Tour of Kavala town - Kavala

Starting in Poulidou Street, gradually ascend towards the Oldtown, a listed historic settlement faithful to the traditional architecturalstyle, featuring houses with sachnisia (enclosed balconies),wood, stone and wonderful colours, which stand out andbeautify the urban landscape. Here you can find coffee shops,small taverns and restaurants for all tastes and budgets.If you carry on you will find the Imaret on your right. It was builtby Mohamet Ali (1769-1849), founder of the last Egyptian Dynasty,who was born in Kavala and lived in Kavala and Thasos. Thebuilding complex included a seminary, a boarding school and later,a poorhouse. An excellent example of Ottoman architecture, itfunctions today as a hotel.At the end of the road: the square withthe statue and ‘Konaki’ (residence) ofMohamet Ali which operates as a museum.Behind the stone wall, a largegarden is home to a typical exampleof Ottoman architecture in 18th centuryGreece. Its authentic interior layout hasbeen preserved, with the male quartersin the south section, the femalequarters in the north, and the famoussofa, the only place that communicates with the other rooms.The kitchen has also been preserved, and communicates withthe rest of the house only via a rotating cupboard. The women,invisible, would serve food through this cupboard. The statueof Mohamet Ali, work of the sculptor Konst. Dimitriadis (1934),represents him on horseback, with his sword about to enter itssheath, symbolizing his wish to return to his birthplace to rest(the same statue can be found in Alexandria where, ready to enterbattle, he is about to remove his sword from its sheath).Returning towards the Imaret, takeMexmet Ali Street, where you willsee the Chalil Bey complex (PaliaMusiki), which has been preserved,as well as the minaret of the 16thcentury (built on the foundationsof an old Christian Basilica), and 8rooms of the Madrasa (seminary).At the beginning of the 20th century,it housed the girls’ primary school,and after the Catastrophe in Asia Minor,it housed refugee families. From 1930-1940, the Kavala PhilharmonicOrchestra was housed there, which explains the name“Palia Mousiki” (old music).From ChalilBey, via Anthemios Street, head towards the Fortress,built at the beginning of the 15th century AD incorporatingthe ruins of the Byzantine acropolis. It is 65m long and 17-60mwide, built in local granite, bricks, marble and mortar.The fortress has three towers, a rampart and two gates: the disusednorthwestern gate and the present entrance (NE). Insidethere is a water tank, a warehouse for firearms and food storage,the guards’ chambers and the central circular tower, 18m high.Despite the fact that it had been built according to standards of aperiod preceding the ones when firearms became predominant,it coped well with successive pirate raids in the 16th-17th centuryand attacks from Morozini’s Venetian fleet (1684). In 1885, it wasabandoned for good. Nowadays various artistic events are heldat the fortress.Free entrance.Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday: 8:30 – midnight.Winterhours: November – March: 8:30 -16:00.The fortress ends at the aqueduct (“Kamares”). Built at the beginningof the 16th c entury ( 1520-1530) t he a queduct b roughtprosperity to the fading town. It supplied water to the Panagiapeninsula for 4 centuries. Archaeological and historical datasuggest that it was built on the same site as the destroyed Romanaqueduct from the first centuries BC. The aqueduct, 6.5kmlong, started at an altitude of 400m at the “Subasi” or “TriaKaragatsia”Spring, and passing over 5 stone bridges it ended at thewater bridge (Kamares) at a height of 75m. Today the pipe is visibleup to Ag. Konstantinou Church, where it disappears underAg.Konstantinou and Konstantinidou Poitou streets, reappearingat Kamares.Go down Ierolochites Street and continue along KountouriotouStreet towards the city centre. Nearby is the Church of AgiosNikolaos, built in the 16th century, and next to it is Paul the Apostle’sRostrum, a 35m2 mosaic composition the subject of which is“The arrival of Paul the Apostle in Neapoli, Philippi”. According tothe Acts of the Apostles, Paul the Apostle came here in 50BC, afterthe petition of a Macedonian who appeared to him in a vision.Take Erythrou Stavrou Avenue to reach the Archaeological Museum,at number 17 (Faliro Park), which was built in 1963 toplans by the professors D. Fatouros and G. Triantafyllidis, of thePolytechnic School at the Aristoteleio University of Thessaloniki.Of particular interest are the findings from excavations at Dikili-Tas, a Neolithic farming settlement (6,500 BC) 2km from Philippi,where large quantities of charred pressed grapes were found,providing clear evidence of wine making.The reconstruction, at their actual dimensions, of two Ionic columnsfrom the temple of the Virgin Goddess (5th century BC), patronsaint of ancient Neapoli, combined with architectural parts(capitals, mouldings), enable the visitor to get a clear impressionof this important monument. The permanent “Neapoli – Christoupoli– Kavala” exhibition tells the story of the town from ancienttimes to modern times.Telephone: +30 25102 22335Summer opening: Tuesday-Friday: 9:00 -16:00,Winter opening: Tuesday- Friday 9:00-15:00Entrance: 2 euros.Turning back towards the centre, pass the imposing Prefecturebuilding (on your right), continue towards the port and turn leftafter Dagli Street towards the Infantry Hero monument in theMunicipal Garden. The Municipal Garden park spreads out beforeyou, with its bronze statue of Niki, work of the sculptor G.Parmakelis. The relief representation was crafted by the sculptorD. Gerolymatos and refers to the struggles of the Greeks fromancient times until 1940-41. The Town Hall stands in the back-ground, a white washed Hungarian tower in miniature, with agrand double staircase, built around 1895 by the Hungarian tobaccomerchant Pierre Herzog.In 1937, under Mayor A. Balanos, it was bought by the Municipalityof Kavala and since then has been home to the Town Hall.The Adolf Wix building, built in 1899 (8 Kyprou Street) and servingboth as residence and headquarters for the trade activities ofGerman Baron Adolf Wix, has many features in common with theneighboring Town Hall, and pronounced gothic features. Today, itis the property of the Municipality of Kavala. On Kyprou Street.,next to the café below the Town Hall, the Lazariston Monastery,built during the period from 1888 to 1892, features mixed architecturalelements of neoclassical influence. It used to be a FrenchConsulate as well.The Great Club (Megali Lesxi) at 12 Kyprou Street, built in 1909by the Charitable Fraternity of Gentlemen of Kavala (F.A.K.K.),was home to the Greek Community Club of Kavala and openedits doors on 22 May 1910. It is an exceptional example of AustrianBaroque in Europe and unique in Greece. The color combinationof the façade (honey and imperial red) seems to be a copy of apart of the Concert Hall in Vienna (Musikverein). On the neoclassicalside of the building there is a large number of details in theancient Greek tradition (mock columns, capitals of columns,friezes etc.). The building is being renovated to function as a culturalvenue.Tokos Mansion (14 Kyprou Street) houses the 12thDepartment ofByzantine Antiquities. It was built in 1879 by the tobacco merchantD. Tokos. In 1911, it was bought by the Charitable Fraternityof Gentlemen of Kavala. It served as a consulate and also housedthe Town Hall from the liberation of Kavala until 1937.To the right of and behind the Town Hall, in Kapnergatis Square,the sight of a multi-storey building captivates you. This is the MunicipalTobacco Warehouse, built at the beginning of the 20th centuryby the Turkish tobacco merchant Kizi Mimin. It is an exampleof neoclassical Ottoman style (false columns, capital columns,cornices) with Baroque features, such as the imposing crowningof the roof, with its four crowns. It belongs to the Municipalityof Kavala and houses the Nautical Museum, while it is aboutto house the Kavala Folklore Museum and Tobacco Museum aswell. It also serves as an exhibition hall.From Kapnergatis Square, go past the Municipal Library, go uphill,on the right side of the car park, and turn right into KonsantinouPalaiologou Street to visit the Tobacco Museum, a themedmuseum with objects and archival material concerning the cultivationand production of tobacco, its farming and commercialprocessing, the industrial tobacco products andtobacco-sample exhibits.The uniqueness of the Tobacco Museum lies in the fact that itdoes not solely exhibit the commercial processing of easterntobacco (which cannot be found in any other museum in theworld), but also gives the visitor a good idea about the socialhistory of Kavala and Eastern Macedonia and Thrace by meansof its technological museum.Telephone: +30 25102 23344 www.tobaccomuseum.grOn the same road you will see the Old Girls School, a simpleneoclassical building of 1894, which was built with the financialassistance of prominent tobacco merchants as well as that oftobacco workers, who each contributed one day’s wage. Today,it is home to the 10th Primary School of Kavala.The Municipal Conservatory of Kavala (67, Eleftherios VenizelosStreet) can be found in a neoclassical building (featuring pediments,false columns, window frames, rhomboid geometricalpatterns etc.), which was built before 1884 as a tobacco merchant’shouse. The conservatory organizes the Internal MusicFestival “G.A. PAPAIOANNOU” andInternational Music Seminars everyyear. The building adjacent to the oldconservatory, a unique example ofFrench Rococo architecture in Kavala,was built at the same time.