Introduction to Kavala, Greece Kavála

Backing onto the easterly foothills of Mount Symvolo, KAVÁLA is the second-largest city of Macedonia and the second port for northern Greece. 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 a characterful centre, focused on the nineteenth-century harbour and old tobacco warehouses. A picturesque citadel looks down from a rocky promontory to the east, and an elegant Turkish aqueduct leaps over modern buildings into the old quarter on the bluff.

Known in ancient times as Neapolis, the town was for two centuries or more a staging post on the Via Egnatía and the first European port of call for merchants and travellers from the Middle East. It was here that Saint Paul landed en route to Philippi, 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. Kavála is also one of the main departure points for Thássos and, to a lesser extent, Samothráki.

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