The White Tower of Thessaloniki

By Nicolas Bard

The White Tower, which is undoubtedly its most popular and recognizable landmark Northern Greecebuilt in the 15th century, after the fall of Thessaloniki by the Ottomans in 1430. In the place where it is built there was a former tower of the Byzantine fortification of the city, at the point where the eastern wall met the sea walls. The tower was the eastern end of the sea wall, while there was another one in the west end and a third in the interim.

Over the centuries we find him under various names. In the 16th century it was known as the Tower of Leo and in the 18th century as a tower of Kalamaria. In the 19th century it bears two names, depending on the use it had: Tower of Generals, and a blood tower (Canli Koule), as it became a prison and a place of execution of convicts. Historian Michael Hatzis Ioannou in 1888, in his book for monuments of the city, calls him a Bastille of Thessaloniki, where they slaughtered the deaths in his balcony, with blood dying his walls, while a remarkable telegraph from the west of the city meant.

In 1883, By order of the Sultan Abdul Hamit II, the tower is whitewashed and given the name White (Beyaz Kule). We are now in the second half of the 19th century, a time when the wind of the Reformation in the Ottoman Empire was blowing, after the pressure of England, and the tower with the designation of “blood” is not appropriate to the new figure of the empire. The convict Nathan Gulendi, in return for his freedom, blended the tower. Since then this name has prevailed, which is preserved to this day. Over time, it became a symbol of Thessaloniki, since from 1911 onwards, when the city changed the face, he was the only one still standing on the beach, and reminded of something of the historic glamor of old Thessaloniki. The imposing and quite extensive sea wall, as well as the eastern wall of the enclosure, were demolished.

After the liberation of the city in 1912 and its integration into the free Greek state, the tower acquired various uses. During World War I, one of his floors was used to guard antiquities from the excavations carried out by the archaeological service of the Army of the East, while the city’s air defense, the Aristotle University’s meteorology laboratory and Naval Systems were hosted. Since 1983 the tower passed to the Ministry of Culture.
The white tower is circular, 33.90 meters high and 21.70 meters in diameter. It consists of a ground floor and six floors. It is built with stones, mortar and partial use of bricks, while on the battles, on the roof of the entrance and the ground floor and in the stairway arch with bricks. In addition to the ground floor and the sixth floor, consisting of only one circular space, the remaining five floors are formed with a circular space in their center, 8.50 meters in diameter, and small rooms on their perimeter, communicating with the central space, directly or indirectly, with low openings.

From an architectural point of view the construction of Tower It consists of two cylinders, the exterior and the interior. The outer cylinder rises up to the fifth floor, while the interior is on a floor taller and thus exterior to it a roof, offering excellent views of the city, the Thermaic Gulf and the days when the weather allows the look to Olympus. Between the two cylinders is the helical built -in staircase, consisting of ninety -two steps, while forty in total windows allow the light of day to illuminate the interior of the building.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the White Tower was surrounded by a low octagonal circumference, which had eight -corners in three of its corners. This circumference, probably built around 1535, was demolished in 1911. That year the image of the coastal front changed radically.

Since September 5, 2008, the White Tower has housed the permanent report on Thessaloniki since its founding in 316-15 BC. To this day. The exhibition presents briefly and comprehensible aspects of the city’s history, which is long and great. Over the years, Thessaloniki has not lost its “bourgeois” and multicultural character. As Nikiforos Humnos (13th – 14th centuries politician and politician, who was also a commander of Thessaloniki), addressing the Thessaloniki, “you made it clear, that no one is left without their homeland, as long as Thessaloniki,” describing them, describing them in this way.

Today the White Tower is still standing as a vast observer of all and is a reminder of the great cultural heritage, as well as the multi -faceted historical past of Thessaloniki.