Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
church, which was approached from the Via Egnatía by a great gate. Behind the
Direkler and, perversely, the most interesting and best-preserved building of the
site, is a huge monumental
public latrine
with nearly fifty of its original marble
seats still intact.
Across the road on the northern side, stone steps climb up to a terrace, passing
on the right a Roman crypt, reputed to have been the
prison of St Paul
and
appropriately frescoed. The terrace flattens out onto a huge paved atrium that
extends to the foundations of another extremely large basilica, designated Basilica A.
Continuing in the same direction around the base of a hill you emerge above a
theatre
cut into its side. Though dating from the same period as the original town,
it was heavily remodelled as an amphitheatre by the Romans - the bas-reliefs of
Nemesis, Mars and Victory all belong to this period. It is now used for
performances during the annual summer Philippi-Thássos Festival. The best general
impression of the site - which is extensive despite a lack of obviously notable
buildings - and of the battlefield behind it can be gained from the
acropolis
, whose
own remains are predominantly medieval. This can be reached by a steep climb
along a path from the museum.
Kavála and around
Backing onto the easterly foothills of Mount Sýmvolo,
KAVÁLA
is the second-largest
city of Macedonia and the second port for northern Greece; it was an extremely
wealthy place in the nineteenth century when the region's
tobacco
crop was shipped
from its docks to the rest of the world. Known in ancient times as
Neapolis
, the
town was the first European port of call for merchants and travellers from the
Middle East. It was here that
St Paul
landed en route to Philippi (see p.311), on his
initial mission to Europe. In later years, the port and citadel were occupied in turn
by the Byzantines, Normans, Franks, Venetians, Ottomans and (during both world
wars) Bulgarians.
Although its attempt to style itself as the “Azure City”, on account of its position at
the head of a wide bay, is going a little overboard, it does have an interesting
historic
centre
, focused on the harbour area and the few remaining tobacco warehouses. A
picturesque
citadel
looks down from a rocky promontory to the east, and an elegant
Ottoman aqueduct leaps over modern buildings into the old quarter on the bluff.
Kavála is also one of the main departure points for Thássos (see p.660), as well as
Límnos (see p.650) and other northeast Aegean islands.
4
Panayía
Although the remnants of Kavála's Ottoman past are mostly neglected, the wedge-
shaped
Panayía
quarter to the east of the port preserves a scattering of eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century buildings with atmospheric lanes wandering up towards the
citadel. The most conspicuous and interesting of its buildings is the splendid
Imaret
,
overlooking the harbour on Poulídhou. A long, multi-domed structure, it was
originally a hostel for theological students. After many decades of dereliction it was
lovingly refurbished and, in 2004, opened as a luxury
hotel
(see p.314). Undoubtedly
the best-preserved Islamic building on Greek territory, it was built in 1817 and
endowed to the city by
Mehmet (or Mohammed) Ali
, pasha of Egypt and founder of
the dynasty which ended with King Farouk; it still officially belongs to the Egyptian
government. Further up the promontory, near the corner of Poulídhou and Mohámet
Alí, you can see the prestigious
Ottoman-style house
where Mehmet Ali was born to
an Albanian family in 1769. Nearby rears an elegant equestrian bronze
statue
of the
great man, one of the finest of its kind in Greece.
