Greece Tours for Seniors

Greece tours for seniors are journeys across Greece shaped around travellers in later life. They take place from Athens to Thessaloniki and beyond. Topics range from the term senior citizen to the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki. The National Historical Museum, MOMus Contemporary and the Archaeological Museum of Patras follow. Related pages cover Greece small group tours, the classical Greece tour and Greece tour packages. Further trips sit under Greece tours.

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What are Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors are trips through Greece planned with older travellers in mind. Senior citizen is a common euphemism for an old person in American English, and sometimes in British English. A euphemism is a mild word that replaces a blunter one.

The term senior citizen implies that the person it names has retired from work. In less formal speech, the phrase is shortened to senior or seniors. That short form also works as an adjective, a word that describes a noun. Greece tours for seniors borrow their name from this short form.

British English uses pensioner as a matching word, while American English prefers retiree or senior. Greece tours for seniors follow the American choice of word. A pensioner is a person paid a pension, a regular sum after work ends. A retiree is a person who has left paid work for good.

The term senior citizen was apparently coined, or invented, in 1938, during a political campaign. A campaign here means an organised push to win public votes. Certain dictionaries record wide use of the term for people over the age of 65. A dictionary is a book that lists words and their meanings.

• Third age: In British English, this phrase names the period of active retirement after middle age.
• Old age threshold: Across European history, the line for old age has ranged from 60 to 70 years.
• Age 65: This benchmark began with the pension system of German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, in the late 19th century.

For Greece tours for seniors, age stages have partly Greek roots. European cultures split the life cycle into stages defined by age. Those stages were adapted from earlier Greek, Roman and Egyptian traditions. A life cycle is the full run of a person’s years.

What do Greece tours for seniors gain from the Museum of Byzantine Culture?

Greece tours for seniors cover a country where Thessaloniki holds the Museum of Byzantine Culture. It opened in 1994. Byzantine labels the Greek-speaking eastern Roman state. A culture is the shared art, beliefs and way of life of a people.

For Greece tours for seniors, the museum’s story starts in 1977 with a nationwide architectural competition. Architectural means linked to the design of buildings. In such a contest, architects send rival plans and a jury, or panel of judges, picks the best. An architect designs buildings and oversees how they are made.

The winning entry came from the architect Kyriakos Krokos. An entry here is a design sent in to be judged by the panel. Building work on the site began in March 1989. By October 1993, the builders had completed the structure. Building work means the physical job of putting up a new structure.

On Greece tours for seniors, the first exhibition was Byzantine Treasures of Thessaloniki, subtitled The Return Journey. An exhibition is a public display of chosen objects. A treasure here means a precious object of great worth. As of 2017, the museum held 11 permanent exhibitions. Permanent here means a display that stays in place for good.

• Room 2: This room recreates the reception hall of a wealthy household in Thessaloniki.
• Room 9: It shows pieces from 1460 artefacts, or crafted objects, left by Demetrios Economopoulos.
• Room 11: This room traces an object’s path from excavation, or digging up, to museum display.

In the context of Greece tours for seniors, the museum also teaches the young. It has run educational programmes for schoolchildren since 1998. A programme here is a planned set of lessons or activities. Educational means linked to teaching and learning.

How do Greece tours for seniors connect with the National Historical Museum?

Greece tours for seniors unfold in Greece, where the National Historical Museum of Athens dates from 1882. It is the oldest museum of its kind in the country. A historical museum keeps objects tied to a nation’s past events and to the people behind them.

The museum houses the collection of Greece’s Historical and Ethnological Society. Ethnological refers to the study of peoples and their customs. A society here is a club of members with one shared purpose. Before its move, the collection sat in the main building of the National Technical University.

For Greece tours for seniors, the collection opens with the fall of Constantinople in 1453. It runs on to the Second World War. Displays include weapons, historical paintings, manuscripts and a large set of traditional Greek costumes. Manuscripts are texts written by hand. Traditional costumes are styles of dress handed down over generations.

On Greece tours for seniors, the Old Parliament House serves as this museum’s home. It became the museum’s seat in 1961, after a full restoration. Parliament is the elected assembly that passes a nation’s laws. Restoration means repair work that returns a building to good order. Seat, in this sense, is the building where an institution is based.

• Central hall: The great central hall of the old National Assembly now hosts conferences.
• Bronze rider: Sculptor Lazaros Sochos made the bronze statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis outside the building.
• New place: The statue was moved to its current spot in front of the building in 1954.

For Greece tours for seniors, the site’s story begins with the house of Alexandros Kontostavlos. He was an Athenian magnate and politician. A magnate is a wealthy and powerful figure in business. A politician is a person active in government or public affairs.

Which art story ties Greece tours for seniors to the Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation?

Greece tours for seniors share their setting with the Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation, an art museum in Thessaloniki. A foundation is a body set up to manage a gift for a public purpose. Fine arts are painting, sculpture and similar arts made for beauty.

The foundation was established in 1972 and named after Nestor and Aliki Telloglou. The couple donated their art collection and their whole property to the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. A donation is a gift handed over freely, with no payment in return. Property here means the land, buildings and goods a person owns.

On Greece tours for seniors, Teloglion has occupied a modern building on the university campus since December 1999. A campus is the land and buildings of a university. The exhibition area covers three floors, with 2,500 square metres in total. A square metre is a square one metre long on each side.

For Greece tours for seniors, Teloglion’s galleries keep temperature, relative humidity and light under constant watch. Relative humidity measures the water vapour in the air against the full load it can carry. Light here means the brightness that falls on the works of art. A gallery is a room or hall where art is shown.

• Amphitheatre: The foundation’s amphitheatre, a hall with rising rows of seats, holds 230 seats.
• Collection size: The art collection numbers about 7,000 to 8,000 exhibits in total.
• Asian art: The collection also holds Persian miniatures, small detailed paintings, and wood reliefs from Thailand.

For Greece tours for seniors, Hellenistic and Roman pottery and statues also belong to the collection. Hellenistic describes Greek culture in the centuries after Alexander the Great. Pottery means pots and dishes shaped from clay and fired hard. Roman here refers to the era of Roman rule.

What does the Goulandris Museum of Natural History teach Greece tours for seniors about nature?

Greece tours for seniors go through a country whose Goulandris Museum of Natural History stands in Kifisia. Kifisia is a northeastern suburb of Athens. A suburb is a home area on a city’s outskirts. Natural history studies plants, animals and rocks.

Angelos Goulandris and Niki Goulandris founded the museum in 1965. They aimed to promote interest in the natural sciences. They also sought protection for Greece’s wildlife habitats and species in danger of extinction. Habitat means the surroundings a plant or animal lives in by nature. Extinction means the dying out of a whole species, or kind of living thing.

For Greece tours for seniors, the botanical collections number over 200,000 species of plants. Botanical means linked to the study of plants, called botany. Among them are 145 newly discovered plants, recorded thanks to the museum’s own research. Newly discovered means new to science when first described. Research is careful study for new knowledge.

On Greece tours for seniors, Goulandris laboratories carry out research in ecology, botany, zoology, geology, palaeontology and biotechnology. Ecology looks at how living things relate to their surroundings. Zoology studies animals, and geology studies rocks. Palaeontology studies fossils, which are traces of plants and animals from the distant past. Biotechnology uses living cells to make useful products.

• Key rooms: Highlights include the Zoology Room, the Palaeontology Room and a display of bivalve molluscs, two-shelled animals.
• Teaching role: The museum also serves as an educational institution for all levels of education.
• Touring shows: It runs travelling exhibitions on environmental issues in Greece and abroad.

In the setting of Greece tours for seniors, Goulandris is linked to international organisations. It also has ties to institutes of higher education. Higher education means study at university or college level. International means reaching across the borders of nations.

How does MOMus Contemporary fit Greece tours for seniors in Thessaloniki?

Greece tours for seniors span a country where Thessaloniki keeps MOMus Contemporary, a museum of contemporary art. It stands in the area of the Thessaloniki International Fair. Contemporary art means art made in recent decades. A fair here is a large trade show.

A group of Thessaloniki citizens founded the museum in 1979. The idea arose in a talk between Maro Lagia and the collector Alexandros Iolas. Iolas had shown interest in the damage to monuments from the 1978 Thessaloniki earthquake. Lagia proposed a contemporary art centre for the city. A collector is a person who gathers works of art.

For Greece tours for seniors, Iolas’s gift of 47 works formed the nucleus of the collection. A nucleus here means a starting core. The permanent collection now comprises 2000 works by Greek and foreign artists. Foreign here means from outside Greece. A permanent collection is the set of works a museum keeps for good.

On Greece tours for seniors, the museum’s retrospectives of Yannis Tsarouchis and Andy Warhol were firsts in Greece. A retrospective is a show that looks back over an artist’s whole career, from early to late work. A career is the working life of a person. Such shows gather works from across the decades.

• MOMus: Since 2018 it has belonged to the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki, or MOMus.
• Library: The library holds two and a half thousand titles of books and periodicals.
• Donors: Collectors such as Magda Kotzia and Franz Geiger continue to give works.

For Greece tours for seniors, EU-backed educational programmes for adults form part of the museum’s work. The museum devises them together with other museums. EU stands for the European Union, a group of European states. Adults here means people of full grown age.

What can Greece tours for seniors learn from the National Museum of Contemporary Art?

Greece tours for seniors move across a land with a national home for new art. The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens exhibits contemporary Greek and international art. Its Greek initials give the short name EMST. A national museum serves the whole country.

Its founding director was Anna Kafetsi. She had earlier served as curator of the 20th-century collection at the National Gallery. A curator is the person who chooses and cares for a museum’s works. The museum first opened on the ground floor of an old brewery, with about 1800 square metres.

For Greece tours for seniors, EMST’s exhibitions appear in parts of the Athens Conservatory while renovations go on. A conservatory here is a school of music. The collections follow two axes. A historic axis covers art from the later 20th century. A contemporary axis runs beside it. An axis means a main line of collecting.

On Greece tours for seniors, EMST’s acquisitions bring in works by Ilya Kabakov, Nan Goldin and Chryssa. An acquisition is a work that a museum buys or receives. A work of art here means a painting, sculpture, film or similar piece. Contemporary, in art, means made in the present age or the recent past.

• Large gift: In 2022 the museum received a donation of 140 contemporary art pieces.
• Two languages: Its exhibition catalogues are bilingual, meaning written in both Greek and English.
• Artist papers: The archives of Bia Davou and Pandelis Xagoraris hold over 2,000 articles and manuscripts.

For travellers on Greece tours for seniors, EMST’s educational programmes include tours for adults and seminars for educators. A seminar is a small class held for discussion and study. An educator is a person whose daily job is to teach others.

Why do Greece tours for seniors note the Archaeological Museum of Patras?

Greece tours for seniors roam a country whose second-largest museum is the New Archaeological Museum of Patras. Archaeological refers to archaeology, the study of objects left by past peoples. A museum of this kind displays finds dug from the ground.

The museum opened on 24 July 2009. Melina Mercouri, then Minister of Culture, had first announced the construction plans. A minister is a member of the government in charge of one area. Culture here covers the arts, heritage and museums of a country. Heritage means the buildings, objects and customs passed down from the past.

For Greece tours for seniors, the plot under the Patras museum measures 28,000 square metres. Its interior spaces cover 8,000 square metres. Interior means inside the building. A plot is a measured piece of land. The grounds hold a 500 square metre pool, a shiny metallic dome and greenery. Greenery means plants, grass and trees.

On Greece tours for seniors, Patras’s collections run from prehistory to the end of Roman times. They cover the history of Patras and the surrounding area. Prehistory is the long age before written records. Roman times means the centuries of rule by ancient Rome. The surrounding area here means the lands around the city.

• Mosaics: The museum’s 14 Roman mosaics, pictures made of small stones, cover 250 square metres in total.
• Tombs: The necropolis, or cemetery, section has three reconstructed tombs, two Mycenaean and one Roman.
• Public life: The public life section covers the period from 1500 BC to the 4th century AD.

For anyone on Greece tours for seniors, the museum has four thematic sections. Three of them are permanent, and one is periodic. Thematic means arranged around a set subject. Periodic here means a section whose shows change through the year.

What does the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki tell Greece tours for seniors about the city?

Greece tours for seniors travel a country where Thessaloniki’s Jewish community runs the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki. Community here means people bound by a shared faith and heritage. Jewish refers to the Jews, a people with their own faith and traditions.

The museum tells the story of Sephardic Jews and of Jewish life in the city. Sephardic Jews trace their roots to Spain and Portugal. In Ladino, the museum is called Museo Djudio de Salonik. Ladino is the Spanish-based language of Sephardic Jews. Salonik is an old name for the city of Thessaloniki.

For Greece tours for seniors, Vitaliano Poselli’s 1904 building gives the museum its home. Poselli was an Italian architect. In 2019 a new wing added four more spaces to the museum. A wing is a section that extends out from the main body of a building. Spaces here means rooms and halls within the building.

On Greece tours for seniors, the first floor traces Jewish presence in Thessaloniki from the third century BCE. The narrative continues up to the Second World War. A narrative is an account of events told in the order they happened. BCE means before the Common Era, which covers the same years as BC.

• Shoah exhibit: A separate exhibit focuses on the Shoah, the Holocaust, as it affected the city’s community.
• Business papers: The museum holds the leading collection of Thessaloniki business documents.
• Wider network: The museum is a member of the Association of European Jewish Museums.

As background for Greece tours for seniors, the museum opened in the fifth month of 2001. The opening fell on the 13th day of that month. Evangelos Venizelos was then Minister of Culture, and Andreas Sefiha led the city’s Jewish Community.

What do Greece tours for seniors draw from the Archaeological Museum of Florina?

Greece tours for seniors cross a country whose West Macedonia region holds the Archaeological Museum of Florina. A region is a large named part of a country. Macedonia here is a historic area of northern Greece. Archaeological finds are objects dug up from past times.

The museum occupies a two-storey building put up in 1969. Its interior was renovated in 1999. Its finds from the Florina area are prehistoric, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine. Prehistoric describes the ages before people kept written records. Renovated means repaired and brought up to date. Two-storey means having two floors.

For Greece tours for seniors, the prehistoric settlement at Armenchori supplies the main finds of one unit. In archaeology, a settlement is an old site of homes and daily life. A mammoth’s jaws, aged between 200,000 and 500,000 years, came from Sotiras village. A mammoth is an extinct, hairy relative of the elephant.

On Greece tours for seniors, Hellenistic finds fill the first floor, among them a sundial and farm tools. A sundial tells the time from the shadow the sun casts. Farm tools here are the hand implements used to work the land. A statue of Artemis also stands on this floor. Artemis was a Greek goddess of hunting.

• Stelae: Roman relief stelae, upright carved stone slabs, show horsemen, portraits and a funeral banquet.
• Church door: A 16th-century door comes from the Church of Agios Athanasios at Agios Germanos.
• Male torso: A male torso of the Roman period, a statue without head or limbs, comes from Vevi.

As context for Greece tours for seniors, Greek inscriptions give evidence for the names of people and cities. An inscription means words carved into stone or another hard surface. They also shed light on religious beliefs and social conditions. Evidence means proof that supports a fact.

Which treasures tie the Archaeological Museum of Polygyros to Greece tours for seniors in Chalkidiki?

Greece tours for seniors reach a country where Chalkidiki’s finds gather in the Archaeological Museum of Polygyros. It stands in Iroou Square, in the centre of Polygyros town. A town square is open paved ground ringed by buildings. Finds are objects that archaeologists dig up.

Its finds span the Bronze Age through to the Roman period. The Bronze Age is the era when people made tools of bronze, a mix of copper and tin. Finds come from ancient Stageira, Toroni, Aphytos and Ierissos, among other places. The Roman period is the era of rule by ancient Rome.

For Greece tours for seniors, Polygyros museum history begins in 1965, when construction started. The work was completed in 1971. The renowned architect Dimitris Fatouros designed that first building. Renowned means widely known and admired. Designed here means drew up the plans and look of a building. Completed means finished and ready for use.

On Greece tours for seniors, an unfinished kouros of the Archaic period ranks among the key exhibits. Kouros is the Greek word for a youth, used for statues of standing young men. The Archaic period is the age of Greek history before the Classical age. Unfinished here means the carver stopped work before the statue was complete.

• Painted bowl: A black-figure column crater from Vrastama, a wine-mixing bowl, belongs to the late 6th century BC.
• Andros towns: Since 1998 an exhibition has covered Sane, Akanthos and Stageira, towns founded by settlers from Andros.
• Award: That exhibition won the museum a Museum of the Year Award in 1998.

In relation to Greece tours for seniors, Polygyros’s collections grew a great deal over the following decades. In 2016 the museum moved to its current building. Current here means the one in use today. Collections are the sets of objects a museum keeps.

What does Hagios Demetrios add to Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors take place in a country whose city of Thessaloniki keeps Hagios Demetrios. It is the main church of Saint Demetrius, the patron saint, or holy protector, of the city. UNESCO has listed it as World Heritage since 1988.

The first church on this ground went up in the early 4th century AD. It replaced a Roman bath, a public bathing house. Roughly a century later, a prefect named Leontios put up a bigger church. A prefect was a senior Roman official. His church was a basilica, a long hall, with three aisles.

Fires gutted the building again and again over the years. Greece tours for seniors are trips through a land where builders raised it anew between 629 and 634. The new church was a basilica with five aisles. Inside was a ciborium, a roofed shrine with six sides. It stood at one side of the nave, or main hall.

Six mosaic panels from before 730 survive. Mosaic work forms images out of tiny pieces of stone. They show Saint Demetrius with the founders who restored the church, and with children. Greece tours for seniors belong to a country where Thessaloniki joined the Ottoman Empire in 1430. Within about 60 years, the church became a mosque, the Kasımiye Camii.

• Fire: The great fire of 1917 burned away the church roof and its upper walls.
• Bathhouse: Tradition says Demetrios was held and put to death in an old bathhouse in 303 AD.
• Ambo: Room V below the church keeps the ambo, a raised reading stand, from the original 5th-century church.

The crypt became an exhibition space in 1988. A crypt is an underground room beneath a church. Digs in the 1930s and 1940s found objects now shown there. Greece tours for seniors share a country with this underground collection.

Which story does the Kapnikarea church give Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors have their setting in a country with the Kapnikarea, a church in Athens. This Greek Orthodox church ranks among the oldest in Athens still in constant use. Experts date it to the 11th century, possibly around 1050.

The church rose over an ancient Greek temple, as was common for early Christian churches. That temple honoured a goddess, possibly Athena or Demeter. Greece tours for seniors find their place in a land where the building seems a former katholikon. The word katholikon names the chief church of a monastic house, where monks live.

King Otto, ruler of the Kingdom of Greece, invited Leo von Klenze, an architect from Bavaria, to Athens. Klenze was to draw a new plan for the city. An architect designs buildings. Under that plan, the church faced demolition, which means being pulled down. King Ludwig I of Bavaria objected to the decision and saved it.

Greece tours for seniors unfold in a country where this building joins three parts, built one after another. The largest, the south church, is dedicated to Mary’s Presentation at the Temple. The chapel of St Barbara forms the second part, on the northern side. A chapel is a small church or prayer room.

• Porch: The third part, on the west, is the exonarthex, an outer porch with a gateway.
• Plan: The domed south church uses a cross-in-square layout, which places a cross within a square outline.
• Street: Ermou Street, beside the church, was one of the first roads planned in modern Athens.

The church stands in a small square on the eastern part of Ermou Street. The street name means Hermes Street in Greek. Greece tours for seniors run in a country where this church sits within a busy shopping area.

How does Nea Moni fit into Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors are held in a country with Nea Moni, a former monastery on Chios. The name means New Monastery in Greek. Now it is a convent and also a history museum. A convent is a house where nuns live.

Greece tours for seniors are spent in a country where Constantine once lived in exile on Lesbos. Exile means being sent to live away from home. Monks visited him there and told of a vision in which he became emperor. He promised to build a church if this came true.

Constantine became emperor in 1042 and began the monastery out of gratitude. It was dedicated to the Theotokos, a Greek title for Mary meaning God-bearer. The whole complex stood complete in 1055, after his death. In 1049 a chrysobull, or imperial decree, set the house free from higher church or state rule.

Greece tours for seniors take shape in a country where later emperors gave it land and tax freedom. It grew into one of the richest monasteries of the Aegean. Under Ottoman rule, the house reported straight to the Patriarch in Constantinople, the senior bishop there. Visitors in 1725 and 1729 praised its relics, or saints’ remains, and its church.

• Library: A defensive tower in the north-eastern corner once served as the library.
• Chapel: Beyond the walls, close to the burial ground of the monks, stands a small chapel to St Luke.
• Plan: The main church follows the insular type, an eight-sided plan known on Chios and Cyprus.

The katholikon, or main church, carries the name of Mary’s Dormition. Dormition means her falling asleep at the end of life. The cells, or monks’ rooms, date from the Venetian and Genoese periods. Greece tours for seniors share a land with this old island house of prayer.

Why does the Upper Town of Thessaloniki matter to Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors sit within a country where Thessaloniki keeps Ano Poli, its old town. The name means Upper Town in Greek. The quarter spreads around the city’s acropolis, north of the centre. An acropolis is the fortified high point of a city.

The district is known for Byzantine and Ottoman buildings that survive in good condition. It also became a centre for the city’s poets, thinkers and bohemians, people who live free, artistic lives. The Great Fire of 1917 wiped out much of the old street plan elsewhere in Thessaloniki. Up the hill, Ano Poli held on to that older pattern.

Greece tours for seniors operate in a land where this quarter keeps small streets paved with stone. Old squares sit among them, with homes built in Greek or Ottoman fashion. Ano Poli is the highest part of Thessaloniki. A fort called the Eptapyrgio towers above it. Forts are walled strongholds.

Eptapyrgio means Fortress of Seven Towers, yet the fort has ten towers. Experts believe it borrowed the name of the Yedikule Fortress in Constantinople, now Istanbul. Greece tours for seniors belong to a land where the fort later served as a prison until 1989. Restoration and digs began there in the 1970s and still go on.

• Walls: Parts of the old city walls still surround the quarter on its hill today.
• Churches: Old churches here include Prophet Elijah, St Nicholas Orphanos and the Taxiarches church.
• Builder: The visible walls date to late Antiquity, when Emperor Theodosius I fortified the city anew.

Writers linked with Ano Poli include Dinos Christianopoulos and Giorgos Themelis. Greece tours for seniors run in a land where the poet Anestis Evangelou belongs to this quarter. Konstantinos Zervas, a mayor of Thessaloniki, is also counted among its notable people.

What history lies behind the Parigoritissa for Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors are based in a country where the city of Arta keeps the Parigoritissa church. It is the Byzantine metropolitan church of Arta, from the 13th century. A metropolitan church is a bishop’s main church. Its name means Panagia of Consolation.

Michael II Komnenos Doukas, Despot of Epirus, or one of his courtiers founded the church around 1250. A despot here means a Byzantine lord who ruled a whole region. Panagia, meaning All-Holy, is a Greek title for Mary. Part of the building once held the Archaeological Collection of Arta.

Greece tours for seniors unfold in a land where this church later ran out of money. It then became a metochion, a dependent house, of the Kato Panagia monastery. By 1578 records name it a convent for women. The building itself is large, almost square, and three storeys high.

Eight piers, or thick pillars, in three tiers carry its central dome. Four smaller domes rise at the corners of the flat roof, beside a lantern. A lantern is a small windowed turret. Greece tours for seniors happen in a land where marble lines the walls up to the galleries. A gallery is an upper inner floor.

• Dome: The dome mosaic shows the Pantokrator, Christ as ruler of all, ringed by angels.
• Artists: Artists from outside Epirus are thought to have made these mosaics.
• Ananias: The painter Ananias left 16th-century frescoes, or wall paintings on wet plaster, in the altar.

Its carvings show Western influences, such as Romanesque monsters. Romanesque is a medieval building style of western Europe. Reliefs, carved pictures raised from a flat surface, depict Bible scenes. Greece tours for seniors are trips across a country where 17th-century frescoes cover the main church.

Which past does Molyvos bring to Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors are found in a country where Molyvos stands on the island of Lesbos. The name Molyvos comes from Mont d’olives, French for mount of olives. The town lies north-east of Eressos and north-west of Mytilene.

The ancient town was Methymna, a polis, meaning a self-ruling Greek city. After 427 BCE, only Methymna and Chios kept their self-rule inside the Delian League. Both also paid no tribute, a forced payment to a leading power. The city’s silver and bronze coins show its standing in the 4th century BCE.

Around 295 BCE, the city minted silver drachms for King Lysimachus. Drachms were coins in use across the old Greek world. Greece tours for seniors are organised in a country where the city later came under the Ptolemies. A festival for these rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemaia, began in that period. City papers were dated by Ptolemaic reigns.

Greece tours for seniors are planned in a country where Romans knew Methymna for its vine growing. Virgil, a Roman poet, called its vines the finest and the largest in number on Lesbos. Horace praised its grapes for the fine vinegar they gave. The ancient novel Daphnis and Chloe is set between Methymna and Mytilene.

• Bishop: Christodoros, in 520 CE, is the first recorded bishop of Methymna.
• See: Around 1084, under Alexius I Comnenus, Methymna became a metropolitan see, a senior bishop’s seat.
• Kalloni: In Ottoman times its Metropolis, or church district, moved its seat to nearby Kalloni.

Olive oil, soap, wine and fish fed the economy of Molyvos. Mansions and schools rose in the region as a result. Greece tours for seniors belong to a nation where Echecratides, a friend of Aristotle, came from Methymna. He belonged to the Peripatetic school of Aristotle.

How does the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens connect to Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors are rooted in a country where Athens keeps the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Annunciation. The Annunciation is the message of an angel to Mary about the birth of Jesus. The cathedral remains a major landmark of the Greek capital.

Work on the cathedral began on Christmas Day in 1842. A cathedral holds the official seat of a bishop. On that day the royal couple, Otto and Amalia, set the cornerstone. The cornerstone marks the first block placed when building starts. Builders took marble from 72 churches that had been torn down.

Greece tours for seniors unfold in a nation where the cathedral needed 20 years and three architects. The King and Queen then dedicated it to the Annunciation, honouring the Mother of God. Mother of God is an Orthodox title for Mary. Saint Philothei founded a convent and died a martyr in 1589.

Her bones can still be seen in a silver reliquary, a case for holy remains. In 1821 the body of Patriarch Gregory V was thrown into the Bosphorus. Patriarch is the title of the highest Orthodox bishops. Greece tours for seniors happen in a nation where Greek sailors saved his body, later enshrined in Athens.

• Emperor: One statue in Mitropoleos Square shows Constantine XI, final ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire.
• Archbishop: The other statue shows Damaskinos, Archbishop of Athens during the Second World War.
• Regent: Damaskinos also acted for King George II as regent, which means ruling in place of the monarch.

Major ceremonies with national leaders present take place there. Weddings and funerals of well-known people are held there too. Greece tours for seniors operate in a country where the Greek name of the church honours the Theotokos. Theotokos, which means God-bearer, is a name for Mary.

What does the Hagia Sophia of Thessaloniki tell Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors sit within a land where Thessaloniki keeps its own Hagia Sophia. The name means Holy Wisdom in Greek. Its present church dates from the 7th century. It counts among the oldest surviving churches of the city.

A church has stood on this spot since the 3rd century. In 620 that earlier church collapsed, and experts blame an earthquake. The present building copied the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, now Istanbul. In 1205, after the Fourth Crusade took the city, it became the cathedral. It kept that role until 1224.

Once Sultan Murad II had captured the city in 1430, the church became a mosque. Muslims gather to pray in a mosque. Its name stayed, as Ayasofya Camii. Greece tours for seniors are offered in a country where it became a church again in 1912. Its plan is a domed basilica shaped as a Greek cross.

During the Iconoclastic era, the apse held just one large cross on plain gold mosaic. That era opposed holy images. The apse is the half-round recess at the far end of a church. Between 787 and 797 an image of the Theotokos, or Mary, took the place of the cross. The dome mosaic shows the Ascension, Christ rising into heaven.

• Apostles: Around the dome stand the Twelve Apostles, with Mary and a pair of angels.
• Restorer: Charles Diehl, a historian of Byzantium, repaired the building from 1907 to 1909.
• Dome: Greece tours for seniors are run in a country where the dome was not restored until 1980.

The plan marks a step between the domed basilica and the inscribed cross type. That second type ruled Byzantine church design from the 10th century. Greece tours for seniors share a nation with this church, which UNESCO listed as World Heritage in 1988.

Which tale does Omonoia Square add to Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors are arranged in a country whose capital holds Omonoia Square. It ranks among the oldest squares of Athens. The name means Concord Square, and concord means harmony between people. Six main streets of the city meet there.

Builders laid out the square in 1846, and its first name was Palace Square. The ground had been set aside for a royal palace by the architects Kleanthis and Schaubert. Later the square took the name Othonos Square, in honour of King Otto. Otto was the first king of Greece.

After Otto lost his throne, the square became Omonoia Square in 1862. Leaders of rival political groups swore an oath of peace there to end their fighting. Greece tours for seniors play out in a land where an underground railway came between 1925 and 1930. The square then turned circular, with marble at the station entrances.

In 1931, Mayor Spiros Merkouris proposed eight statues of the Muses over the air vents. In Greek myth, the Muses inspired poets, singers and artists. Athenians disliked the result, and the statues came down. In 1954, banks, shops and a post office opened beneath the square. A 1958 contest picked a design by George Zongolopoulos and Kostas Bitsios.

• Fountain: Greece tours for seniors share a country where Greek films of the time showed this square.
• Rebuild: Public and private funds paid for the city to restore the 1958 fountain.
• Sculpture: The Pentakiklon, a five-ring sculpture, has stood in the square since 2001.

Beneath the square lies the Omonia metro station, a major hub for transport. Greece tours for seniors are hosted in a land where this square bounds 19th-century downtown to the north. It is also one of the principal traffic hubs of Athens.

How does Aristotelous Square shape Greece tours for seniors?

Greece tours for seniors stay within a country whose city of Thessaloniki centres on Aristotelous Square. It is the chief square of the city, on Nikis Avenue by the sea. Its twelve buildings have been listed buildings since 1950. Listed status gives a building legal protection.

The story of the square starts with the Great Fire of 1917. That fire wiped out two thirds of Thessaloniki. Until 1912 the city had been part of the Ottoman state for almost 500 years. Greece tours for seniors have roots in a nation where the architect Ernest Hébrard proposed new squares.

One square was first planned as Alexander the Great Square, now Aristotelous Square. Hébrard drew on Byzantine and Western styles rather than Ottoman ones. He meant this to stress the link between the city and the Byzantine Empire. A statue of Alexander the Great was to stand at its centre.

The bulk of the square went up in the 1950s. The building fronts turned out far plainer than his plans, because money was short in Greece. In 1918 the Venizelos government chose private money, not state funds, for the work. Greece tours for seniors unfold within a country where the square’s north was largely restored in the 2000s.

• Festival: A cinema on the square hosts the annual Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
• Angels: Each year the Celebration of the Angels lights the official Christmas tree of the city.
• Ship: The city also decorates a giant Christmas ship, a Greek form of the tree custom.

The tree and the ship each stand over 20 metres tall. The square also holds festivals and yearly carnival celebrations. Carnival here means a season of costumes and street parties. Greece tours for seniors run within a land where trams served this square until 1957.

What do travellers ask about Greece tours for seniors, and what are the answers?

Greece tours for seniors are tied to a land where Thessaloniki long ranked second in the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman capture of the city in 1430 left its Christian monuments standing. In 1988, UNESCO listed fifteen of them as World Heritage Sites.

Before Greece tours for seniors, what is the Vlatades Monastery in Thessaloniki?

The Vlatades Monastery stands in Ano Poli, the upper town of Thessaloniki. It was built in the 14th century, late in the Byzantine era. Tradition says it rises where the house of Jason once stood. In 2005, its library yielded a manuscript, a text copied out by hand, of a work by Galen.

For Greece tours for seniors, what is Anavatos on Chios?

Anavatos is a medieval village on Chios, 16 km from the main town. Its founders are believed to be workers from Nea Moni, in the Byzantine era. It emptied after the Massacre of Chios in 1822 and the earthquake of 1881. Only 10 people lived there at the 2021 census.

Ahead of Greece tours for seniors, what is the Little Metropolis in Athens?

The Little Metropolis, formally the Church of St Eleutherius, stands beside the great cathedral of Athens. Its walls are built of reused marble spolia, pieces taken from older buildings. Above the window line, ninety sculptures decorate the walls. From 1841 to 1863, the church housed the public library of Athens.

When planning Greece tours for seniors, what is the Saint Gerasimos Monastery?

The Saint Gerasimos Monastery on Kefalonia stands near Fragata village, over an older monastery from 1200. A priest, George Valsamos, gave the site to Gerasimos, who settled there in 1560. Tradition says the saint planted the three large plane trees in its grounds. He also dug its three wells, by the same account.