Sailing through Byzantium

Another one of the wonderful things that can be found in Thessaloniki, Greece (see entries below) is a building called the Rotonda. It was constructed in the late 3rd or early 4th century CE by the Tetrarch Emperor Galerius as part of a complex that included his palace and triumphal arch. The huge circular structure may have been built to be Galerius’s mausoleum, but he never got to occupy it. The building was soon converted into a church when the Romans converted to Christianity, and the dome of the structure’s interior was decorated with sumptuous mosaics, which have been recently restored. This is a detail of one of the mosaic saints in front of an elaborate architectural backdrop.