Audio Guide: Thessaloniki Upper Town Walking Tour (Self Guided), Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki’s Upper Town, known locally as Ano Poli, which literally translates as “Upper City” is the city’s oldest continuously inhabited district and the only area to survive the Great Fire of 1917 largely intact. While the lower city was rebuilt along modern, planned lines in the early 20th century, Ano Poli retained its Byzantine street layout, Ottoman-era houses, and defensive structures.

From the late Roman and early Byzantine periods, the Upper Town functioned as Thessaloniki’s primary defensive zone. The Byzantine Walls of Thessaloniki encircled the hilltop and connected directly to the Heptapyrgion Fortress, forming the city’s last line of defense during sieges. These fortifications were reinforced and expanded over centuries, reflecting Thessaloniki’s role as the second most important city of the Byzantine Empire after Constantinople. Even today, the walls define its physical and visual character.

After the Ottoman capture of Thessaloniki in 1430, the Upper Town became a predominantly Muslim residential quarter, home to officials, soldiers, and administrators. New mosques, baths, and houses were introduced, often layered directly onto earlier Byzantine structures. Unlike the bustling commercial districts below, Ano Poli developed a quieter, inward-looking character that helped preserve its architectural fabric.

Walking through Ano Poli today is a gradual journey through these historical layers. Along the walls, the Trigoniou Tower offers wide views across the city and the Thermaic Gulf, while nearby sections such as the Main Gate reveal how citizens once moved between the fortified interior and the lower city. Within the neighborhood, early Christian monuments like the Church of Hosios David preserve rare mosaics from Late Antiquity, while the Byzantine Bath stands as the city’s only surviving Byzantine bathhouse, offering insight into everyday urban life rather than imperial ceremony.

Later layers appear just as clearly. The Atatürk Museum reflects Thessaloniki’s late Ottoman past and its connections beyond Greece, while the richly decorated Church of Saint Catherine showcases refined Palaiologan architecture and painting from the city’s final Byzantine centuries.

Together, these landmarks make the Upper Town less a single monument than a living historical landscape. Walking here means moving through fortifications, monasteries, houses, and viewpoints that reveal Thessaloniki not as a single-period city, but as a place shaped by defense, faith, daily life, and long continuity.