Kavala

The oldest part of Kavala takes its name from the Panagia church and you can enjoy a stroll around its winding streets lined by pastel-colored houses, under the protective guard of the 15th the century Kastro with its sturdy crenelated fortress walls—you can even walk up the narrow staircase of the inner round tower for a spectacular 360-degree city and sea view. The neighborhood around it is a melting pot of Mediterranean cultural heritage, with a mix of Macedonian architecture and Eastern influences. The beautiful Halil Bey Mosque has a distinctive ruby-colored facade and nearby is the Mohamed Ali House, former home of the Pasha Mehmet Ali and one of the best surviving examples of 18th-century Ottoman architecture in Greece. As for Mehmet Ali, he founded Egypt’s last royal dynasty and more infamously sent his fleet to slaughter Christian Greeks on the islands of Kasos and Psara during Greece’s war of independence. Inside the two-story house, museum are displays of Ottoman wood carvings, rugs and swords (also, note the elegant second-story corbelled wooden beams, known as sachnisi, and the equestrian statue of the Pasha at the entrance). With its 18 graceful domes, the Imaret was built as the Pasha’s seminary for students of Islamic theology back in 1817. Its sea of chimneys and domes is a visual throwback to a simpler time and today it is really a living monument because its lavish rooms and sumptuous gardens form the basis of a modern luxury hotel that is truly unique in Greece.

Kavala’s seaward gaze is naturally one of its greatest charms, and of course, that also means fresh seafood which can be enjoyed at any number of tavernas like Psaraki (3 Ethnikis Antistaseos), the tsipouro taverna Nafpigion by the boatyard area, and contemporary Apiko. Turning just slightly away from the sea, the city has a very interesting architectural legacy that has more to do with tobacco. By the 19th century and up until 1950 the tobacco trade was flourishing in Kavala and that led to a renaissance of architectural styles. Wealthy merchants built fanciful residences many of which you can still see today in the town center. Kavala’s Town Hall actually has a tobacco connection: This fanciful Gothic revival style building, on Kyprou Street, was built in the late 1890s for a Hungarian tobacco merchant. With its arches, Venetian Gothic apses and oriel windows, it’s an unexpected sight guaranteed to light up your Instagram. It has housed the office of the Mayor since 1937. There are very cool tobacco warehouses too: The Municipal Tobacco Warehouse, for example, was built in 1910 in the Ottoman neoclassical style; its rooftop parapet features four crowns and representations of flowers and suns adorn the broad pink facade. If you have time, visit the Tobacco Museum, with its modern industrial and experiential exhibits about the industry that defined much of Kavala’s urban aesthetic.

The ancient city of Philippi was founded in 360 BC by colonists from Thassos and called Krenides (meaning “springs”) but in 356 BC it was conquered by King Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, and renamed Philippi. The presence of gold mines nearby only added to the town’s strategic importance, as it commanded a principal trade route between Europe and Asia and flourished even more in the Hellenistic period that followed Alexander’s death. Later, in the 2nd century BC, the Via Egnatia Roman military road passed through and in 42 BC the stage was set for the Battle of Philippi that pitted Mark Antony and Octavian against generals Brutus and Cassius, the leaders of Julius Caesar’s assassination two years earlier. The epic battle involved some 200,000 men and left the Second Triumvirate in charge of Rome. The site’s prominence persisted through subsequent Byzantine and post-Byzantine Christian periods, accounting for the palimpsest of stone remnants (even including relief decorations from the time of Philip II) that visitors walk amongst today. Highlights include the Hellenistic theater, set dramatically against the hill, the forum, and evocative ruins of the basilicas that rose here once Philippi became an important center of early Christianity. It was in Philippi that the first European Christian, Lydia of Thyatira, was baptized by Apostle Paul in 49A, in the River Zygaktis. There’s a very worthwhile museum too, where more delicate finds are displayed, and the story of Philippi can be better understood in the context of this fascinating corner of Greece.