The Thessaloniki Symbol with walls drenched with blood, pain, and secrets of the past.
Walking along the Nikis Street of Thessaloniki you will definitely be impressed with an old buff color Tower, which is the symbol of the city. It rises above the landscape for hundreds of years. At night, being illuminated, it looks incredibly mysterious in the darkness, making people think about thousands of lives influenced by its walls.
A Fortress with plenty of names
The White Tower - the modern name of this giant - was built in the period of the Sultan Suleiman Kanuni (the Magnificent) on the basis of the ancient fort. This impressive 34 m high circular tower was erected by Ottomans as a part of the Thessaloniki’s fortification. The stone building continued the life of the 12th century Byzantine fort, which was constructed by the French King Knights after the Constantinople conquest by West European Crusaders. The inner structure of the White Tower lets to visit its entire six floors using spiral stairs. Standing on the terrace on its highest floor visitors can enjoy all the beauty of the Thermaikosbay, the Thessaloniki architecture, and landscapes.
During centuries this tower was serving the Ottoman Empire as a fort, a janissary garrison, a prison. First people called it the Lion's Tower, the Janissary Fortress. In 1826 all the rebels jailed in this prison were brutally killed in accordance with the order of the Sultan Mahmud II. After that massacre tower’s name was changed into the Red Tower or the Tower of Blood. There are two versions of how the bloody fortress got its modern name. The first one says it happened after the demise of the Turks empire. In 1912 the freed Thessaloniki whitewashed the walls of the ex-prison to make it a symbol of liberty. Another version tells us about some condemned to death prisoner, who made an agreement with prison administration to be released after he colored white the whole building. He did it in 1890.
Nowadays of the tower
The 20th century was very remarkable for the White Tower. In 1913 the fortress became an evidence of the Greece King George I death. During the 1st and the 2nd World Wars, it was an air defense citadel of the Thessaloniki. The local University has hosted here its meteorology laboratory. Even the Navy Cadets were accommodated in these walls. In the middle 80s the White Tower was restored and now it is turned into the multimedia Byzantine Museum of Thessaloniki. Each day lots of tourists come to see the bright collection of ancient sculptures, samples of the Orthodox iconography, old torture instrument of the prison period, Byzantine coins etc.
The Museum of the White Tower is daily opened from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m. A ticket costs 3 Euro.
There is another one symbol of Thessaloniki just steps from the tower on the Beach Promenade. This is a statue of Alexander the Great mounted on his beloved horse Bucephala.
The White Tower is situated in the middle of the City Beach Promenade on the left hand of the Aristotle Square. Nearest bus stops are for the routes 7, 10, 11, 12, 31, 39, 58, and 50. The direction information is accessible on the windscreen monitors of each bus. The regular bus routes 5 and 6 will take you from the Aristotle Square along the seafront to the eastern posh neighborhood called Kalamaria.
