‘A blend of ancient and modern’: inside Thessaloniki’s new €3bn metro system | Greece

It caused untold commotion, decades of disruption and – among historians and archaeologists – controversy and despair. But at midday on Saturday, the antiquities-rich subterranean world of Thessaloniki will open to a world of driverless trains and hi-tech automation with the inauguration of its long-awaited subway.

The excitement on the streets of the northern Greek port city is almost palpable. “Archaeologically, it has been an extremely complex and difficult endeavour,” said the culture minister, Lina Mendoni, of the more than 300,000 finds made since construction began 22 years ago. “To get here required a battle on many fronts.”

The discovery of treasures never before seen – many to be exhibited in the stations themselves – promises a modern ride through the multilayered history of a metropolis that dates back 2,300 years and through which the Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans all passed. Two marble squares, an early Christian basilica, a Roman-era thoroughfare, water and drainage systems and ancient Greek burial sites brimming with jewellery and gold are among the trove.

Signature pieces will be showcased in the 13 “archaeo-stations” opened in central Thessaloniki this weekend. More will be added when a second line is completed next year.

“What you see offers a remarkable blend of the ancient and modern, integrating archaeological heritage with metro infrastructure,” Christos Staikouras, the transport minister, told reporters earlier this month.

As part of the carefully orchestrated inauguration an “entire archaeological site” kept under wraps will be unveiled for the first time at the central Venizelou station on Saturday. After touring the site with a delegation of officials, including the nation’s president, the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said: “I think that when the people of Thessaloniki have the chance, tomorrow, to see this station they will recognise the huge effort that has been put in so that the city could have antiquities and a metro.”

The fully automated rapid transit system – the first of its kind in Greece – is expected to serve more than 250,000 passengers a day, reducing traffic congestion by as many as 60,000 vehicles.

The underground’s complex engineering explains why, at least initially, it will only run along a 10km track, spawning complaints over the network’s limited reach – an extension to the city’s international airport eight miles away is planned for 2040.

But Saturday’s grand opening is slated to be attended not only by much of the centre-right Greek government but foreign officials including the Italian infrastructure minister, Matteo Salvini. Italy’s Webuild was part of the construction consortium behind the EU-funded mega-project.

Not since the Athens subway system was inaugurated almost 25 years ago has an infrastructure project of such scale or significance been undertaken in Greece.

The subway was originally scheduled for completion in 2012.

From the outset, the problem-plagued public project not only brought mayhem to Thessaloniki’s most central district but became symbolic of government ineptitude and what local people viewed, more generally, as the disregard with which officials treated the country’s northern capital.

The unearthing of so many artefacts forced engineers and archaeologists to collaborate closely in what became one of Greece’s biggest and most controversial excavations. Metro tunnels had to be dug at least 20 metres deep to preserve finds nearer the surface while architects were compelled to return to their drawing boards to redesign stations as treasures were discovered.

The delays and additional financial demands of a transport network that has already cost €3bn (£2.49bn) has spurred the culture ministry to describe the project as the “biggest salvation work” ever carried out in Greece.

Not all agree. Echoing the consternation of some fellow historians, Angelos Chaniotis, who teaches at Princeton University, bemoaned what he said were treasures “sliced horizontally and vertically” before being “stitched together, like a puzzle” to accommodate the subway.

Far from being a cause for jubilation, construction of the underground had “undermined the authenticity of the antiquities and does not justify celebrations,” he wrote in an op-ed published in the more usually pro-government Kathimerini newspaper.