4th Floor

«Thessaloniki. On the routes of commerce».

The theme is the commerce and economy of the city, the people and places involved in commerce, and products and production activities. 

On the landing of this floor is a wooden construction with a circular opening-porthole and a projected image of Thessaloniki as seen by someone approaching it by sea.

In the scenographic composition of the central space, which is articulated crosswise in a reference to the East-West and North-South axes, there is a combination of archaeological material and graphic compositions. The archaeological material includes amphorae, which were used in transit trade, and coins of various eras. The informational material on the four horizontal graphics concerns commercial exchanges between Thessaloniki and other cities, commercial transport, the city’s markets, and professions and production activities in the city. On the surrounding wall of this space, four screens located at the four points of the horizon project onto maps the trade routes linking Thessaloniki to cities with which it traded during various periods. 

In the surrounding rooms, lightboxes, video projections, and archaeological material serve to present the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair, the city’s marketplaces through history, its products, those involved in commerce, professional guilds through history, modernization and industrialization in the nineteenth century, the creation of the working class, and social changes brought about by the new era of production activity.