Fourth International Conference on Tourism and Leisure Studies

Abstract

The Classical and Hellenistic civilisations of Greece are vital to the heritage self-image of that country and what may be loosely called “the West”. The northern Greek city of Thessaloniki possesses a legacy that is quite distinct from the dominant heritage perception of Greece. While there is a classical legacy there, Thessaloniki’s main periods of political, cultural and economic significance took place in periods subsequent to these as an important city of both the Byzantine and particularly the Ottoman Empire. Because of the shifting populations and the syncretic religious and cultural forms associated with both of these empires, Thessaloniki is home to a rich diversity of built and intangible heritage that takes in sites of Orthodox Christian, Islamic and Jewish significance. This legacy, we argue, that has largely been occluded from the favoured narratives of “Greekness” in both the domestic and international imaginations and is necessary to present a fully developed heritage image of Greece. This paper, draws upon and extends Bryce’s (2013, 2009) and Bryce and Čaušević’s (2016) work on the integration of the Byzantine and Ottoman worlds into mainstream narratives of European heritage. It argues for the potential of Thessaloniki to differentiate itself as a heritage destination that may present the diversity of Greek history beyond the favoured ancient past. It builds its theoretical case on a series of interviews undertaken with heritage professionals and other interested stakeholders working in Thessaloniki.