Salonica - Upper Town Áno Póli

In the northwest part of the upper town is the 13th century church of Ayía Ekateríni (St Catherine), with unusually rich decorative brickwork, some of it colored. A harmoniously proportioned building on a square ground-plan, it is a fine example of the Macedonian school of architecture. It contains notable 13th century mosaics and frescoes.

Near the south corner of the upper town of Salonica, adjoining the reddish Turkish Consulate in Odós Apóstolou Pávlou, is the house in which Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk), first President of the Turkish Republic, was born in 1881.

In the southeastern part of the upper town is the three-aisled church of the Taxiarchs (Archangels), dedicated to the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, which is dated to the 14th century; the outer wall of the apse has fine patterned brickwork. Much altered, the church was used as a mosque (Iki Serefe Camii, the "Mosque with Two Minaret Galleries") during the Turkish period.

At the southeastern corner of the upper town stands the little 14th century church of Áyios Nikólaos Orfanós (St Nicholas the Orphan), which is surrounded by an arcaded portico. It contains some well preserved 14th century frescoes, particularly in the apse.

To the east of Ósios Davíd, immediately below the west end of the citadel, is the Vlatádon monastery (Moní Vlatádon), founded between 1351 and 1371, which now houses the Patriarchal Academy. In the principal church (Katholikon), which was extensively rebuilt in 1801, 11th century wall paintings were found during restoration work in 1983, showing that the church must have been in existence well before the foundation of the monastery.