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.