Veria (Greek: Βέροια or Βέρροια, romanized: Véroia or Vérroia; Aromanian: Veria[3]), officially transliterated Veroia, historically also spelled Beroea or Berea,[4] is a city in Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia, northern Greece, capital of the regional unit of Imathia.

Today Veria is a commercial center of Central Macedonia, the capital of the regional unit of Imathia and the seat of a Church of Greece Metropolitan bishop in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as a Latin Catholic titular see.

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) who made it their second most important city after Pella;[citation needed] 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.

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.In December 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of an unfinished Roman-era statue of a young athletic man at Agios Patapios.

[11] After the Fourth Crusade (1204), it briefly became part of Boniface of Montferrat's Kingdom of Thessalonica, and a Latin bishop took up residence in the city.

[13] It changed hands again in 1246, being taken by the Emperor of Nicaea John III Doukas Vatatzes, and formed part of the restored Byzantine Empire after 1261.

[11] According to a tradition preserved by Yazıcıoğlu Ali, the two younger sons of the Seljuk sultan Kaykaus II were settled by Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in Veria, and made its governors.

[14] According to the 1881/82-1893 Ottoman General Census, the kaza of Veria (Karaferiye) had a total population of 25,034, consisting of 15,103 Greeks, 7,325 Muslims, 2,174 Bulgarians, 393 Jews, and 39 foreign citizens.

[17] Veria was an important regional center of Greek commerce and learning, and counted many important Greek scholars as its natives (e.g. Ioannis Kottounios) 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;[18] 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.

[citation needed] His role in attempting to mitigate the oppression of the Germans was rewarded after the war by the award of the Order of the Phoenix in recognition of his efforts.

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 names of five of its bishops appear in extant contemporary documents: The Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos promoted the local see to an archbishopric after 1261, and it advanced further to the rank of a metropolitan see by 1300.

[11] The diocese of Berrhoea was nominally restored in 1933 by the Catholic Church as the titular bishopric of Berrhœa (Latin) / Berrea (Curiate Italian).

It will consist of 174 wind turbines, which will be connected to the national electric power transmission network, generating 614 MW.

Veria is connected to the motorway system of Greece and Europe through A2 Egnatia Odos, the Greek part of the European route E90.

Every summer (August 15 to September 15) the "Imathiotika" festivities take place with a cultural program deriving mainly from Veria's tradition.

Originally a small single-room library with limited funds and material, it expanded into a four-story building offering multimedia, and special and rare editions.

In 2010, it won the Access to Learning Award (ATLA) prize nominated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the amount of $1.000.000.