of Aphrodite, fourth-century-AD mosaics, a golden wreath, a bath complex, urban villas, and 50,000 coins. Artefacts from the 1917 fire were also found. The discovery sparked controversy in Thessaloniki; Attiko Metro wanted to remove the antiquities and re-assemble them elsewhere, and the city's archaeological services wanted the company to alter the depth of the line and the station entrances. The city council sided with the archaeological services in 2015, three years after the metro was originally planned to begin service. Mayor Yiannis Boutaris took the case to the Council of State, Greece's highest administrative court. Attiko Metro redesigned the line, sinking the tunnels to depths from and providing for mini-museums in the stations similar to the Syntagma metro station in Athens (which houses the Syntagma Metro Station Archaeological Collection). The Venizelou station will contain an open archaeological site, the world's first metro station to do so. The archaeological excavations are currently budgeted at €132 million ($ million), compared with the original archaeological budget of €15 million ($ million), and employ 300 archaeologists. Over 300,000 artefacts have been unearthed to date. The archaeological work is being carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Sports' Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and the Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities. In popular culture Construction delays have made the Thessaloniki Metro the subject of a number of jokes in Greece. News satire websites such as have satirised the metro on numerous occasions with stories such as "Thessaloniki Metro will operate on a 24-hour basis during the Christmas rush" and "Thessaloniki Metro enters its 763rd day of strike", and it has been cited in satirical lyrics by the Greek rapper Tus. Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras joked about the delays at the 2018 Thessaloniki International Fair: "What's happening with the metro, guys? Will it get built here?" See also List of metro systems Thessaloniki Urban Transport Organization Athens Metro References Sources Archived information Thessaloniki Metro and the Athens Metro Extensions (Greek Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works press release 2006-02-20) Conclusion of contract for the Thessaloniki metro (Greek Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works press release 2006-04-07) External links Attiko Metro SA Thessaloniki Metro Maps Thessaloniki (regional unit) Rapid transit in Greece Electric railways in Greece Underground rapid transit in Greece Proposed public transport in Europe Transport in Thessaloniki 2023 in rail transport