Old Xanthi

In this late 19th-century postcard, the area depicted is where M. Karaoli Street ends today in Xanthi. In the center of a wide-open space, paved […]

Streets, an integral part of both urban and natural landscapes, bear witness to the passage of time. Buildings change, technologies evolve, people come and go, […]

Postcards were a popular means of communication in the late 19th and throughout most of the 20th century. However, they still retain their artistic, historical, […]

Water is a key element of the natural landscape that has influenced human behavior over time. It serves as the foundation for the creation of […]

The history of a word highlights the protean nature of its meanings over time. The river Kosynthos weaves its own narrative, as it flows from […]

An image of a place, a few words crammed into the margins trying to convey as much as possible, and a human story: these elements […]

Three historical monasteries are located above the city of Xanthi, forming a triangle: the Monastery of the Holy Archangels, the Monastery of the Virgin Mary […]

The first Jews, mostly tobacco workers, likely settled in Xanthi around 1875. Since then, a small Jewish community flourished in the city until the early […]

Often places, objects, and sounds remind us of painful events. These memories underscore the need for a constant confrontation with the past in order to […]

After the devastating fire of 1870 that struck Genisea, Xanthi emerged as the new administrative capital and experienced a period of significant development, further enhanced […]

At the junction of Vasilissis Sofias and Mavromichali streets stood one of the oldest cafes in Xanthi, called “Beautiful View”. It was built around 1910 […]

The historical significance of the preserved traditional settlement of Xanthi is also demonstrated by its role as evidence of a fully structured environment of communal […]

In the “Biographical Note in First Person” published in the Melbourne Festival programme in May 1980, Manos Hadjidakis writes: “Ι was born on 23rd October […]

In the Ottoman Empire, time was traditionally measured according to the movement of the sun, primarily serving religious purposes. Consequently, each city within the empire […]

During the period of economic prosperity in the city of Xanthi, which lasted between 1860 and 1910, the construction of the railway line connecting Thessaloniki […]

The introduction of tobacco cultivation in the Ottoman Empire dates back to the end of the 16th century. By the 17th century, the region of […]

The settlement of the Old Town took on its current form after the third decade of the 19th century. By the beginning of the 20th […]

The period 1870-1900 emerges as one of the most critical epochs for Xanthi in the 19th century. During this time, the headquarters of the kaza […]

In the late 14th century, the Ottomans occupied Byzantine Xanthia and established a new administrative center, called Yenice Karasu (modern Yenisea). After 1870, the headquarters […]

The economic prosperity of Xanthi after 1860 significantly influenced its urban development. To the south of the old town, khans (Ottoman hotels) began to appear, […]

The necessity for a hospital in Xanthi was evident from the beginning of the 20th century and the Demogerontia (council of Greek community leaders under […]

The oil painting by the painter Irini Hadjisavvas depicts Hydragogiou Street, in the district of the same name which is located at the northern end […]

The Jewish community of Xanthi, although small in number, played a crucial role in the development of the city. The first Jewish families seem to […]

The oil painting by the painter Irini Hadjisavvas depicts Pindarou Street, which leads to the eastern end of the Old Xanthi, next to the Kosynthos […]

This small triconch church that watches from above the Old Town of Xanthi is the catholicon (the main church) of the monastery of the Taxiarchs. […]

Although the term “tekke” in the modern Greek language has a negative connotation, tekke in the Ottoman Empire functioned as gathering places for the so-called […]

The Çınar mosque is located in the Asa district, in the south-eastern part of the city of Xanthi. It took its name from the large […]

Porto Lagos is the northernmost port on Greek territory and serves as the port of Xanthi. It is located at the exit of Vistonida lake […]

The oil painting by Xanthi’s painter Christos Pavlidis (Antalya Asia Minor 1913 – Xanthi 1998) depicts Hydragogiou street in the old town, with its characteristic […]

The oil painting by Xanthi’s painter Kryonas Sergenlidis (Komotini 1947 – Xanthi 2020) depicts a typical folk house on Hydragogiou Street of the old town, […]

The oil painting by Xanthi’s painter Christos Pavlidis (Antalya, Asia Minor 1913 – Xanthi 1998) depicts the Christian church of the Taxiarchs in the old […]

The Yeri Pazar Meydan mosque was located in the central square of Xanthi, and the famous clock tower was a part of it. Around the […]

“After the Balkan wars, since the Xanthi tobacco merchants were weakened, foreign tobacco industries dominated. However, several local firms remained in the foreground, dealing with […]

Although a provincial town, Xanthi was, since the end of the 19th century, a regular stop for the touring Athenian and European troupes, often serving […]

The oil painting by Xanthi’s painter Christos Pavlidis (Antalya, Asia Minor 1913 – Xanthi 1998) depicts the Christian church of Saint George in the homonymous […]

The watercolor by Dimitris Stathopoulos depicts a view from the area of the famous bazaar of Xanthi. In the center of the painting is the […]

The oil painting by Christos Pavlidis, painted in 1949, depicts a Christian church in the old town of Xanthi, which is dedicated to the Akathist […]

Nowadays, the city of Xanthi is characterized by its peri-urban forest, which however did not exist at the beginning of the 20th century. The photo […]

Kosynthos or otherwise “Xiropotamos” (Dry-river or Kuru çay in Turkish) is the large, torrential river of Xanthi, which creates a natural barrier in the Old […]

The success of Xanthi as a tobacco-producing region was due, in addition to the intense activity of tobacco merchants, to the fact that the so-called […]

At the first level of the photo, a cobbled street of the old town of Xanthi is visible and a child, a little girl, is […]

The photo presents the intersection of G. Stavros and Konitsis streets in the old town of Xanthi. In the foreground you can see the dirt […]

In August 1913, Xanthi was in the middle of the 1st Bulgarian Occupation, after the Balkan wars. This period was particularly difficult for the inhabitants […]

Typical photo of the Old Town settlement, with buildings of traditional and eclectic architecture “mingling” in labyrinthine alleys. No other better description of this peculiar […]

“I hope that I am leaving soon” a sender mentions on a postcard, picturing the Tabakhane (tannery) district of Xanthi, on June 7, 1910. In […]

During the summer months, every open space in the old town of Xanthi was filled with frames and “hangers” with rows of tobacco leaves, drying […]

Almost a month after the liberation of the city on 4 October 1919, Eleftherios Venizelos asked for the immediate transfer of Achilleas Kaleuras, prefect of […]

The present-day Michail Karaoli Street in Xanthi, Kapnomagazon Street as mentioned in the caption. Today, few examples of tobacco warehouse buildings, also known as tobacco […]

Horse-drawn carriages, cars, pedestrians, shops, trees can be seen on Konstantinoupoleos Street, now known as Karaoli Street, in Xanthi. The photo is dated in the […]

The arrival of refugees during the period 1922-1923 transformed the city’s landscape, since a number of new settlements were created alongside the existing ones. The […]

During the interwar period in Xanthi’s central square there was a cabstand with the vehicles employed by the locals. At that time, alongside the dominant […]

The second Bulgarian occupation of Xanthi ended on October 4, 1919, when the 9th Division οf the Greek Army entered the city under the command […]

Hidden among the narrow alleys, the Achrian Mosque was founded in the 16th century in the neighborhood of the same name within the Old Town […]

Photograph of a tobacco warehouse in Xanthi at the beginning of the last century, with people of diverse age groups and economic backgrounds. In the […]

Towards the end of the 19th century Xanthi began to expand beyond the boundaries of  its traditional settlement. The growth led to the development of […]

In the present day, this area in Xanthi is known for hosting the city’s renowned and bustling Saturday open air bazaar. However, before 1919, the […]

The area that now constitutes the central square of Xanthi was a vibrant hub where itinerant merchants would peddle their wares, horse-drawn carriages would pass […]

The tobacco trade and the economic boom of Xanthi significantly increased the visitors that came to the city. For this reason numerous inns were built in […]

It seems as though the “tower-shaped” kiosks of the central square, built according to European standards, were a meeting point for taxi drivers lounging in […]

The central square of Xanthi, full of rows of outdoor café tables and seats. In the center of the photograph, there is the building of […]

Encampment of Greek troops in the western outskirts of the city of Xanthi, during the period of the Balkan wars. The soldiers in the photo […]

Close-up of Xanthi’s central square clock tower, in its original form, possibly taken from the minaret of the mosque that stood in the square. The […]

The Mitropoleos district was traditionally the area where people from the city’s bourgeoisie class lived. At the end of the 19th – beginning of the […]

In the second half of the 19th century, Xanthi had begun to evolve into a thriving urban center of the region. The reorganization of the […]

Epiphany celebration on the bridge of the river of Xanthi, Kosynthos. The photo dates from before 1912, when the wooden bridge collapsed in the floods […]

In the photo, the building of the Girls’ School of the Greek community of Xanthi, which was built in 1863 and was located in Mitropoleos […]

Postcard written in Xanthi on 25/7/1915. You can see the current Michail Karaoli Street, which led from the central square to the tobacco warehouses area […]

“In the middle of the 19th century… Xanthi rapidly developed into an international center for the processing and trading of its famous, for its quality, […]

Although the city of Xanthi is built about 30 km to the north of the Thracian sea, it has a… ‘paralia’ (seaside in Greek)! The […]

Metropolitan Mansion (Metropolis Square). An “imposing building bult in 1896 in a neoclassical style with neo-renaissance decorative elements. It was built by the Bishop Joachim […]

Georgiou Stavrou Street is in the foreground. The photo was most likely taken from the National Bank branch building, which is where the -now pedestrian […]

After the assassination of King George the 1st in Thessaloniki on March 18th, a #telegram, the absolute device of transmitting information through the transfer of […]

“The clock tower in the central square of the city was built in contact with the -now demolished- central mosque of the settlement, highlighting its […]

The street market square, in the beginning of the 20th century, with a hexagonal fountain and the clock tower behind the tree. This location is […]