Thessaloniki’s Secrets (Part 2)
Thessaloniki has always been a city of great tourist interest, though some secrets of this beautiful place are yet to be discovered.
Secret No4: Thessaloniki Train Cemetery
Right outside of the city center, lies one of Thessaloniki secrets: hundreds of railroad cars have been standing abandoned, rusting away for decades.
The Hellenic Railways Organisation (ΟΣΕ), Greece’s national rail company, leaves their decommissioned trains in the ever growing graveyard, which now has thousands of the disused cars.
The train cars remain stuck there, slowly rusting away exposed to weather and wind, overgrown by grass and trees.
Looking a little sad, but like many deteriorating ghost trains, a little more beautiful with each passing year.
How to go:
Bus 51, 54 and 54A leaves from the Thessaloniki train station towards the cemetery. Get off after the E90 highway and walk the last few hundred meters.
Secret No5: Pasha Gardens
Pasha Gardens is a forgotten green park near the old town (ano poli), another one of Thessaloniki secrets. Tucked behind the Agios Dimitrios hospital, it is a little-known green oasis, and also one of the city’s most mysterious places.
The park is dotted with unusual, half-ruined stone structures. This imaginative, Gaudí-style architecture centers around an ornate fountain encircled by a tunnel leading nowhere.
There is also a cistern to collect rainwater, a seating area, and a small gate leading underground. Mysterious shapes and symbols can be found throughout.
The area swirls with a unique spiritual and mystical energy. The architect is unknown, and there are several theories about the history of this place.
Some say it was a meeting place or initiation temple for Ottoman freemasons, specifically the Sufis, or Muslim mystics. Some believe the park was first created by Sephardic Jews.
And yet others suggest it was once part of the city’s catacombs. According to an inscription on one of the walls, the structures were created in 1904.
How to go:
You can take bus number 24 stop to the Agios Dimitrios Hospital bus stop or just walk from the city center. The park is located behind the hospital;
enter from Elenis Zografou St and OXI Avenue. You can visit during the daytime, but the nighttime and moonlight reveal even more.
