Youth@home in Europe - A Walk through Thessaloniki Tourist guide

THE ”SAINT SOPHIA” CHURCH Saint Sophia church is one of the oldest churches in the city still standing today (built during the 8 th century). This church is one of the monuments in Thessaloniki that are considered to be a World Heritage Site on the UNESCO list. In 1205, when the Fourth Crusade knights captured the city, Saint Sophia Church was converted into the cathedral of Thessaloniki, and it continued to operate like that even after the city became a region of the Byzantine Empire in 1246. After the Ottoman Sultan Murad II conquered the city of Thessaloniki on 29 th March 1430, the church was converted into a mosque. It was reconverted into a church upon the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912. Between 1907 and 1909, Charles Diehl (a Byzantine historian) restored the whole building after a fire in 1890 that caused significant damages. Much of the interior decoration was plastered over after the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917. The dome was not restored until 1980. The church is located in the “Saint Sophia” square, in the center of Thessaloniki. We can go there by bus, and more specifically bus number 03, 05, 06, 12, 33, 58 and 39.