Archaeological finds at the Metro of Thessaloniki

The main question is what to do with the antiquities that were found during the construction of Thessaloniki’s Metro, more in particular around the Venizelos Metro Station.

The excavations as well as the construction works turn out to be endless and at this point the opening date of the Metro is once again postponed from 2020 to 2023.

[Picture from The Greek Reporter]

With a change in government, discussions are again flaring up about the artifacts that have been found during the construction works. The previous government had opted to display the antiquities in the metro station closest to their discovery. The New Democracy government, however, prefers to exhibit them all together in a new to build museum as they fear that separate display at the Venizelos Metro station will needlessly delay the completion of the project. Besides, there are simply too many objects that have surfaced.

The opposition labels the removal of the antiquities to a separate museum as a “humiliating act for the city” and “a crime against the city”. Archaeologists, however, still want to stick to the earlier agreement implying that the presentation of antiquities at the metro station is not only technically feasible but in fact imperative to keep these unique highlights from Thessaloniki’s Byzantine past where they were found. Their argument is that the artifacts should be kept in situ as much as possible and not taken out of context.

It is, of course a matter of prestige and a political issue to get the metro line working as soon as possible. In the end, the discussions are still ongoing.

I discussed the subject already in an earlier blog, Thessaloniki keeps on writing history.