Walls of Thessaloniki

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Walls of Thessaloniki

UNESCO World Heritage Site
The eastern walls
Location	Thessaloniki, Greece
Part of	Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessaloniki
Criteria	Cultural: i, ii, iv
Reference	456-002
Inscription	1988 (12th Session)
Coordinates	40°38′33″N 22°57′16″E / 40.64250°N 22.95444°E / 40.64250; 22.95444
Location of Walls of Thessaloniki in Greece

Growth of Thessaloniki and its walls in Antiquity (left) and in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods (right).

The Walls of Thessaloniki (Greek: Τείχη της Θεσσαλονίκης, Teíchi tis Thessaloníkis) are the 4 kilometer-long city walls surrounding the city of Thessaloniki during the Middle Ages and until the late 19th century, when large parts of the walls, including the entire seaward section, were demolished as part of the Ottoman authorities' restructuring of Thessaloniki's urban fabric. The city was fortified from its establishment in the late 4th century BC, but the present walls date from the early Byzantine period, ca. 390, and incorporate parts of an earlier, late 3rd-century wall. The walls consist of the typical late Roman mixed construction of ashlar masonry alternating with bands of brick. The northern part of the walls adjoins the acropolis of the city, which formed a separate fortified enceinte, and within it lies another citadel, the Heptapyrgion (Seven Towers), popularly known by the Ottoman translation of the name, Yedi Kule.

In 1988, as part of the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki, the walls were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List because of their outstanding Byzantine architecture.^[1]