\ Crete (1) / \Cyclades (2) / \ Dodecanese (3) / \ Peloponnese (4) / \ Attica (5) / \ Central Greece (6) / \ Epirus (7) / \ Ionian Islands (8) / \ Thessaly (9) / \ Evia & the Sporades (10) / \ Macedonia (11) / \ Thrace (12) / \ NE Aegean (13) /

... REGION: Thrace ... Prefecture: Xanthi ... / Dasochori (Kotza Orman Forest) \ ... / Nestos River \ ... / Vistonida Lake \ ... The city of Xanthi, seat of a metropolitan and the prosperous capital (ca 40,000) of the nome of Xanthi, stands at the opening of the narrow upper valley of the Kosinthos. The city is linked by bus and train with Athens, Thessaloniki and all major cities of Greece. The airport of Chrissoupolis (almost in the middle between Kavala and Xanthi) provides the air services to Xanthi. The city of Xanthi hosts the Faculty of Engineering of the Democritus University of Thrace presently composed of two Departments, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Civil Engineering. Starting in fall 1995 the Department of Environmental Engineering is planned to become the third Department in the Faculty of Engineering.The main attraction is the beautiful traditional houses of Old Xanthi which cluster on the hillside to the N of the modern town and below the Byzantine Kastro (sections of fortification visible), which was built to defend the defile from Bulgar incursions. There is a Folk Museum in Odos Antika, containing local customs, traditional implements, etc. The Cathedral has a collection of icons, manuscripts and church plate. On the higher slopes are some monastries, one of which, the Moni Megiston Taxiarchon, houses the Ecclesiastical College of Xanthi. Byzantine Xanthea grew up below the Kastro. Under the Turks a mere summer resort, Xanthi has, since the coming of the railway, superseded Yenisea as the centre of the fine tobacco growing area. A brand of cigarettes (kiretsiler), obtainable only locally, is much prized. The lower town has been considerably rebuilt in recent years, but apart from sections of Byzantine structures, there are some delightful streets of old low buildings with small slopes, cafes, etc. 19km from Xanthi there is the modern village of Abdera. Continuing from the village, just before reaching the sea, there is a sign (left) to the Archaelogical Site and the road leads in a few metres to the remains of ancient Abdera, a city traditionally founded by Hercules on the spot where Abderos was killed by Diomede's horses, but in fact colonized ca 656 BC from Klazomenai. Refounded ca 500 BC by refugees from a Persian occupation of Teos (SW of Smyrna), it became a prominent member of the Delian League and famous for the beauty of its coinage. Democritus, the 5C philosopher who expounded an atomic theory, Protagoras (ca 481-411), the first of the Sophists, and Anaxarchos, the counsellor of Alexander the Great, were all born here, but despite the celebrity of its school of philosophy, the inhabitants generally were proverbial for their dullness. Hippocrates and Juvenal inveigh against its sickly air. Abdera shared the fortunes of Macedonia and, despite a sack in 170 BC by an over-zealous general, remained nominally free of Rome down to Imperial times, when the city apparently succumbled to its climate. The site continued important in the Early Christian and Byzantine periods when a fortress (Polystylon) was built on the Classical acropolis. Roads connected Polystylon with Xanthea and Peritheorion. It is known to have been the seat of a bishop in the 9C.

Grecian Net © All rights reserved 2002