Salonica - Arch of Galerius

(Local Name: Apsída Galeríou / Kamára) Going along Egnatia Street towards the Salonica city center, we come to the Arch of Galerius (Apsída Galeríou or Kamára), the town's most important Roman monument, which is believed to have been erected in A.D. 297. Of the original structure, a double gateway with four brick piers on each side situated at the intersection of the city's two principal streets, there remain three piers on the west side. The four central piers originally supported a dome. Two of the surviving piers, linked by an arch, have a marble facing decorated with four bands of reliefs separated by garlands. The reliefs, depicting scenes from the Emperor's Persian, Mesopotamian and Armenian campaigns (292-311), are among the finest of the kind (note particularly the lively scenes on the south pier). Although badly weathered, these reliefs, both in the individual figures and the grouping, retain much more of their original vigour than the almost contemporary reliefs on the Arch of Constantine in Rome (A.D. 315).