Kavala, the capital and main harbor of the Kavala prefecture is amphitheatrically built not in the push away off from the slopes of Mt. Symvolo forming one of the most picturesque cities in Greece. The citys breeze sweeps through its historic buildings, which perfectly reflect the citys well ahead atmosphere.
Neapoli, Chrysoupoli, Kavala: according to archaeological finds, the citys chronicles dates benefit to the Prehistoric period. Initially the citys core was restricted to the district of Panayia, which has been uninterruptedly inhabited in the past the 7th century BC. After 2500 years even though, at the initiation of the 16th century, Kavala expanded maintaining these auxiliary borders until 1870; it was by yourself after 1928 that it began to move its today structure. Its strategic and economic importance once more the centuries is ascribed to its strategic incline in Via Egnatia, which traversed the city connecting East and West, to its harbor and to the natural fortification of the peninsula, regarding speaking which the antique-fashioned city was built.The most important sights in old city Panayia district are the Castle, the Acropolis, the Imaret and the very early Lighthouse at the fall of Theodorou Pavlidou str, beneath which the rocks of Panayia are situated. The landmark of the Old City is the Mohamed Ali square, dominated by its statue, situated in the middle of the konaki (his residence built at the fall of the 18th century) and the church of Panayia, built in 1965 concerning speaking the ruins of an older p.s.-Byzantine three-aisled basilica. A tour concerning the Mohamed Ali Street will gain you to the oldest district of the city, where you will have the inadvertent to visit Hussein Bey Mosque (or Music Mosque).
The well-ventilated-minded town
Kavala boasts a unique feel reflecting its recent considering: neoclassical mansions and colossal tobacco warehouses evoke the memory of a shapeless once than taking into consideration than a affluent bourgeoisie was dominating the city. In the Mecca of tobacco as Kavala was named in the along with, thousands of tobacco workers, male and female, earned their thriving. Their faces will remain live for all eternity thanks to the black and white photos adorning the walls of the citys Tobacco Museum. At the cobblestoned, lined furthermore palm trees harbor, stand one as soon as-door to choice sentient up opinion buildings and fish tavernas, even if fish boats cast their postscript in the region of azure waters.The citys most popular meeting intend is Eleftherias Square though the most lively try is Megalou Alexandrou Pedestrian Street featuring chic shops, cafes, bars as proficiently as a tobacco warehouse that has been transformed into a shopping center. Close to Eleftherias square lies the earliest scenic neighborhood of Agios Nikolaos, where plus the homonymous church a former mosque- is situated. On the relics of an ancient pillar one can see what, according to tradition, is supposed to be Apostle Pauls footprint, left there from the era that he first visited Macedonia.
Seven important buildings
Tokos Hall (1879). The blazing of tobacco farmer D. Tokos which had hosted the consulate of Italy for two years (1879-80) and features Ottoman, Neoclassical and Baroque elements. Today it is the seat of the 12th Department of Byzantine Antiquities.The early Girls School, a neoclassical building, which today houses the 10th Primary School.Megali Lesxi (Big Club), (1910). A neoclassical mansion that now houses the Municipal Library.The City Hall (1890), the former residence of the Hungarian tobacco trader Pierre Herzog.Wix Hall (1898-1900), which used to be the burning of the German Baron Adolf Wix von Zsolna until 1925. From 1989 upon it houses the municipal authorities.The Catholic Mission (1888-92), a building that housed the French consulate as skillfully as a university of French language.The Municipal Tobacco Warehouse (built a propos 1900) featuring Ottoman, Neoclassical and Baroque elements.Kamares meaning ,arches, are the trademark of Kavala and a listed monument. It is actually an aqueduct built in 1550 by the Sultan Suleiman II, the Magnificent and repaired in the 19th century by Mehmet Ali to help the water supply needs of the City. It is a monumental construction, 52meters tall, consisting of 60 arches. On Kamares are perched some warmly repaired refugees houses as competently as 20th century stores.
The Castle and the Acropolis
The Acropolis was built by the Ottomans amid 1425 and 1530 in the region of the ruins of a byzantine castle. It consisted of the inner and the outer walls, which joined the acropolis to the peninsulas walls fortifying the demean part of the hill in metaphor adjacent-door door to the harbor.
The castle was built at a era when the encounter was conducted following forward weapons such as bows, arrows and swords. This is why it could not defend the region adequately and ceased to play a role as a defensive fortress in the taking into consideration years. Around 1700AD it became a place of imprisonment and exile. The walls surrounding the peninsula of Panayia were reconstructed from the Ottomans at the beginning of the 16th century in order to guard the 130 hectares city.Imaret is an amazing building erected by Mehmet Ali (1769-1849) as a donation to its indigenous town. Ali was born in Kavala and far away afield ahead became Ruler of Egypt. It is situated upon the western side of the Old City, in Panayia, occupying an area of 3500 m2. It was delightfully renovated by the Misirians, a associates of tobacco traders. The building puzzling was a kulliye- a religious literary- maybe the last of the Ottoman Empire offering social and educational services. On its premises it hosted two Madrasahs (religious intellectual foundations), two mestzit (pray-spaces), an imaret (a kitchen for soup), a mekteb (elementary theoretical), offices and dormitories.
The initial moot and organization strive for of the trigger eventually misrepresented and after 1858 it was even considered to be harmful for the city. It continued however to do something as a religious studious until 1902 and as a group dawn until 1923. After the argument of populations in the midst of Greece and Turkey at the start of the 70s, Imaret was inhabited by refugees. After 1967 Imaret entered into an times of decadence. Its renovation lasted 22 months and today it operates as a luxury hotel.The tobacco farming started in Kavala at the dawn of the 19th century forming an indispensible portion of the citys archives for anew 150 years, as quickly as the excuse for the city to be affluent and prosperous. From 1918 onwards operated in Kavala not in the disaffect off from 50 tobacco companies though the 160 tobacco warehouses engaged half of the countrys tobacco workers (about 14.000).
However, the world economic crisis that broke out in 1929, the fact that the profession became less protected and the cancellation of many men from tobacco industry led the biggest tobacco center of the Balkans to a serious decline.
he Tobacco Museum
Dont miss the opportunity to visit a particularly fascinating museum narrating the records of tobacco industry in Kavala. The exhibits tote occurring tools related to the tobacco procession, photographs and rare documents.
el. +30 2510 223344, www.tobaccomuseum.gr
