Trigonion tower
The golden balcony — city, gulf and Olympus.
Damian Pankowiec — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Falk2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Falk2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Nurserra — CC BY-SA 4.0
Afternoon is ideal: taxi to the Heptapyrgion (an hour with walls), down to Vlatadon and its peacocks, lane-lost with a pebble café, Trigonion just before sunset as the peak — then the evening slope to the centre, hungry: three-four hours at full richness.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
Ano Poli is the Thessaloniki that survived: the Great Fire (1917) ate the lower city, rebuilt in straight streets — but the upper town stayed as it had been for centuries: winding Ottoman lanes, timber houses with jutting floors, small squares with pebble cafés, Byzantine walls embracing it all. Its crown is the Heptapyrgion — the Byzantine-Ottoman fortress of seven towers on the summit (an ill-famed prison until 1989, sung in rebetiko) — and Trigonion tower on the eastern wall is the city's golden balcony: sunset here is Thessaloniki's first rite, the city falling to the gulf below, Olympus burning. Between them the Vlatadon monastery (14th century) keeps peacocks and the view where Paul is said to have preached — and getting lost in the lanes is the activity itself: ride up by bus or taxi and walk down: the only merciful direction.
The golden balcony — city, gulf and Olympus.
The summit fort of rebetiko's prison songs.
Peacocks and the view where Paul preached.
Jutting floors over pebble lanes — old Macedonia.
Ano Poli, 54634 Thessaloniki