The Panagia Chalkeon, Our Lady of the Coppersmiths, is one of the oldest dated churches in Thessaloniki, and it can be dated to 1028 because of an inscription naming the founder, a Byzantine official called Christophoros. It stands on Egnatia Street, right on the old Roman road, in what was the metalworkers' quarter, and the name recalls the trade that filled the streets with the noise of hammering. The church is built of brick in the cross-in-square plan, with a central dome and three apses, and the outside is decorated with tall blind arches and patterns of brick that give the walls a handsome rhythm. In its day it was a showpiece of the new Byzantine style that developed after the Iconoclast period.
It has been a mosque, a storehouse and a ruin, but in the twentieth century it was cleaned and restored, and its frescoes were uncovered. Inside you can see parts of an eleventh-century painting, with the Virgin and Child in the apse, and the interior has a small, intimate scale. The church sits a little below the level of the modern street, because the city has risen around it over a thousand years, and a few steps lead down to the door. That detail makes a good point to ponder about the layers of a city.
Egnatia Street itself is a wide, noisy, fast-moving avenue, so it is not a pleasant place to ride. Heavy traffic, long buses and double-parked delivery vans make it a test of nerves, and you should plan to park on a side street and walk. The surface is good asphalt, but the junctions are chaotic, and pedestrian crossings are treated as a suggestion. The best hours are early on Sunday morning, when the city is almost empty.
You are in the centre of a large city, so everything is at hand. Fuel stations cluster on the avenues, and the surrounding blocks are packed with cafes, pharmacies and grocery stores. Try the nearby Modiano market, with its stalls of olives, fish, spices and cheese, or the Bezesteni covered market, built by the Ottomans in the fifteenth century. In the summer heat the shade of the arcades is welcome, and the smell of roasting coffee drifts out of doorways. Visit in spring or autumn and make time for the neighbouring Roman Forum.