The White Tower stands beside Thessaloniki’s seafront, where the city’s maritime defenses met the eastern land wall. Its position explains why the building has become more than an isolated monument: it is a familiar landmark along the waterfront and a starting point for understanding the city’s changing shape. The tower in its present form dates to the fifteenth century and replaced an earlier Byzantine fortification. Today it houses a permanent exhibition about Thessaloniki, turning a former defensive structure into a place where visitors can trace the city’s history.
Its silhouette is simple but distinctive: a circular tower approximately 33.9 metres high and 21.7 metres across, with a ground floor and six upper levels. The Hellenic Heritage portal notes that a lower, octagonal outer enclosure once surrounded it; the plan of that lost feature can still be read in the area around the monument. A restoration carried out in 1985 received a Europa Nostra award in 1988. These details make the tower useful to read from both near and far: as a fortress with a particular position in the city walls and as a structure repeatedly reinterpreted by later generations.