Beyond the White Tower - transformations in Thessaloniki

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To most visitors, Thessaloniki is merely a stopover en route to Chalkidiki or the Greek Islands, recognized primarily for its iconic sites like the White Tower and ancient monuments. However, this view overlooks the city's rich multicultural history and its current role as a cultural and economic hub in northern Greece and the Balkans. Since the early 1990s, Thessaloniki has undergone significant economic, social, and architectural changes, particularly after being named European Cultural Capital in 1997, which sparked renewed interest in its diverse heritage, especially the Sephardic community. The influx of new immigrants from Albania, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and Africa has become increasingly visible in the city's public spaces. Additionally, the rise in the number of homeless individuals in the inner city and along the waterfront reflects the complexities of these transformations. This collection of articles stems from a student research project conducted in Thessaloniki in 2004, offering five ethnographic case studies that explore the local impacts of these changes, including new immigration, evolving public representations of the Jewish community, and the survival strategies of the urban homeless. LINES is a series of urban anthropology case studies published by the Institut für Ethnologie at the University of Hamburg.