Roman Rotunda 🏛️ Byzantine mosaics & Ottoman minaret

Built under Galerius along the axis from his triumphal arch and his villa, well-preserved remains of mosaics decorate the inside of this huge brick building that later also served as a Byzantine church and an ottoman mosque.

The rotunda (Greek Ροτόντα Rotónda) of Galerius in Thessaloniki, later named Άγιος Γεώργιος after the St. George's Chapel opposite, is a domed structure from Roman times that was built in connection with the Galerius Arch. The building located north of Egnatia Street in the east of the city center, also known as the Georg Rotunda, was named by travelers in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the Turkish times it was called Eski Metropol (Old Metropolie). The rotunda is part of the world cultural heritage of the "early Christian and Byzantine buildings in Thessaloniki".The rotunda, erected in 306 AD as a cult building for the Kabirs, or Zeus, or as a mausoleum for the tetrarch Galerius, the inner walls of which were originally covered with a pseudo-marble architecture, has an oculus that is 29.80 meters high interrupted flat dome made of brick masonry, with an inner diameter of 24.50 meters, which at the time of construction was the world's largest brick dome. The thickness of the walls pierced by six windows is 6.30 meters.Source: Wikipedia

the red stone shines beautifully in the evening sun 👌