Classical and Roman Veria . Veria had a significant Jewish community until its deportation in
World War II The city is reputed to have been named by its
mythical creator Beres (also spelled Pheres) or from the daughter of the king of Berroia who was thought to be the son of
Macedon. Veria enjoyed great prosperity under the kings of the
Argead Dynasty (whose most famous member was
Alexander the Great) as an important city near the capital
Aigai and then
Pella; the city reached the height of its glory and influence in the
Hellenistic period, during the reign of the
Antigonid Dynasty. During this time, Veria became the seat of the
Koinon of Macedonians (Κοινόν Μακεδόνων), minted its own
coinage and held sports games named
Alexandreia, in honor of Alexander the Great, with
athletes from all over
Greece competing in them. Veria surrendered to
Rome in 168 BC. During the
Roman Empire, Veria became a place of worship for the Romans.
Diocletian made the large and populous city one of two capitals of the
Roman province of
Macedonia, eponymous in the civil
Diocese of Macedonia. Within the city there was a
Jewish settlement where
the Apostle Paul, after leaving
Thessalonica, and his companion
Silas preached to the Jewish and Greek communities of the city in AD 50/51 or 54/55. The
Bible records:
Recent Discoveries In December 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of an unfinished Roman-era statue of a young athletic man at Agios Patapios. The headless
marble statue is about three feet tall. According to the Greece's Culture Ministry, the sculpture has similarities to statues of the Greek gods
Apollo and
Hermes.
Byzantine Veria Under the
Byzantine Empire Berrhoea continued to grow and prosper, developing a large and well-educated commercial class (Greek and Jewish) and becoming a center of medieval Greek learning; signs of this prosperity are reflected in the many Byzantine churches that were built at this time, during which it was a
Christian bishopric (see below). In the 7th century, the
Slavic tribe of the
Drougoubitai raided the lowlands below the city, while in the late 8th century Empress
Irene of Athens is said to have rebuilt and expanded the city and named it
Irenopolis (Ειρηνούπολις) after herself, although some sources place this Berrhoea-Irenopolis further east, towards
Thrace. The city was apparently held by the
Bulgarian Empire at some point in the late 9th century. The 11th-century Greek bishop
Theophylact of Ohrid wrote that during the brief period of Bulgarian dominance, Tsar
Boris I built there one of the seven
cathedral churches built by him and refers to it as "one of the beautiful Bulgarian churches". In the
Escorial Taktikon of , the city is mentioned as the seat of a
strategos, and it apparently was the capital of a
theme in the 11th century. In , the city was taken by the Bulgarian ruler,
Kalojan. Many inhabitants were killed while others, including the Latin bishop, fled. Kalojan installed Bulgarians as commandant and bishop, and resettled some of the leading families to Bulgaria. and captured by the
Serbian ruler
Stephen Dushan in 1343/4, when it became part of his
Serbian Empire. It was recovered for Byzantium by
John VI Kantakouzenos in 1350, but lost again to the Serbians soon after, becoming the domain of
Radoslav Hlapen after 1358. Under Ottoman rule, Veria was the seat of a
kaza within the
Sanjak of Salonica; by 1885, the kaza, along with
Naoussa, included 46 villages and
chiftliks. Veria was an important regional center of Greek commerce and learning, and counted many important Greek scholars as its natives (e.g.
Ioannis Kottounios)
Modern Veria The presence of a large, prosperous and educated
bourgeoisie made Veria one of the centers of Greek nationalism in the region of Macedonia, and the city's inhabitants had an active part in the
Greek War of Independence; important military leaders during the uprising included Athanasios Syropoulos, Georgios Syropoulos, Dimitrios Kolemis and Georgios Kolemis, among others; however, as was the case with the rest of Northern Greece, eventually the uprising was defeated, and Veria only became part of modern Greece in 1912 during the
Balkan Wars, when it was taken by the
Hellenic Army on October 16, 1912 (October 16 is an official holiday in Veria, commemorating the city's incorporation to Greece), and was officially annexed to Greece following the signing of the
Treaty of Athens in November 1913.
Postwar Postwar Veria saw a significant rise in population, and a greatly improved standard of living. The 1980s and 1990s in particular were a period of prosperity, with the agricultural businesses and cooperatives in the fertile plains around Veria successfully exporting their products in Europe, the US and Asia. The discovery of the tomb of
Philip II of Macedon in the nearby archaeological site of
Vergina (ancient Aegae, the summer capital of the
Argead Dynasty of
Macedon, now a
UNESCO World Heritage Site), also made Veria a tourist destination. Veria has a significant immigrant population, mainly from countries of Central and Eastern Europe. == Ecclesiastical history ==