This approach enables the visitor to form a global picture, not only of the revolutionary movements in the area, but also of the rapidly changing society of the southern Balkans and its agonizing struggles to balance between tradition and modernization.

Among the losses was the humble residence that housed the Consulate General of Greece It was next to a little-known church of St. Demetrius, also destroyed by the fire.

Among them was a new church dedicated to Saint Gregory Palamas and beside it a magnificent neoclassical residence was built to plans by Ernst Ziller, appropriate for a consular mansion.

The term of office of Lambros Koromilas (1904-1907) was of major importance because he organised the special secret services for the Greek Struggle for Macedonia within the consulates, known as the “centres”.

The Consulate building frequently hosted fighters who entered unnoticed through a side door into the courtyard of the neighboring episcopal residence.

It was the office of information and advice about resistance against the Bulgarians…”[3] Alexandros Zannas, scion of one of the most eminent families in Thessaloniki, had been working for the national Greek cause since adolescence.

In his memoirs he declared characteristically: “…We were very good friends with everybody who worked there… I used to see them all just about every day, because the secret postal service in Macedonia would stop by our house and usually either I or my brothers would then bring the mail to the Consulate… The letters were brought from the interior by various railway employees…and were handed over to Tsapoulas, a man from our village who owned the coffee shop opposite the railway station.

During the period of the Young Turks, when the national struggle was being conducted by political representatives, the Greek internal organization was careful to act in secret, revealing its presence solely to selected officials.

Its various aspects, constituent elements and principal actors are presented in the thematic units of the museum’s permanent exhibition, and particularly in those rooms devoted to the Makedonomachoi and their actions, to the senior and junior clergy, to the key role of the Greek Consulate-General in Thessaloniki and to the emblematic figure of Pavlos Melas.

The collection of the first floor includes military relics of the Balkan Wars belonging to Greek, Serb, Bulgarian and Ottoman Army.

This facility, which houses a specialized library, digitized resources and extensive archival material (Greek and international; public and private), is used by both scholars and students.