Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
production continues, people whisper of cheap Chinese imports passed off as Soufli-
made: ensure you're buying the real thing.
9am-8pm)
and shop, in a restored silk-producing mansion, documents Soufli silk produc-
tion past and present through displays, films and interactive, multilingual audio guides.
For overnights, try the atmospheric
Koukouli Inn
( 25540 22400; Olorou 14; s/d incl
breakfast €45/55)
, in a former 19th-century silkworm harvesting factory.
Soufli has ATMs and services, as well as perhaps Greece's smallest old-school bus sta-
tion.
WORTH A TRIP
DIDYMOTIHO: WHERE BYZANTINE MEETS OTTOMAN
Didymotiho (dih-dih-mo-tih-ho), a military outpost north of Soufli, is a sleepy
place; however, its strategic borderland nature has endowed it with intriguing his-
torical monuments worth seeing when passing through Evros.
It was founded in the late 8th century as a hinterland fort defending Con-
stantinople. Didymotiho's name derives from its once-magnificent double walls
(didymo 'twin', tihos 'wall'); remnants of these
Byzantine Walls
stand in the upper
town, near the icon-rich
Church of Agios Athanasios
. Along the inner walls, look out
for the engraved symbol of Byzantine noble Tarhaniotis. Strange, catacomb-like
side structures lurk nearby.
Numerous eminent Byzantines were born in Didymotiho and, in 1341, Emperor
John Kantakouzenis was crowned here. However, 20 years later Turkish Sultan
Murad I conquered Didymotiho and it became the Ottoman capital until the capital
was relocated to Adrianoupoli (Edirne, Turkey) in 1365. Nevertheless, Murad's work
was not done, as is attested by the huge, pyramid-roofed and derelict mosque on
Didymotiho's square. Ordained by Murad and finished in 1368 by his son Bayezit,
it's known as
Bayezit's Mosque
. It was Europe's first, and the biggest the Ottomans
would build there.
Hourly Alexandroupoli-Orestiada buses transit Didymotiho. Its bus station has
no left luggage service, however.
TOP OF CHAPTER
OrestiadaΟρεστιάδα
POP 23,584
