This publication was produced on the occasion of the homonymous exhibition organized by the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank at its exhibition space in the bookstore in Thessaloniki (April 17 – September 28, 2019).

The exhibition was inspired by the renovation works on Agios Mina Street in 2019, during which the lines of the old tram in Thessaloniki came to light.

The broader area – from Agios Mina and the neighboring Commerce Square to Ladadika, the Platform Square, and Freedom Square – is intertwined with significant moments of Thessaloniki's recent history, from the 19th century to the present day.

The heart of the commercial center beat on Venizelou Street, while Katouni Street led directly from Commerce Square to the port.

Since the early 20th century, the section of the Ottoman Kapanaça Street that is now called Agios Mina, as well as the New Tsimiski from Embar's plan in the same area, gradually gathered the headquarters of major Greek banks in Thessaloniki, openly competing with the neighboring Francokahala (a traditional Jewish center of economic transactions).

Among them, the Bank of the East moved in 1926 to a privately owned plot, where it erected a new magnificent passage building with facades on Tsimiski and Agios Mina, which was demolished in 1963 to be replaced by the current building housing the MIT bookstore.

On Agios Mina, Tram Line No. 1 also made a turnaround, which in 1927 was moved from the coastal avenue of Nikis to New Tsimiski, in order to better serve the commercial center.