Divine construction
Church of Panagia Acheiropoietos
The Church of Panagia Acheiropoietos, built towards the end of the 5th and beginning of the 6th centuries AD, is the oldest church still in use in the city. Previously the site of Roman Baths, it was originally named the Church of the Virgin Mary. Official documents state that around 1320 it was given the name Panagia Acheiropoietos, a reference to an icon of the Virgin within the church, which according to religious belief was not made by human hands. When the city fell to the Ottomans in 1430, the three aisled and originally timber roofed basilica was the first church to be converted into a mosque. Called the Eski Camii, it became the main mosque until the liberation of the city. During WWI, the church also housed refugees, eventually converted back to a church in 1930.
As seen on
Thessaloniki City Tour: The Cosmopolitan City
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