Thessaloniki is one of the places in the world where the most longing for Spain has been felt. Some 20,000 of the Jews expelled in 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs found a home in this thousand-year-old city, then ruled by the Ottomans. The Sephardim – an adjective derived from Sepharad, the Hebrew name for the Iberian Peninsula – lived there for half a millennium with Muslims and Christians, Greeks and Turks, Slavs and people from a thousand places. They never forgot their origin: they spoke Ladino or Judeo-Spanish –a variety of 15th century Castilian–, and in the 19th century they published newspapers in their language.
In 1912, the city returned to Greek hands. There were 80,000 Jews, almost half of its population. Thousands emigrated in the 1930s to what would later be Israel, due to the rise of fascist and anti-Semitic parties. When the Nazis occupied Greece in 1941, some 50,000 Jews remained in the old Hellenic polis. At the end of World War II, less than 2,000.
Today, it is the second most populous city in the country, after Athens. More than 300,000 people live in its urban core, and around a million in the metropolitan area. Located on the shores of the Thermaic Gulf, on the outskirts of Central Macedonia, it is not on the country's main tourist routes, but it has plenty of attractions: the traces of a rich past, its fabulous food and its nightlife.
In 2021, Unesco declared Thessaloniki “City of Gastronomy”. It did not surprise either the locals or any connoisseurs of local food. Geography and history have marked the culinary richness of this port, where empires have succeeded one another – that of Alexander the Great, the Roman, the Byzantine and the Ottoman – and peoples and ethnic groups have mixed. Balkan, Greek, Turkish, Jewish elements coexist in his recipes...
Examples? The soutzoukakia, brought to Thessaloniki by the Greeks forced to leave Turkey a century ago. Spiced with garlic, cumin, parsley – and sometimes oregano or a touch of cinnamon – these oblong meatballs are served with tomato sauce and often accompanied with rice and boukovo, hot, chopped dried peppers. Rare is the tavern or restaurant where they do not serve it. Diavasi's soutzoukakia, a place near the emblematic White Tower, is famous.
The 34 meter high Ottoman building from the 15th century stands at the foot of the sea, on the remains of an ancient Byzantine tower that was part of the city walls, founded in 316 BC. or 315 B.C. by King Cassander II of Macedonia with the name of the stepsister of Alexander the Great. The name of the tower is due to Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who ordered it to be painted white in 1883. Today it houses a modern museum that covers Thessalonian history, and from its battlements you can see Mount Olympus on clear days.
Other delicacies that Thessaloniki owes to refugees from Turkey are patsa (a tripe soup) and the irresistible bougatsa, a phyllo pastry and vanilla cream with semolina that reigns supreme at breakfasts, and also has savory versions.
We leave the White Tower and enter the historic quarter of the port, Ladadika. In its day it was a commercial enclave with numerous olive oil depots (ladi is Greek for oil). It fell into decay and at the end of the last century it was recovered to become what it is today: a space with restored 19th century houses and dozens of restaurants, bars and typical taverns, such as the ouzeries, where ouzo (a strong liquor) and mezes (starters to share); and the koutoukia, small venues whose name derives, very significantly, from the Turkish kutuk ('family').
The variety of mezes is gargantuan. Many have cheese – ubiquitous throughout Greece – among their ingredients. Such is the case with bougiourdi, baked feta cheese with tomato, fresh hot peppers and chili, mixed with oregano and olive oil. Thessaloniki lives facing the sea, but fertile fields surround it. That blessing is savored in its starters: dolmades (vine leaves stuffed with meat, rice, vegetables and yogurt sauce); horiatiki, a salad that is a festival of vegetables; taramosalata (cod roe sauce); grilled aubergines with feta cheese, bekri or drunken pork (stewed with red wine and tomato)…
If you're hungry, the local fish and shellfish are exceptional, and meat is the star of some of the most popular dishes: lamb chops (paidakia), tigania (fried pork), keftedakia (meatballs) and souvlaki (beef in a skewer) are some examples.
Once satiated, we are in a position to explore – on foot or by bicycle – the magnificent promenade, with its pleasant theme parks. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to hire a boat excursion through the Thermaic Gulf.
At the top of the city we find very different images from those of the neighborhoods near the sea and the dense modern buildings. We are in Ano Poli: here, the traditional houses, the squares and the cobbled streets coexist with magnificent Byzantine and Ottoman constructions. This district was the only one spared from the devastating fire of 1917, and for this reason its somewhat labyrinthine structure has been preserved.
From the Heptapirgion, a turreted Byzantine and Ottoman fortress, there are great views of the acropolis, the city and the sea; the best point of observation is the Trigoniou tower, erected during the brief Venetian occupation, prior to the Turkish conquest in 1430. At these heights or on the way to them we will come across monuments, churches and mosques that suddenly appear, like remains of the past shipwrecked in a sea of concrete and glass, sometimes protected by small green spaces.
The list is long, and we are forced to choose: the Moni Vlatadon, a 14th century Orthodox monastery; the Alaca Imaret mosque (15th century); the small, octagonal mausoleum of Mousa Baba; the church of Hosios David, which preserves delicate mosaics from the 5th century; that of San Nicolás el Huérfano, or the church of San Pablo, perched on a hill and for many the most beautiful in the town.
The Spanish Jews were decisive in the recovery of Thessalonian prosperity after the Turkish siege of 1430. They integrated so well that they called the city “The mother of Israel”. Despite the Nazi crimes, today we notice the Jewish presence in numerous synagogues, the Jewish Museum, some mansions or several restaurants and taverns, because the Sephardic culinary tradition permeates the local gastronomy.
At the Akadimia restaurant, very close to Aristotle Square – the main square in the city – chef Kostas Markou has added Sephardic dishes compiled by Nina Benroubi, one of the few Jews who survived the Nazi occupation, to the menu. Your mouth is watering: burekitas (dumplings stuffed with aubergine or other ingredients); meatballs in walnut sauce; Haminated eggs (cooked in water flavored with spices)... We recommend accompanying the menu with local wine (white or red), produced with native grapes from the vineyards surrounding Thessaloniki.
We take advantage of the proximity of the Akadimia to some essential monuments and vestiges. One step away we have the arch and the rotunda of Galerius, one of the four Roman emperors of the tetrarchy established by the emperor Diocletian. The arch commemorates a military victory by Galerius over the Sasanian Persians, and dates to AD 303. At 125 meters is the rotunda, a cylindrical temple with a diameter of 24.5 meters and walls more than six meters thick, earthquake proof. The excellent and nearby Archaeological Museum will complete our vision of the Thessalonian Greco-Roman past.
Walking a few minutes north we will discover the Atatürk Museum, a simple white house where Kemal Atatürk was born in 1881, the statesman who founded and presided over the Turkish Republic after the First World War, successor to the dismembered Ottoman Empire. And not far away, the church of San Demetrio, patron saint of the city. Built in the 4th century on some old Roman baths, it keeps the remains of the saint that gives it its name, and has undergone numerous reconstructions. It is one of the most important Thessalonian temples, along with that of Santa Sofia, from the 8th century.
Thessaloniki is a university city, and this has been decisive for its nightlife to become famous, especially that of some streets, such as Proxenou Koromila, Mitropoleos, Ermou or Valaoritou, where the offer of bars, restaurants, taverns and pubs goes from the most traditional to the most modern. Emporiou square and Egiptou street concentrate a good part of the nightlife in the always lively district of Ladadika. There is no shortage of contemporary haute cuisine restaurants, electronic music clubs or venues with live performances by artists of all styles, including rebetiko (Greek folk).
We have made a very gastronomic tour, and we close it with a recommendation in the same sense: its markets, such as the popular Kapani, the one in Athonos square, or the Ágora Modiano, the central food market of the city, very renovated but which It preserves almost all of the avant-garde architecture that was printed by the architect Eli Modiano, from a highly respected Jewish family in the city. Completed in 1930, the market, partly glazed, brings together all the colors and products that brighten the lives of locals and visitors.
