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The story of White Tower of Thessaloniki
The White Tower, Beyaz Kule in Turkish and Kuli Blanka in Ladino, is the symbol of Thessaloniki. The Ottomans built it some time after Sultan Murad II captured the city in 1430, probably replacing a Byzantine tower; an inscription above the door, in place until 1912, dated it to 1535–1536 under Sultan Suleiman, and some historians have linked it to Mimar Sinan.
It is a drum 34 metres high and 23 metres across, with six floors, topped by a smaller turret, and it once guarded the eastern end of the sea walls. Under the Ottomans it was a fortress, a garrison and a notorious prison; after the massacre of the rebellious Janissaries held here in 1826, on the orders of Mahmud II, it was called the Kanlı Kule, the Bloody Tower.
It got its present name in 1890, when a prisoner whitewashed it in exchange for his freedom. Climb the spiral ramp to the top and look out over the waterfront.
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