Perched on the top floor of the seventy-six-metre OTE telecommunications tower at the southern gate of the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre on Egnatia Street, the Skyline Cafe Bar is the only rotating panoramic bar venue in Greece and one of the principal evening destinations in the second city of the country. The bar completes a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree rotation over a sixty-minute period, providing a continuously changing panoramic view of central Thessaloniki, the surrounding Thermaic Gulf and the slopes of Mount Olympus on the far western horizon. The host tower itself is a particularly distinctive piece of late twentieth-century Greek architecture. Designed by the Greek architect Alexandros Anastasiadis in the late 1960s, the tower was constructed in two phases between 1969 and 1971 to provide a central telecommunications relay node for the Thessaloniki region. The first phase was completed in time for the thirty-fourth Thessaloniki International Fair of September 1969, with the structure operating initially as a temporary exhibition stand for the OTE telecommunications agency. The rotating top floor was added during the second phase of construction in 1971 and was conceived from the outset as a public cafe-bar venue providing the principal panoramic viewing experience of the wider city. The original interior was substantially remodelled in 2010 with a complete contemporary refurbishment that introduced the current sleek minimalist decoration, the new lighting design and the present cocktail bar arrangement around the central viewing windows. The standard programme at the bar includes coffee, light snacks, cocktails and a substantial wine list during the daytime, with live piano music every evening from nineteen hundred until closing. The venue is particularly popular for the sunset hour, with the slow rotation providing an uninterrupted moving view of the Thermaic Gulf during the principal sunset over the western horizon. The opening hours are extended at weekends, and the bar regularly hosts special evening events around the principal calendar holidays including Valentines Day, the international Greek celebrations of Easter and the New Year season.

Type: Restaurant

Address: Egnatia 154, Thessaloniki, Greece

Telephone: +30 2310 265 460

Website: https://www.skyline.bar

Opening Date: 01/01/1971