Thessaloniki is a rare example of a city with uninterrupted urban activity over 2,300 years. Over the centuries its strategic position has ensured that it has been constantly one of the most important cultural and intellectual centers in Southern Europe. It has been a springboard for a large number of revolutionary and cultural movements, as well as important spiritual ideas that have deeply influenced Hellenism, the Greeks and European history more broadly.

The city is currently developing rapidly and aims to continue to play a leading role in the region as a whole.

Thessaloniki was founded in 315 BC by King Cassander of Macedonia. It rapidly became a very important center and one of the major cities of the kingdom during the Hellenistic Era with limited political autonomy. The city was named after the sister of Alexander the Great, Thessalonike.

In 168 BC it became part of the Roman republic and was further developed into an important trade center connecting Europe with Asia through the Roman Via Egnatia. During the first century AD and afterwards, the city became one of the first early Christian centers after Paul the Apostle preached here and laid the foundations for a new religion.

During the Byzantine era the city was further developed and became even bigger, being the second most important city of the empire after Constantinople itself. Wonderful churches and other buildings were built in several areas while extended defensive constructions took place. Nowadays it is the city with arguably the largest surviving Byzantine tradition

Today Thessaloniki is a modern European city with 1 million inhabitants and the largest urban center of the Prefecture.

It's an important trade and transportation center connected to all the Balkan Countries, while it was the European Capital of Culture in 1997 and the European Youth Capital for 2014. It is one of the largest student centers in South-Eastern Europe while in 1988, 15 monuments of Thessaloniki were listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. In 2004 during the Athens Olympics, the city hosted a number of athletic events while being one of the Greek Olympic Cities. Finally the city was selected in 2011 as the European Youth Capital of 2014.

In 2013 the city was listed as one of National Geographic’s 20 ‘Must-See’ places in the world and has been ranked 5th in Lonely Planet’s World’s Top 10 party cities.