THE THESSALONIKI BABEL

Over the centuries Thessaloniki has been a home town, a commercial opportunity and, for many, a desirable acquisition. In the Middle Ages the Slavs and the Bulgarians were the most determined. In the 5th and the 6th Centuries the Slav sieges were a threat that the city's residents overcame only through the assistance of the local saint, Dimitar – or at least that is what his hagiology says. Later, the Bulgarian rulers carried out a series of campaigns against the Byzantines at Thessaloniki, with varying success.

If we start looking for the time when Thessaloniki became a cosmopolitan city, we can find it in the 15th Century. In 1430 the Ottomans conquered the city and settled in the deserted territories – a sad indicator of the depopulation brought about by the wars and plagues of the 14th and 15th Centuries. Most of the churches were turned into mosques, and the Muslims built their houses in the best part of the city, on the slope leading up to the fortress, today's Ano Poli quarter.

At the end of the century Sephardic Jews, banished from Spain in 1492, arrived. There had been a Jewish colony dating back at least to the 1st Century AD, and St Paul himself had preached to its members. The 15th Century influx was so massive that it changed the demographics of the city, and for a brief period the newcomers were in the majority. By 1890, out of a population of 118,000, there were 55,000 Jews, making the city the largest Jewish settlement in the world.