The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, in collaboration with the AMTh Friends’ Association, is honoured this month to host Dr Styliana Galiniki, Archaeologist and Head of the Museum's Department of Lithics, Wall-paintings and Mosaics collections, alongside Esther Solomon, Associate Professor of Museology at the University of Ioannina, for a lecture titled “The Incantadas of Thessaloniki: Stories of Enchantment and Re-Enchantment.”

The lecture explores questions such as: What happens when an ancient monument takes a central role in the collective imagination of a city? What stories are told, omitted, or rewritten? How does the past become part of the present through representations and interpretations of its material remains?

These questions, among others, will be raised, discussed, and possibly answered through narratives, names, actions, artistic depictions, and various texts about the Roman colonnade of Thessaloniki, known by its later sobriquet as The Incantadas, The Enchanted, or The Idols. These designations reflect how diverse groups have sought to shape the desired identity of the city from Roman times to the present day.