Veria Old Town

Veria keeps two remarkable old quarters. Kyriotissa, the former Jewish quarter around the synagogue, has timber-framed houses with overhanging upper floors along narrow lanes above the Tripotamos stream, and Barbouta beside it retains the same architecture; both have been restored in parts. Scattered across the town are around fifty Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches, many built low and plain on the outside to avoid attention under Ottoman rule, with painted interiors that come as a surprise; the Church of Christ, decorated in 1315 by the painter Kallierges, holds one of the finest fresco cycles of the Palaeologan renaissance. The Byzantine Museum occupies a restored flour mill. Below the town the river runs through a green ravine with waterfalls at Aliakmonas nearby.

What's there

• Kyriotissa and Barbouta - timber-framed quarters above the stream.
• The Church of Christ - Kallierges frescoes of 1315 in a small church.
• The Byzantine Museum - collections in a converted flour mill.
• The hidden churches - dozens of painted chapels behind plain walls.

When to go

Spring and autumn; the town sits below Vermio and summers are hot. Church opening is limited and often morning-only, so plan the day around the Church of Christ.

Practical notes

Most of the fifty churches are locked, and only a handful can be entered without arrangement. The old quarters are partly restored and partly derelict. Modern Veria around them is an ordinary provincial town.

Nearby

Vergina and the Macedonian royal tombs are twenty minutes south; Naoussa and the Mieza sites lie north.