Villa Bianca Thessaloniki

One of Thessaloniki's most famous mansions, built in 1912 by Pierro Arrigoni for Sephardic entrepreneur Dino Fernandez Siaz, the White House features art-nouveau, Renaissance and baroque elements, and has been used for many purposes down the years. The latest is as one site of Thessaloniki's dispersed Municipal Art Gallery, exhibiting a collection of paintings by 19th-century Greek master Nikolaos Gyzis, plus Byzantine and post-Byzantine icons and engravings. Temporary exhibitions frequently diversify the interest. One of Thessaloniki's favourite city tales tells of Siaz's daughter, Alini, falling in love and marrying a Greek army lieutenant – for the time a major social taboo.