Temple, church, mosque
The Arch of Galerius and the Rotunda are neighboring early 4th-century monuments in the city of Thessaloniki, in the region of Central Macedonia in northern Greece.The Roman Emperor Galerius commissioned these two structures as elements of an imperial precinct linked to his Thessaloniki palace. The Emperor Theodosius ordered its conversion into a Christian church in the late 4th century. Some of the original mosaics have survived -- for example, a band depicting saints with hands raised in prayer.
The building was used as a church for over 1,200 years until the city fell to the Ottomans. In 1590 it was converted into a mosque, called the Mosque of Suleyman Hortaji Effendi, and a minaret was added to the structure. It was used as a mosque until 1912, when the Greeks captured the city during the Balkan War. Greek Orthodox officials reconsecrated the structure as a church, and they left the minaret.
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