Antiquity The city was founded in the late 7th century BC by settlers from
Thassos. It was one of several Thassian colonies along the coastline, all founded in order to take advantage of rich gold and silver mines, especially those located in the nearby Pangaion mountain (which were eventually exploited by
Phillip II of Macedonia). Worship of Parthenos/Virgin, a female deity of Greek Ionian origin associated with Athena, is archaeologically attested in the Archaic period. At the end of the 6th century BC Neapolis claimed independence from Thassos and began issuing its own silver coins with the
head of Gorgo (γοργὀνειο) on one side. A few decades later a large Ionic temple made from Thassian marble replaced the Archaic one. Parts of it can now be seen in the town's archaeological museum. In 411 BC, during the
Peloponnesian War, Neapolis was besieged by the allied armies of the Spartans and the Thassians but remained faithful to Athens. Two Athenian honorary decrees in 410 and 407 BC rewarded Neapolis for its loyalty. Neapolis was a town of
Macedonia, located from the harbour of
Philippi. It was a member of the
Second Athenian League; a pillar found in Athens mentions the contribution of Neapolis to the alliance. The town was later conquered by the
Kingdom of Macedonia.
Roman and Byzantine Era in Kavala The military Roman road
Via Egnatia passed through the city and helped commerce to flourish. It became a
Roman civitas in 168 BC, and was a base for
Brutus and
Cassius in 42 BC, before their defeat in the
Battle of Philippi. The Apostle
Paul landed at Neapolis during his first voyage to Europe. In the 6th century, Byzantine emperor
Justinian I fortified the city in an effort to protect it from barbarian raids. In later
Byzantine times the city was called "Christo(u)polis" (Χριστούπολις, "city of Christ"), and belonged initially to the
theme of Macedonia and later to the
theme of Strymon. The first surviving mention of the new name is in a
taktikon of the early 9th century. The city is also mentioned in the "Life of St.
Gregory of Dekapolis". In the 8th and 9th centuries,
Bulgarian attacks forced the Byzantines to reorganise the defence of the area, giving great care to Christoupolis with fortifications and a notable garrison. The city remained under Byzantine control and in 837 Byzantine armed forces from Christoupolis under the command of Caesar Alexius Moselie stopped Bulgarian raids in the plain of Philippoi. At about 830–840 AD dates a Greek inscription on the walls of a defensive tower of the fortifications of the city, still visible today, and in 926, according to another inscription (nowadays in the archaeological museum of Kavala), the General of the theme of Strymon, Vasilios Klaudon, restored the "fallen and damaged" defensive walls. In the mid of the 12th century the Arab geographer
Edrisi visited Christoupolis and described it as a well fortified city and a center of sea trade. According to another inscription, also nowadays in the archaeological museum of Kavala, the Normans probably burnt the city in 1185, after they captured first Thessaloniki. Some years later, the city fell to the hands of the Lombards, after the Fourth Crusade and was liberated again by the leader of the state of Epirus, Theodorus Komnenos, in 1225. In 1302, the
Catalans failed to capture the city. In order to prevent them from coming back, the Byzantine emperor
Andronikos III Palaiologos built a new long defensive wall. In 1357 two Byzantine officers and brothers, Alexios and John, controlled the city and its territory. Excavations have revealed the ruins of an early Byzantine basilica under an Ottoman mosque in the Old Town. It was used until the late Byzantine era.
Ottoman Era The
Ottoman Empire first captured the city in 1387. Kavala remained a part of the
Ottoman Empire until 1912. In 1519 (
Hijri 925) the town was directly owned by the Sultan as a
hass, and had 22 Muslim and 61 Christian households. In the 16th century,
Ibrahim Pasha,
Grand Vizier of
Suleiman the Magnificent, contributed to the town's prosperity and growth by reconstructing the late Roman (1st – 6th century AD)
aqueduct. The Ottomans also extended the
Byzantine fortress on the hill of
Panagia. Both landmarks are among the most recognizable symbols of the city today.
Muhammad Ali, the founder of a
dynasty that ruled
Egypt, moved with his family from
Albania to Kavala in the
Rumelia Eyalet when he was young. His father, an
Albanian tobacco and shipping merchant, served as an Ottoman commander of a small unit in Kavala. Muhammad Ali emerged as an Ottoman commander in this city before establishing his dynasty in Egypt. His house has been preserved as a museum.
20th century Kavala was captured by the
Bulgarian Army in the
First Balkan War and then captured again by the
Greek Navy during the
Second Balkan War and was incorporated into Greece with the Treaty of Bucharest. In August 1916 remnants of the
IV Army Corps, stationed at Kavala under
Ioannis Hatzopoulos surrendered to the advancing
Bulgarian army. These events provoked a military revolt in
Thessaloniki, which led to the establishment of the
Provisional Government of National Defence, and eventually Greece's entry into the
First World War. The Bulgarian occupation of the city lasted from August 1916 until September 1918. Hundreds of victims and eye-witnesses testified about the Bulgarian atrocities in the post-war inter-Allied interrogatory committee, which finally gave its report on 21 April 1919, after
in situ examination of the circumstances. After the
Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, the city entered a new era of prosperity because of the labor offered by the thousands of refugees that moved to the area from
Anatolia. The development was both industrial and agricultural. Kavala became greatly involved and developed further in the processing and trading of tobacco. Many buildings related to the storage and processing of tobacco from that era are preserved in the city. During the
Interwar period and the
Second Hellenic Republic, Kavala was the 4th largest city in Greece (after Athens, Thessaloniki, and Patras). In 1934
Dimitrios Partsalidis was elected mayor of Kavala, the first communist mayor in modern Greek history. The city gained temporarily by the Press, the nickname "Little Moscow". During the
Second World War and after the
Battle of Greece, Bulgaria occupied the city again, following the German invasion (April 1941). During the Bulgarian occupation (1941–1944), almost the entire
Jewish community of the city was deported, turned over to German authorities and exterminated in the
Treblinka death camp as part of the
Holocaust. Following the years after the
Second World War, the city faced economic decline and emigration. In the late 1950s, Kavala expanded towards the sea by
reclaiming land from the area west of the port. In 1967, King
Constantine II left Athens for Kavala in an unsuccessful attempt to launch a counter-coup against the
military junta.
21st century On July 16, 2022,
Meridian Flight 3032 crashed nearby. The
Ukrainian-registered
Antonov An-12BK was carrying 11.5 tons of ammunition from
Niš to
Dhaka when the plane began to lose altitude over the Aegean and turned around, but went down 35 kilometers west of Kavala Airport. All 8 crew members were killed. == Historical population ==