Among the abundance of historical and architectural monuments of the Greek city of Thessaloniki special attention deserves the Byzantine Church of St. Panteleimon. The temple is situated in the Eastern part of the Old town near the Arch of Galerius.

Church of St. Panteleimon was built in the late 13th – early 14th century and quite likely was the katholikon of the monastery of the blessed virgin Mary (also known as the monastery of Isaac), whose founder is James, the Bishop of Thessaloniki in 1295-1315 years (later became a monk and took the name Isaac). In 14-15 centuries, the Church of St. Panteleimon was an important spiritual and educational center.

The Church is a single-nave Church of the cross-domed type with a narthex. The Church was originally surrounded by a gallery with two small chapels on its Eastern side. Unfortunately, in the last years of Turkish domination gallery during repair work was destroyed, but the chapel, however, is preserved.

In the second half of the 16th century during the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the walls of the Church of St. Panteleimon was built a mosque. Above the temple the Turks erected a minaret, and in the yard he built a marble fountain. A significant part of the magnificent Byzantine frescoes had been destroyed, and those that remained were buried under a layer of plaster. However, such a fate befell most of the Christian churches in the period of Turkish domination. Wall painting, which still managed to recover during the restoration work is of high artistic and historical value.

The Church was consecrated in honor of the great Martyr Panteleimon in the early 20th century (after the liberation). In 1988, the Church of Saint Panteleimon, along with other early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki were included in the list of UNESCO world heritage site.