Travel

According to the findings, the history of the town begins in the 7th century. The first name of the town was Neapolis. Most probably, it was the colony of the dweller of Thassos. The bloom of the town begins in the years of the Macedonian Empire of Fillipus the 2nd, the father of Alexander the Great. The town becomes also known for the work of the Apostle Pavlos. Kavala was his first stop, during his trip to spread Christianity in Europe. Furthermore, since the beginning of the 19th century, Kavala has been known as the town of tobacco trade, the “Mecca of tobacco”. It was from its port, that whole bundles of tobacco travelled to the entire world. Christians, Muslims, Jewish worked in almost 50 tobacco companies. Today, we are reminded of that period looking at the mansions of the tobacco traders and the big buildings of the tobacco shops. There is also the Museum of Tobacco with an exquisitely interesting selection.

The real life of the daily one in Kavala is found between the modern and the old town, in Eleftherias square. Next to the square, one can find the old neighbourhood of Saint Nikolaos, with small shops, cafés and the church of Saint Nikolaos, which used to be a mosque and then, was transformed into a church. The commercial streets of the town is the pedestrian zone of Megalos Alexandros, with the café-bars, the shops and a big shopping center in the old tobacco warehouse, in Omonias and Venizelou streets.

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Sights of the town:

√ The Castle of Kavala of the 15th century with a circular tower was the last place of defense, a water-tank during the Byzantine period, a warehouse of munitions and food, supplies; it was constructed in 1530, and then transformed into a prison, an open-air theatre, in which cultural events were organized, from time to time.
√ Another known scheduled monument “ornamenting” the town of Kavala, is Kamares, a part of a main, which took its final shape at the reign of the Sultan Suleiman the Great; most probably, it was built on the remains of a Byzantine water-tower.
√ On the west coast of the old town, on the hill of Panagia, lies the significant Ottoman monument of Imaret, which functioned as a Muslim holy teaching school. This great complex was built between 1817-1821 by Mehmet Ali Pasha on a previous Imaret of Ibrahim Pasha. It provided social and educational services, it hosted students and it disposed of a mosque, student cells, two Muslim holy teaching schools, one first-grade school, an imaret (a kitchen for soup), warehouses and inner yards, executive offices. With the changes of the populations and until the beginning of the 70s, in the buildings of Imaret dwelled families of refugees from Asia Minor. Today, it is replaced by a luxurious hotel unit. It's a great place to stay! (https://www.imaret.gr) 
√ The Monastery of Lazaristes, a neoclassical building of the 19th century (nowadays the French Consulate).
√ The building of the German baron Adolf Wix, a house, where Mehmet Ali was actually born.
√ The house of the Hungarian tobacco merchant Pierre Herzog.
√ The palace of the tobacco merchant D. Tokos, which, nowadays, houses the Section of the Byzantine Antiquities.
√ Residences in the district of Aghios Ioannis.
√ Tobacco Museum of Kavala.

Beaches:

In Kavala, there are nice organized beaches in the town.
√ Rapsani, the sandy beach almost in the city centre. 
√ Kalamitsa, an organized beach of the municipality of Kavala on the west entrance of the town.
√ Pergiali, the beach on the east entry of the town.
√ Batis, an organized beach in a picturesque bay, 4 kms away from Kavala.
√ Toska, a prize-winning beach for its clean waters. Situated 5 kms from the centre.

From Kavala you can:

√... make a sailing trips to Thassos island.
√... make a tour of the road of wineries and discover some of the best Greek wines crossing the "Road of Dionysus" from Drama to Maronia.
√... visit Ancient Theatre of Philippi (Distance: 20 km from the town)  and Baptistery of St. Lydia. It's  lies in about 1 km long from the archaeological site of Philippi, next to the banks of the Zigaktis River. It is the place where Lydia of Philippi became the first recorded European convert to Christianity in Europe, by the Apostle Paul. 
√... make a trip to Moant Athos.


Try:

√ Local wine and tsipouro made by local producers.
√ Sea food and fresh fish.
√ Kavala cookies or kourabiedes (cookies covered with powered sugar).