The White Tower

Thessaloniki’s most famous symbol is also from Ottoman time: Lefkos Pyrgos, the White Tower. About thirty metres high, it is situated next to the port and hosts a museum of art and culture.

If there is clear sight, you might even be able to see the mountain of the Gods, Mount Olympus, from the tower’s top. The almost 3,000 m high Olympus is only eighty kilometres away.

The eventful history of the White Tower seems programmatic for the whole city of Thessaloniki. Once an osmanic arsenal, it also served as prision; during World War II, it was a food store-room for the Wehrmacht, and later a base for the air force, metereological station and marine school. Today, as has been said, it is used as museum.