Among the abundance of historical and architectural monuments of the Greek city of Thessaloniki special attention certainly deserves the Byzantine church of Saint Panteleimon. The temple is situated in the eastern part of the Old Town, not far from Arches gallery.

Church of St. Panteleimon was built around the late 13th - early 14th century, and it is likely KATHOLIKON Monastery was the Blessed Virgin Mary (known also as the Monastery of Isaac), who is considered the founder of James, Bishop of Thessaloniki in the years 1295-1315 (later became a monk and took the name Isaac ). In the 14-15 centuries the church of St. Panteleimon was an important spiritual and educational center.

The church is a single-nave temple cross-dome type porch. Initially, the church was surrounded by a gallery with two small chapels at its east side. Unfortunately, in the last years of Turkish rule in the gallery during the repair work has been destroyed, but the chapel, however, survived.

In the second half of the 16th century during the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the walls of the church of St. Panteleimon arranged the mosque. Above the temple Turks built a minaret and was built in the courtyard marble fountain. A significant part of the magnificent Byzantine frescoes were destroyed, and those that remained were buried under a layer of plaster. However, such a fate befell the majority of Christian churches in the period of Turkish rule. The mural, which still managed to recover in the course of restoration work, is of high artistic and historical value.

The church was consecrated in honor of Panteleimon in the early 20th century (after the liberation of the city). In 1988, the church of St. Panteleimon, along with other early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.