Introduction

It was September 14, 1423, the day of the Cross, when the first Venetian ships reached Thessaloniki amid wide applause. With Byzantium unable to defend itself, the Thessalonians voluntarily came under the rule of the Serenissima, since the danger of the Ottomans was now more than visible. But the Venetian weapons were proven insufficient in front of Sultan Murad II’s army, who, after an epic three-day siege, will finally occupy the city on March 29, 1430. The seven-year presence of the Venetians in Thessaloniki is to some extent known. It was the starting point of the Exhibition. However, the contacts between the two cities are documented even after the Ottoman conquest and are continuous, intense and multifaceted: economically, educationally and socially. These contacts are at the core of the exhibition; following the archival traces of individuals, we mark out the paths of our common history. The exhibition unfolds in three axes: the historical documentation, the experiential approach and the visual imprint. The historical documentation is based on unpublished mainly archival material, coming from the Archive of the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice and the State Archives of Venice. It includes documents that capture the presence of the Thessalonians in Venice (registrations of baptisms, marriages and deaths) but also the active participation in the Greek community of the city, the Greek Orthodox Confraternity. It also presents the mosaic of those who settled permanently in the city of Venice, focusing on the emblematic portrait of the Archbishop of Dalmatia Benedict Kralidis. The intense commercial relations between Thessaloniki and Venice and the educational pursuits of the young Thessalonians, who brought them, as students, to the unique Flangini College, are reflected in a large number of documents. The Thessaloniki-Venice Exhibition: Traces of People, Paths of History is participating in the 1,600 years from the founding of Venice events; after the city of Thessaloniki, the exhibition will travel to Venice