Exaggerating only a little, some have called the site the Byzantine Pompeii
GREEK TOUR guides can sometimes be touchy. Having studied for years to gain a licence, they protect their monopoly on the sharing of information about their country’s treasures. But Yannis Kiourtsoglou, a guide based in northern Greece, is generous with his knowledge these days. Every weekend he takes hundreds of people on free walks through Thessaloniki, drawing attention to the fine monuments that survive and the equally fine ones that were obliterated by archaeological crimes.
Metro-building has been underway since 2006, and the lines and tunnels are virtually complete. The location of the station in question, named after Eleftherios Venizelos, a Greek statesman, was a bad idea to begin with. There is another stop, Agia Sophia, only 500 metres away, which was also found to be brimful of antiquities. But planners say it is too late to give up the Venizelos station as that would put unbearable pressure on the neighbouring one.
Before any bulldozers have to be defied, some hard political and legal battles may lie ahead. The government, headed by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is seeking approval to dismantle the complex from the country’s Central Archaeological Council. If that is forthcoming, the Citizens’ Movement will appeal to the Council of State, the highest constitutional authority. It will cite a law which says the “relocation of a monument” is only allowed if it can be proven that there is no other option.
The whole dispute reflects some ambivalent feelings, both in Greece and around the world, about the value of the past and which bits of it matter most. Paolo Odorico, an Italian academic who holds a chair of Byzantine studies in Paris, says Thessaloniki could become a unique showcase of the east-Roman or Byzantine empire as it flourished from around 300AD until the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453.
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