Grand Tour of Classical Greece 2026-27 "Prestige"

Greece, a wonderful country. A tour through the colours of this wonderful country: as if the places that tell so much history were not enough, let us surrender to the sight of the blue and azure of sky and sea, the white of lime-washed walls, the gold of the beaches, the brown of the sun-baked earth and the deep green of the Mediterranean scrub. And let us savour, too, the aromas this land offers us, not least those that come from its kitchen.

Olympia. Olympia went down in history as the birthplace of the famous Olympic Games dedicated to the god Zeus. In ancient Greece the Olympics had the power to unite all Greeks and to bring wars to a halt. The town lay in the valley of the river Alpheus, in the north-western Peloponnese. It was not a true city but a place of worship, dotted with temples, theatres, commemorative monuments and statues, and of course there were the stadium and the gymnasia where the Olympic Games were held, along with the buildings that housed the athletes during the sporting competitions. Today Olympia is a fascinating archaeological park, listed since 1989 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Olympia was divided into three zones: the highest part, enclosed by a sacred precinct, the Altis; the eastern zone with the stadium and the hippodrome; while to the south lay the palaestra and the gymnasium, where the athletes trained from a month before the games. Near what must have been one of Olympia’s main streets, 12 “thesauroi” have been found, the votive temples in which the treasures of the cities taking part in the games were kept. The first excavations at Olympia were carried out by a group of French archaeologists in 1829 and continued for a long time, given above all the great quantity of finds and evidence that came to light.

The Palaeochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessaloniki.

Continuously inhabited since the Hellenistic age, a provincial capital and flourishing port city in Roman times, Thessaloniki was home to one of the first Christian communities in Europe and became, in the Byzantine era, an artistic and cultural metropolis of the highest importance, second only to the capital of the empire, Constantinople. Exceptional examples and witnesses of that thousand-year period in which the city played a crucial role in the development of art and architecture, the Palaeochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki, scattered through the modern urban fabric and making the city an open-air museum, have been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1988.

These monuments are indeed some of the most important and best-preserved examples of Palaeochristian and Byzantine art and architecture. Built over a long span of time, from the 4th to the 15th century, and hidden around every corner of the city centre, these 15 monuments offer a cross-section of the main architectural trends and styles that developed and became established in each era, and preserve within them some of the great masterpieces of monumental painting and mosaic art of the Palaeochristian and Byzantine ages. They are thus a series of fifteen public buildings that in the past served various functions, mostly religious, but also secular (the Byzantine baths) and military (the city walls). Of particular note are the thirteen places of worship, among the most significant of the Byzantine period, which illustrate the evolution of Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture and its stylistic variety: starting from the Palaeochristian basilica type, and from the three-aisled basilica plan, it moved on to the domed basilica type of the early Byzantine period, then to the cross-in-square churches of the middle Byzantine period, and finally to the cross-in-square churches with peristyle of the late Byzantine period. These churches also contain ensembles of wall painting, mosaics and frescoes representative of some of the main artistic trends that developed within Byzantine monumental painting, from its origins (the Rotunda, St Demetrius, Hosios David), through the period following Iconoclasm (Hagia Sophia) and the so-called “Komnenian” period (frescoes of the Church of Hosios David, Latomou Monastery), culminating in the following centuries in what is conventionally called the “Palaeologan Renaissance” (late Byzantine period). Among the city’s most emblematic monuments is the famous Rotunda, a circular (“centrally planned”) building constructed in the time of Galerius (around 306), originally as a temple dedicated to Jupiter or to the Cabeiri or, according to others, as the mausoleum of Galerius himself (hence also the name Tomb of Galerius, by which the monument is known in Italy) and later converted into a church (today consecrated to St George). As excavations have shown, at the time of its construction the Rotunda stood at the end of the triumphal way linking the Arch of Galerius with the imperial palace. Enlarged and restructured in later periods, it preserves within it some of the most splendid mosaics of Palaeochristian art. In the city centre there is also the Church of "Panagia Acheiropoietos”, a three-aisled basilica with narthex and gallery dating from the 5th century. The church is notable above all for its architectural decoration, composed of a series of elegantly crafted columns datable to the 5th century and attributable to Constantinopolitan workshops. Further on is the basilica of Agios Dimitrios, whose present form dates from the 7th century. This is the church of the city’s patron saint, a five-aisled basilica with transept and underground crypt, featuring exceptional marble and mosaic decoration. Beautiful mosaics of fine workmanship can also be admired in the Palaeochristian Monastery of Latomou (6th century) and its little Church of Hosios David. In addition, the city walls of Thessaloniki also date from this first period; they were built at the end of the 4th century under the rule of Emperor Theodosius, and extensive stretches still remain. The Churches of Agia Sofia and Panagia Chalkeon belong instead to a later period. An exemplary case of the transitional type of Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture in which the Greek-cross plan is combined with the dome, the Church of Agia Sofia (8th century) has mosaic decoration belonging to three different phases of Byzantine art. The majestic mosaic of the dome, depicting the Ascension of Jesus into heaven (late 9th century), is one of the most important creations of the period of the so-called “Macedonian Renaissance”. Commonly called the “Red Church”, the graceful Panagia Chalkeon (that is, “Our Lady of the Coppersmiths”), with evident Constantinopolitan influences, dates from the 11th century and, built using the recessed-brick technique, belongs to the cross-in-square type of church. The Byzantine baths, whose construction is dated to the 13th century, are situated at the foot of Thessaloniki’s Upper Town (Ano Poli) and are the only surviving example of secular Byzantine architecture in the city. Finally, the seven remaining churches – Agios Panteleimon, Agioi Apostoloi, Agia Ekaterini, the Transfiguration of the Saviour, the katholikon (main church) of the Vlatadon Monastery, the Church of the Prophet Elijah and the single-nave church of Agios Nikolaos Orfanos – all belong to the late Byzantine era and were built in the period between the 13th and 14th centuries. In them one can trace the development, the peak and the decline of this last great period of artistic flowering and reawakening in Byzantine history, usually referred to as the “Palaeologan Renaissance”. Built in a variety of architectural styles, the late Byzantine churches of Thessaloniki are distinguished by their harmonious, elegant proportions and their refined wall decorations. Notable among them are above all the Church of Agioi Apostoloi for its splendid brickwork decoration and that of Agios Nikolaos Orfanos for its magnificent wall frescoes, which represent one of the most complete pictorial ensembles of the Palaeologan period preserved in Thessaloniki.