the seat of the emperor Galerius.
What you’ll see
Galerius's palace was the core of a monumental complex begun on his orders in 298–299, when he was Caesar of the East under Diocletian (de.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
Yes. The Arch and the Rotunda are on UNESCO's list as outstanding examples of early Byzantine art and architecture (en.wikipedia), and they are in the middle of a living city: the Arch stands in a pedestrian street, and the Rotunda is at the end of it.
Getting there & cost
Thessaloniki is the second-largest city in Greece (en.wikipedia). The palace is in Navarinou Square, 15 minutes on foot from Aristotelous Square; metro line 1 stops at Sintrivani, and city buses at "Kamara" (the operator).Ticketed · Galerius's palace: €5 · checked 9 October 2026Hours, tickets and parking
Ruined walls of thin red bricks and rubble enclosing an eight-sided hall with a grassy floor, sunk below street level among tall apartment blocks.
The Octagon of Galerius's palace, in the middle of the modern city. · Photo: Annatsach · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A very wide panorama of an excavated site of brick walls and foundations below a modern square, with steps and railings at the edge and apartment buildings all round.
The excavated palace of Galerius below Navarinou Square. · Photo: G.Garitan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A high ruined wall of red brick bands and stone, with an arched niche and rows of small square holes, above the brick footings of a room.
The cold room of the palace baths. · Photo: 89ermis · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The stops

5 places to see, the best preserved and best known first.

See all 5 stops on the mapWhere each one is, so you can plan your own way round.Open the map →
  1. The broad west front of a church in ochre plaster and brick under a green-roofed dome, with arched doorways and windows, a garden of shrubs and a paved square in front and apartment blocks around.

    Photo: Ymblanter · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    church · Thessaloniki

    Hagia Sophia, Thessaloniki

    The church is a domed basilica: the columns of the nave are pushed out to the sides so that the central space forms a cross, a step between the domed basilica and the cross-in-square church of later Byzantine architecture (en.wikipedia).

    Free
  3. The long side of a large basilica of stone and brick, with two tiers of arched windows divided by slender columns, a lower tiled porch in front and modern apartment blocks behind.

    Photo: Knop92 · Public domain · Commons

    church · Thessaloniki

    Church of the Acheiropoietos

    The church is a three-aisled basilica 28 m wide and 36.5 m long, with a wooden roof, a semicircular apse at the east and a narthex flanked by towers at the west.

    Free
  4. A broad excavated square of grass and paving stones, with a single tall column standing on the right, low stone walls and vaulted openings in the foreground, and apartment blocks lining the far side.

    Photo: Leandro Neumann Ciuffo from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil · CC BY 2.0 · Commons

    city · Thessaloniki

    Roman Forum of Thessaloniki

    The forum as it stands is of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD: the operator gives two building phases, in the mid-2nd and the mid-3rd century.

    Ticketed
  5. A great brick arch springing from two thick piers faced with bands of carved marble relief, with a lower brick arch to the right, standing over a wide paved pedestrian street with people walking through and apartment blocks behind.

    Photo: Armineaghayan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    arch · Thessaloniki

    Arch of Galerius

    The arch was a gateway on eight pillars carrying three arches: a masonry core faced first with brick and then with carved marble panels.

    Free

Thessaloniki is Thessalonica, the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and, at the end of the 3rd century, the seat of the emperor Galerius. His palace, his triumphal arch and his Rotunda stand in the modern city centre, with the Roman forum and early Christian churches a short walk away.

What is there today

Galerius’s palace was the core of a monumental complex begun on his orders in 298–299, when he was Caesar of the East under Diocletian (de.wikipedia). The complex covered more than 15 hectares and took in the Rotunda, the triumphal arch, the palace itself, an octagonal hall and a hippodrome (the operator). The palace is open to visitors in Navarinou Square, and its restoration has won awards from the European Union and Europa Nostra (the operator).

The stops each have their own page:

  • The Arch of Galerius, built in 298–299 and dedicated in 303, commemorates the capture of Ctesiphon from the Sassanids and formed part of a monumental entrance to the palace (Pleiades).
  • The Rotunda, a brick rotunda of the early 4th century that Galerius ordered as a tomb or a temple, later became the church of Agios Georgios (Pleiades). The Arch and the Rotunda have been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 1988 (en.wikipedia).
  • The Roman forum, at the top of Aristotelous Square, is a large two-terraced square with two-storey colonnades, found by chance in the 1960s; it has an excavated bath house and a small theatre also used for gladiatorial games, was largely rebuilt in the 2nd century and stayed in use until at least the 6th (en.wikipedia).
  • The Church of the Acheiropoietos is a 5th-century church in the city centre (en.wikipedia).
  • Hagia Sophia, whose present building dates from the 7th century, is one of the oldest churches still standing in the city (en.wikipedia); it sits at the late edge of the period this atlas covers.

Is it worth the trip?

Yes. The Arch and the Rotunda are on UNESCO’s list as outstanding examples of early Byzantine art and architecture (en.wikipedia), and they are in the middle of a living city: the Arch stands in a pedestrian street, and the Rotunda is at the end of it. The palace ticket is €5, the Rotunda’s €10 and the forum’s €10, the last including its museum (the operator). Several sites close on Tuesdays, so plan around that.

Getting there

Thessaloniki is the second-largest city in Greece (en.wikipedia). The palace is in Navarinou Square, 15 minutes on foot from Aristotelous Square; metro line 1 stops at Sintrivani, and city buses at “Kamara” (the operator). The Rotunda is 18 minutes on foot from Aristotelous Square and the forum 8 (the operator).

The palace opens daily except Tuesday. From 1 April to 31 August it is open 08.00–20.00, closing earlier through September and October (18.00 by the second half of October), and from 1 November to 31 March 08.30–15.30. Last entry is 20 minutes before closing; it is shut on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and 25–26 December. A ticket is €5, reduced €3, and entry is free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October, and on the first and third Sunday of each month from November to March (hh.gr, read 9 October 2026 — check before travelling).

Visiting details

Opening hours
Galerius's palace: daily except Tuesday, 08.00–20.00 from 1 April to 31 August, closing earlier through the autumn (19.30 in early September, 18.00 by late October), and 08.30–15.30 from 1 November to 31 March. Last entry 20 minutes before closing. Closed 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and 25–26 December.
Tickets
Galerius's palace: €5; reduced €3. Free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September and 28 October, and on the first and third Sunday of each month from November to March. The stops have tickets of their own.
Parking
Parking is mapped about 100 m from the palace; the city bus stops at "Kamara", and Sintrivani station on metro line 1 is nearby (the operator).

Hours and prices checked 9 October 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

Cassander of Macedon founded the city in 315 BC and named it after his wife Thessalonike, a sister of Alexander the Great (en.wikipedia). Rome conquered Macedonia in 168 BC and made it a province in 146 BC; the Via Egnatia crossed the province from west to east, reaching the Aegean at Thessalonica, and under the empire Thessalonica was one of the province’s thriving cities (en.wikipedia, Macedonia; Via Egnatia).

Galerius chose the city as his seat in 299 and set out to make it the administrative capital of his part of the empire (the operator); it.wikipedia calls it his second capital of Illyricum, alongside Sirmium. In late antiquity Thessalonica became the regional centre of the Balkans and was briefly an imperial capital under Licinius (en.wikipedia, Macedonia). It went on to be the second-largest and wealthiest city of the Byzantine Empire (en.wikipedia). The palace was probably destroyed by an earthquake in the 8th century (el.wikipedia).

More photographs

A massive brick arch on a marble pier carved with bands of relief, standing on a pedestrian street, with a domed round brick building and a minaret at the end of the street behind it.
The Arch of Galerius, with the Rotunda at the end of the street. · Photo: Annatsach · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 491741CC BY
Wikidata Q3891634CC0
OpenStreetMap way/14788577ODbL
Wikipedia (en) — ThessalonikiCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (de) — Galerius-Palast (Thessaloniki)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (el) — Ανάκτορα του ΓαλέριουCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (it) — Palazzo imperiale romano di TessalonicaCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Arch of Galerius and RotundaCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Roman Forum (Thessaloniki)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Church of the AcheiropoietosCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Hagia Sophia, ThessalonikiCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Macedonia (Roman province)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Via EgnatiaCC BY-SA 4.0
Pleiades — Arch of Galeriuslicence not recorded
Pleiades — Rotunda of Galeriuslicence not recorded
Hellenic Heritage (H.O.C.R.E.D., for the Ministry of Culture) — Galerian Complex, hours and ticketslicence not recorded
Hellenic Heritage — Rotundalicence not recorded
Hellenic Heritage — Roman Forum of Thessalonikilicence not recorded