With the opening of the long-awaited – and long overdue – metro line in Thessaloniki less than 24 hours away, Friday served as “VIP Day”, with the inauguration of the main station and a subsequent guided tour provided by the culture minister to both the president of the republic and prime minister, among the many office holders and stakeholders in attendance.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, second left, tours the Venizelos metro station in Thessaloniki with Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, and Transport Minister Christos Staikouras, Left, and Deputy Minister Nikos Tachiaos, right, on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, an archaeologist by training and a high-ranking ministry official for decades before assuming its helm five years ago, oversaw the tour of the Venizelos metro station. The latter comprises the main hub of the new metro line and the biggest display of antiquities and artifacts unearthed during the underground construction.
In tow were President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, a Thessaloniki native, and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, along with the transport ministry’s leadership, regional and municipal office-holders and representatives of the new metro system’s management and construction companies.
The Venizelos station is increasingly billed as “emblematic” in many reviews of late, as the cavernous excavation revealed unique finds, long-lost alleys, layers of successive historical periods and shed light on the ancient metropolis’ commercial quarter during the Roman and Byzantine periods.
