ROTUNDA
Rotunda is one of the most ancient and most important buildings of the city with big religious character and it is said that it is similar to Pantheon in Rome. Its name comes from its round scheme. It was built in 304 AD during Caesar Galerius’s era and it was designated to be either a mausoleum of Caesar Galerius either a temple dedicated to Zeus or Cabiri. Because of Galerius’s death in 311 AD, Rotunda remained unused for a long time. During Great Theodosius’s era it converted to a Christian temple dedicated to Archangels and many changes were happened, which were necessary for the new religion that it was dominated. After 1200 years being a Christian temple, it converted to a mosque in 1590 AD by the Sheik Suleiman Hortatzi Effendi during Ottoman domination in Thessaloniki. Τhe essential works for the conversion from a Christian temple to a mosque happened with Sinan Pasha being chief and the works were based on the minarets of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.Τhe icons over there were destroyed by the Turks during the conversion. The earthquake of 1978 caused serious damages, which restoration was completed in December 2015. Nowadays, Rotunda belongs to the World’s Heritage Sites of UNESCO and it has many visitors every day.
ΠΗΓΕΣ – SOURCES
http://www.lifo.gr/articles/mikropragmata/83983
http://www.inthessaloniki.com/el/rotonda
http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/2/gh251.jsp?obj_id=1812
http://www.it.uom.gr/project/monuments/rotonta.htm
http://www.retrovisions.gr/inv/uploads/gallery/album_23/gallery_2_23_77628.jpg
http://exploringbyzantium.gr/EKBMM/Page?name=index&lang=gr
http://www.thessaloniki360.com/map/agia-sofia-interior
