Kavala: a brief history
text and photos: © David John
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Foundation, 7th century BC
In the 7th century BC this ancient city became a colony of the island of Thassos and was renamed Neapolis (New City). Immigrants from Paros settled here, and it served as a bulwark against invasion by Thracian tribes.
Neapolis became an ally of Athens, whose colony Amphipolis was nearby, against Sparta and Persia. It also built strategic and commercial links with other cities of the northern Aegean.
During the 5th century BC the city was fortified with walls of local granite, and a fortress was built on the acropolis at the top of the rock.
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Kavala's
main harbour |
Philip & Alexander, 4th century BC
In 356 BC Philip II of Macedonia (382-336 BC) took the nearby city of Krenides (also a Thassian colony 15 Km northwest of Neapolis) and renamed it Philipi. With a new center of operations in eastern Macedonia he conquered Thrace in 346 BC and Thassos in 340 BC. He also gained control of the gold and silver mines of Mount Pangaeus (Pangeo), which enabled him to set up a mint and finance his further ambitions.
Philip's son, Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) continued his father's military expansion on a much grander scale. He conquered Greece's ancient enemy Persia and went on to conquer most of the known world. This was Macedonia's finest hour, and great riches poured into the country. Presumably, Neapolis must have benefited from this brief glory.
But Alexander's concentration on his foreign adventures would lead to the end of Macedonian power forever.
There was no automatic law of royal succession in Macedonia, as it was the custom for kings to choose their favourite son. And since Macedonians were also polygamous, they often had a wide choice.
So when Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC without naming a successor, his relatives and generals began a series of long and bloody power struggles. It was not only his empire which fell apart: The unity of Macedonia, built with blood, sweat and tears by several generations of kings, also disintegrated, and their miltary might which protected and held Greece together went downhill fast.
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marble head of Alexander the Great
in Pella museum |
Roman Empire, 2nd century BC - 2nd century AD
As the Roman Empire spread eastwards, the Macedonians were still proving very troublesome, especially with their attacks on Roman ships. Rome had to defeat Macedonia to acquire Greece, which it did in 196 BC, although it did not conquer it until 168 BC.
Initially, Rome divided Macedonia into four subject republics, but in 146 BC it was declared a Roman province.
Neapolis became an important station along the Via Egnatia which the Romans built between between the Adriatic in the west to the Hellespont in the east, Greece's first superhighway.
Brutus and Cassius, two of Julius Ceaser's assassins, based their fleet here before the battle of Philipi against Mark Antony and Octavian in 42 BC. The former were defeated, and Brutus is said to have fallen on his sword with the last words, "O Virtue, thou art but a name!"
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Saint Paul & Christianity arrive, 49 AD
Exit Brutus. Enter Chrisitanity. Around 49 AD Saint Paul the Apostle made his first landing on the European mainland on his way from Troy to found the Christian church in Philipi.
Book of Acts chapter 16, verses 8-12:
"And passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.
A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us".
When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days."
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Panagia Church,
Kavala |
Barbarians & Byzantines, 2nd cent. AD - 387 AD
The Roman Empire declined and fell (a process which began in 180 AD according to Gibbon), and its successor the Byzantine Empire failed to keep a tight grip on its territories. Waves of invaders swept through Macedonia: Goths, Huns, Normans, Franks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Turks, Venetians... Again and again the inhabitants of the city had to take refuge within the fortifications of Panagia's acropolis, later known as the Kastro. Again and again the city and the fortifications had to be rebuilt.
During the 8th-9th century, as part of the Byzantine Empire, the city became known as Christoupolis in commemoration of Paul's visit.
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Ottoman Turkish occupation, 1387-1913
Finally, in 1387 Christoupolis was taken over by the Turks and once more the city was destroyed. When the Venetians besieged and took the city in 1425, they weren't able to hold it long; the Turks returned, laid siege and were back in charge within a month. This suggests that either the defenders were useless, or that the fortifications and local infrastructure had been so badly damaged that the place was indefensible.
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Rebuilding, 15th-16th cent.
During the next 100 years the city was slowly repopulated by Greeks and Turks. In 1526 the Turks brought to the city a number of Jewish captives they had taken during their war in Hungary.
Around 1530 major rebuilding work was started, including a complete restructuring of the fortress and city fortifications. In 1555 Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566) ordered an aqueduct to be built to the west of Panagia, apparently to replace an earlier aqueduct which had been ruined during the 14th century. Fed by a nearby spring, the new aqueduct was based on a Roman-style design and became known as the Kamares (the Arches). It also served as a defensive wall. A walkway on top allowed guards to keep an eye on things across and beyond the city.
By the end of the 16th century the city was known as Kavala. There continues to be much conjecture about the origin of this name, but none of the theories seems totally convincing.
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Kamares aqueduct,
Kavala |
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Mehmet Ali, 1769-1849
Kavalans are proud to claim Mehmet Ali (1769-1849), Pasha of Egypt as a native son. This may come as a surprise to those who know of his ruthless political career, especially his role in attempting to crush Greece's struggle for independence from Turkey.
Mehmet Ali was the son of an Albanian farmer and lived in Kavala for many years. He was accepted by Kavalans as one of theirs, and is still hailed as a great benefactor of the city.
(Some sources state that he born in Cavajo in Albania, which is the cause of some confusion, probably itself caused by confusion of place-names and Mehmet Ali's ethnicity.)
He joined the Turkish army and was ambitious, scheming and ruthless in his swift rise to the top. After leading an Albanian contingent sent by the Turkish sultan to help drive Napoleon's armies out of Egypt, he manoeuvred himself into the position of Pasha (viceroy) of Egypt in 1805. He waged bloody military campaigns in the Middle East, North Africa and Greece, ostensibly to put down the enemies of the sultan, but he steadily increaed his own political power and influence. In 1831 he threatened the Turkish Empire itself by seizing Syria. It took the combined powers of Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia to dislodge his forces.
He was eventually not only forgiven by the sultanate but his pashalic was made hereditary. Thus began the final Egyptian dynasty which ended with the last reigning monarch King Farouk (1920-65), who abdicated in 1952 after a military coup.
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statue of Mehmed Ali
in Kavala |
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Greek war of independence, 1821-1829
In 1821 the Greeks declared their war of independence with uprisings in the Morea (Peloponnese) and Crete. The sultan requested Mehmet Ali's help, and he sent his son and
lieutenant Ibrahim Pasha (1789-1848, also born in Kavala) as head of his army to put down the revolt. For his efforts Ibrahim was granted governership of the two provinces.
The brutality of Ibrahim Pasha's methods, including the massacre, deportation and enslavement of civilians, has made him infamous in Greece. This savagery also invoked sympathy in European countries, resulting in the intervention of Britain, Russia and France. With their help, the Greeks destroyed Ibrahim Pasha's fleet at the decisive Battle of Navarino in 1827, which eventually led to a partial liberation of Greece in 1829. Macedonia only became part of modern in Greece in 1913 after the Balkan Wars.
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Mehmet Ali's house & statue
But for all this, Kavala is so proud of Mehmet Ali that they erected a magnificent equestrian statue of him in 1934 outside his family home, which they have meticuously preserved. The two-storey Turkish house on the southwest tip of the Panagia peninsular, could be described as fine rather than grand, but its view over the sea is splendid. It is one of the Kavala's main tourist attactions, and its harem a big selling point in advertising the city. Sex sells.
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statue of Mehmed Ali
in Kavala |
The Imaret
Another of the city's attractions is the Imaret, which Mehmet Ali had built in 1817, on the west side of the peninsular, on the street leading to his house, and near the site of the ancient sanctuary of Athena Parthenos. An elegant, long, low series of buildings crowned by domes and chimneys, its facade is a long, plain wall punctuated by entrance halls decorated with inscriptions in Arabic script. (Turkish has only been written in the Latin script since Attaturk began his reforms in the 1920s and had the entire vocabulary transcribed acccording to the German phonetic model.) Its function was as a hostel for students of the Medressa (Muslim seminary) a few hundred metres away, as well as an almshouse for the poor of the city.
The Medressa closed after the Turks lost the Balkan wars (1912-3) and Macedonia gained its independence, but the Imaret continued to feed the poor with soup and bread until 1923.
The Imaret fell into disrepair for many years, but has recently been handsomely renovated and re-opened as a fancy restaurant. The simple elegance of this establishment provides a marked contrast to the row of more humble shops, tavernas and bars on the other side of the narrow street. They nevertheless provide good, friendly, and wallet-friendly service. Recommended.
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the Imaret, Kavala |
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Balkan Wars, 1912-1913
Although much of central and southern Greece and many of its islands had been freed from Turkish dominion between 1821 and the end of the century, Greek nationalists were still not satisfied. Their agenda was the "Megali Idea" (grand idea), the dream to reunite Greek populations living throughout the old Byzantine territories. According to their new dream Greece would extend as far as Anatolia (western Turkey), with Constantinople (Istanbul) as the new Greek capital.
But they had rivals to their ambitions from nationalists of other emerging Balkan states whose ethnic populations (Albanians, Slavs, Bulgarians, Pomaks, Vlachs...), both Christian and Muslim, had become dispersed among Greeks over the centuries.
Pragmatists such as Elftherios Venizelos (1864-1936), who became Greece's prime minister in 1910, had more immediate goals. He wanted to liberate Balkan territories such as Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace. To this end he promoted the Balkan League with Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria, which launched and won the Balkan wars of 1912-13.
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Macedonian Independence, 1913
The Turks were finally driven out of Macedonia, but as a result of agreements thrashed out between the Balkan League members under the influence of the great powers, it was carved up between Greece, Serbia (Slavs) and Bulgaria.
Today around 50% of Macedonia is part of Greece, around 40% forms the Republic of Macedonia (also known as F.Y.R.O.M. - Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia), and 10% is in Bulgaria (the region of Blagoevgrad, also known as Pirin Macedonia). Various ethnic groups still straddle the borders, trying to maintain their customs, languages and dialects, and now and again attempting to stand up for their rights as minorities. "The Macedonian Issue" is still alive and kicking. Central governments of the region are still alternately ignoring, suppressing or table-thumping about it as their interests suit.
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World War I, 1914-18
There was not much time for Macedonians to enjoy their new freedom. The very upsurgance of Balkan nationalism that had freed them also sparked off World War I.
At first Greece remained neutral, but was persuaded to join the allies by promises that they would assist the Greeks gain western Turkey. Bulgaria, which was not very happy about the small share of Macedonia it had been alloted, sided with Germany and Turkey. In 1916 the Bulgarians occupied Macedonia and Thrace but were forced to withdraw in 1917 as the allies gained the upper hand.
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Disaster in Asia Minor, 1922
After the war the allies failed to keep their promises to Greece. However, the Greeks in Anatolia went ahead with their ill-fated rebellion against the Turks. The "Smyrna Affair" in 1922, in which Greek forces were routed, the city (today known as Izmir) destroyed by fire and the Greek population evacuated by allied ships, finally put an end to the "Megali Idea".
Around 25,000 Greek refugees from Anatolia arrived in Kavala in the first of a series of forced population exchanges between Greece and Turkey.
The ensuing massive influx of newcomers from the Greek diaspora (from the Adriatic to the Black Sea, and eventually from the Levant and North Africa) naturally had a significant effect on the area's economy, culture and language. Likewise, the loss of the skills and talents of Turkish farmers, merchants and intellectuals made its own impact.
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World War II, 1939-45
In 1941 Nazi Germany invaded Greece, and its fascist ally Bulgaria once again occupied Macedonia and Thrace until 1944. Once again the inhabitants of the region suffered brutal oppression. The Jewish community suffered an especially grim fate. The Jews were rounded up and sent to Nazi concentration camps. 60,000 people were deported from Thessalonika.
The Macedonian Communist resistance, assisted by the Yugoslavian and Bulgarian resistance forces, played a vital role in the allied victory.
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Civil War in Greece, 1946-1949
After World War II Macedonia became a Communist stronghold. The Greek left-wing leaders expected a share in government in recognition for their part in the deafeat of the Nazis. However Britain and the USA (under Churchill and Truman respectively) would not tolerate a Communist-dominated Greece and backed the right-wing parties.
The civil war in Greece which consequently broke out between left and right was at least as bitter and bloody as the previous wars against foreign occupiers. Stories of barbarism and massacres on both sides are still controversial topics in Greece.
The left-wing forces, still backed by Communist Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, eventually proved no match for their enemies who received massive political, financial and military support from Britain and the USA.
Thousands of defeated left-wingers suffered imprisonment, internment, torture and execution. To avoid this fate many went into exile in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, including 28,000 Macedonian children who were separated from their families.
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Road to democracy, 1946-1981
During the Cold War (1945-89) Greece became a client state of the USA which maintained military bases and intelligence outposts.
As the country struggled to rebuild its economy, shattered by war, disunity and depopulation, Greek politics continued in its quagmire of left-right confrontations, characterized by intrigue and in-fighting on both sides, conspiracies, election fraud, strikes, demonstrations, assassinations and repression. Many more Greeks went to live abroad to escape the chaos and seek a better life.
The turning point came in 1967 when the Colonels' Junta, backed by the CIA, put an end to the turbulant attempts at democracy. The dictatorship was brutal and repressive, but ironically it was to have the effect of wiping the political slate clean. Political leaders on both sides, many of whom were now in exile, were forced to rethink their alignments and strategies.
When the Junta collapsed in 1974, Pasok (centre-left) and Nea Demokratia (centre-right) emerged as the two predominant political parties, with respective backing from the broad spectrum of left and right minority parties.
Pasok's election victory in 1981 and the reforms started by prime minister Andreas Papandreou proved that democracy had finally established a firm foundation.
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Today, 2009
The re-establishment of democracy, the return of Greeks from abroad, membership of the European Union, the end of the Cold War and the increase in trade and tourism over the last two decades have all contributed to political stability and a degree of affluence in the country.
Kavala's position as a port serving a fertile agricultural area has helped it once more become a prosperous commercial centre. Its main exports are tobacco and grapes, but it also ships grain, timber and a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, as well as marble, which the locals claim is the whitest in the world.
Many of the city's fine buildings, including the neo-classical mansions and warehouses builty by wealthy tobacco merchants in the 19th century, have been renovated. The impression one gets today is of a modern, thriving, positive and friendly regional centre. It has not yet attracted the mass tourism which swamped other areas of Greece, and it is not a popular stop-over for island-hoppers and thrill-seekers, but there is enough to interest visitors here and in the surrounding area.
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Kavala Town Hall |
Text and photos: © David John
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page 3: Kavala travel article >
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George Alvanos
furnished rooms
in Kavala's historic Panagia District
Anthemiou 35,
Kavala, Greece
+30 2510 221 781
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