OUR Thessaloniki now you can count the time. By the end of 2023, the subway cars we have been waiting for since 2012 will have traveled 9.6 km and the 315,000 passengers who will be traveling daily will have passed through 13 museum stations. The ministers of culture and sports were categorical about the schedule for the full operation of the long-awaited Thessaloniki metropolitan railway (and Venizelos station). Lina Mendoni and infrastructure and transport Kostas Karamanlis, at a joint press conference they gave yesterday at the Pilea train station in Thessaloniki. “All stations where antiquities have been found, including Venizelos Station and Hagia Sophia Station upstairs, will also be converted into museums which, together with two new museum spaces, will highlight the most important of the 300,000 finds. from the largest archaeological study of urban space in Greece,” said Ms. Mendoni.

Thus, in addition to the stations, two new museums enter the orbit of the metro, which store exclusively its finds. The first one will be located in one of the buildings of the former Pavlos Mela camp, with an area of ​​1500 sq.m., and will tell the story of Thessaloniki. His museological research has already been approved by the Council of Museums for inclusion in the NSRP for the next period.

Decumanus Maximus

End of 2023 – full operation of Thessaloniki-Nike metro and Venizelos station.

The second museum, with a work schedule of at least five years, will be deployed in a three-story underground building with an area of ​​5,000 m2, opposite the OUT Central Library, above the subway train intersection under construction. (Sidrivani station). A part of the Decuman vault, 77 m long and 10 m wide, which was separated from the Hagia Sophia station, is included in the report, for which the Ephorate of Antiquities of the city is preparing a museological and museographic proposal. The exhibits will mainly highlight the technology of the ancients, with storage facilities available to the public and outdoor repair shops open in the same space.

The €170 million archaeological survey on the metro line began in April 2006 and was gradually completed in 2019, with the exception of Venizelos station, where it was completed last July. It was the largest urban excavation ever undertaken in Greece. “This goes far beyond the relevant archaeological research of the Athens metro,” said Ms. Mendoni, and contributes to documenting the urban development of Thessaloniki from the time of the founding of the city to the early 20th century.

Regarding the much discussed Venizelos station, after summarizing the “reasons for delays”, “politicization of the issue”, “appeals for justice”, Ms. Mendoni clarified that all studies on the repositioning and illumination of antiquity will be brought up for discussion at KAS during November, so that their implementation could begin during the first quarter of 2023. “Nowhere will there be an equivalent archaeological site in the context of a technical project at the international level. The Thessaloniki school of extracting antiquities from the underground is more advanced than the Athenian one,” he said. finds to be uncovered will complete the riddle of its history.” .