Founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon (son of Antipater, one of the great generals of Philip II and Alexander the Great), on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and 26 other villages, and named after his wife, a half-sister of Alexander the Great, Thessaloniki (from Thessalos - Thessalian, and nike - victory) evolved to become the most important city in Macedon, then an flourishing free city of the Roman Republic, and finally the co-reigning city of the Byzantine Empire, alongside Constantinople. Due to its importance during the early Christian period, but also later, the city is host to several monuments, constructed from the 4th to the 15th century, which constitute a diachronic typological series, with considerable influence in the Byzantine world. In 1988, 15 of these monuments of Thessaloniki were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The Rotunda of Galerius (in the first postcard), also known as the Greek Orthodox Church of Agios Georgios, is a cylindrical structure with a diameter of 24.5m, built in 306 AD on the orders of the tetrarch Galerius, and intended to be his mausoleum. Its walls are more than 6m thick, which is why it has withstood Thessaloniki's earthquakes. A flat brick dome, 30m high at the peak, which in its original design had an oculus (a circular opening in the centre), crowns the structure. The Emperor Constantine I converted the building in church in the 4th century, adorning it with very high quality mosaics, from which fragments have survived till today. In 1590 it was converted into mosque by the conquerors Ottomans, but in 1912 was reconsecrated as church.
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