
Rotonda
Massive Roman brick rotunda turned church and mosque, its vaults glittering with gold-glass mosaics.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Rotunda in Thessaloniki looks up, not around, at a Roman emperor's brick drum and the glittering food that later covered its vaults. It follows Galerius, a persecutor of Christians, and the Christians who came after him with gold glass, grapes and pomegranates. You'll meet a physician named in the dome alongside his month. Best heard standing near the centre of the floor, where you can see both the niches and the dome.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Holy Cathedral Church of Hagia Sophia
Byzantine domed basilica with a glittering Ascension mosaic of apostles among stylised trees.
Church of the Acheiropoietos
Fifth-century basilica with original arch mosaics of birds, fish and vessels, later a city mosque.
Holy Church of Saint Catherine
Late Byzantine brick church with fourteenth-century frescoes, once an Ottoman mosque.
Church of Panagia Chalkeon
Red-brick Byzantine church of ten twenty-eight with its founder's tomb and fragmentary frescoes.
Latomos Monastery - Holy Church of Hosios David
Fifth-century Byzantine chapel with a rare apse mosaic of a youthful Christ seated on a rainbow.
Holy Church of the Holy Apostles
Five-domed Byzantine church with lavish patterned brickwork and late mosaics of shimmering saints.