Xánthia

Xánthia lies where the wooded slopes of the Rhodope Mountains descend towards the Thracian plain. The Byzantine town was an episcopal centre and a fortified place involved in the struggles of medieval Thrace. Under Ottoman rule settlement gradually moved down from the old hilltop site, while trade and the cultivation of tobacco brought prosperity to the surrounding district.

Ottoman forces took the town in the late fourteenth century. In 1829 a series of strong earthquakes caused great destruction, but rebuilding soon began. Under Metropolitan Eugenios, churches were raised again in the Christian quarters, including those of the Archangels in 1834 and Saint George in 1835. Merchants also built houses and warehouses as the tobacco trade expanded, giving the recovering town a new appearance.