Aristotle was an eminent ancient philosopher (384-322 B.C.). He was born in Stagira, Halkidiki. He was taught by Plato and he tutored Alexander the Great. In Athens, he founded the “Lyceum” or “Peripatetic School”. He was a prolific writer. His ideas had a tremendous appeal and he is considered to be the founder of Logic
Mitropoleos st is named after the Church of Saint Gregory Palamas, that is the metropolitan church of the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki. The metropolitan church was built in 1891-1914 based on the designs of the architects Ernesto Chiller and Xenophon Paionidis.
Saint Gregorios Palamas (1296 –1359) was an Orthodox monk, theologian, and intellectual leader of Hesychasm. He was appointed Archbishop of Thessaloniki and was canonized a saint of the Orthodox Church. His feast day is on November 14 and on the Second Sunday of Great Lent. In Thessaloniki the metropolitan church is named after him.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian physicist, astronomist and professor at the Universities of Pisa and Padova. He discovered the law of the isochrone swings of the pendulum and he proclaimed that the Earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the Sun that is the centre of our planetary system.
Vaios Michael (1513-1589) was Belgian, Theologist and interpreter of the Bible.
Nikolaos Vaglamalis founded in 1868 in Thessaloniki the Greek printing house named “Macedonia”, that was later renamed as “Hermes”. The origins of the Vaglamali family, according to folklore tradition, went back to the Byzantine times. Numerous important books were printed at his printing house.
Georgios Averof (1818-1899) was a national benefactor, born in the town of Metsovo, Epirus. He was a merchant in Alexandria, Egypt and he donated significant part of his property to national and charitable projects, such as the (Metsovian) National Technical University of Athens and the regeneration of the Panathenaic Stadium.
Vasileios Avdellas was born in Stromnitsa and he was an officer of the Greek Army. During the Bulgarian Occupation of Drama in the World War II, he was a member of the Pan-Hellenic Liberation Organisation (PAO). He was murdered in 1944.
Elitsavet Kastritsiou together with Theagenis Harisis and Marigo Karanikola founded the first Greek Girl’s School in Thessaloniki in 1845. She was a pioneer of feminism and with her legacies she maintained three girls’ schools, a textile school and a hospital in Ioannina, a girls’ school, a boys’ high school and many charitable institutions in Thessaloniki.
Dimitrios Katounis was born in 1794 in Galatista, Halkidiki. He was a wealthy merchant and great benefactor of the Hellenic Orthodox Community of Thessaloniki. He died in 1884.
