Story
The story of Basilica of Agios Dimitrios, Thessaloniki
The Church of Saint Demetrius is the great shrine of the city's patron saint. According to tradition and archaeology, Demetrius was imprisoned and martyred in 303 AD in a Roman bath on this spot, and the first church, built in the early fourth century, replaced that bath.
After repeated fires it was rebuilt in 629–634 as the five-aisled basilica you see. Six mosaic panels from before 730 survive, showing the saint with the church's founders and with children; one inscription thanks heaven for saving the city from a Slavic raid in 615. About 60 years after the Ottoman conquest of 1430, under Bayezid II, the church became a mosque, the Kasımiye Camii, named after Cezeri Kasım Pasha, yet the saint's symbolic tomb was kept open for Christian veneration.
It served as a mosque from 1493 to 1912. The Great Fire of 1917 destroyed its roof, and after long restoration it was reconsecrated in 1949. Go down into the crypt, where the old bath lies.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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