Traveler's Guide

East Macedonia & Thrace

Route ιn τhe town of Drama - Drama

Start at the Archaeological Museum at 2 Patriarchou Dionysiou Street. It operates daily from 8:30 till 15:00. Closed on Monday. Entrance: 2 euro. Telephone: +3025210 31365 In the small, but well organized Archaeological Museum, the visitor will see interesting evidence of over 50,000 years of man’s presence in the region from the time when nomadic cattle farm- ers populated the Cave of Aggitis and the first Neolithic farmers and cattle breeders lived in the villages of Sitagra and Arkadiko, until the Inter-war Period. A replica of a Neolithic house made of wood, branches and mud, complete with an oven and household items, even bobbins, attracts the attention of young and old alike. A stage post sign from Macedonian times and a milestone from Egnatia Highway, which were found in Kalabaki, indicate the pres- ence of a signifi road network and the position of the area as a crossroads of trade routes. Time is measured by a sundial with etched hour indicators and the date, 1069. The latest fi in the museum is a Mammoth tusk which was found in 2005 in the Aggitis area. From the Museum, head toward the Municipal Garden, with wa- ter features, perennial plane trees and the Statue of Liberty in the east side of the garden, created by the sculptor Laz- aros Lameras and the architect I.N. Halepas. Turn left at Atha- nasiadis Street and you will fi Eleftsquare on your right. Agios Nikolaos church (formerly Eski Minaret), built in the 15th century, complete with a cu- pola, 9 domes and semi-circle arches, overlooks the square. In the NE corner of the square you can see the bust of Macedonian fiArmen Koubtsios, who was hanged there in 1907. From Eleft Square, go down G. Zervos Street and turn right into Armen Street. At the corner of Armen Street and Agamemnon Street, you will fi the Sardivan Mosque featuring frescoes on the portico and an illustration of a paradisaical town, which is presumed to represent Drama at the end of Ottoman Rule. Head towards Tria Street where you can see a Hellenistic tomb in the Macedonian style. Carry on towards Di- kastirion Square and admire the Ottoman fountain in front of the Law Courts on Themidos Street. From Themidos Street, continue onto K. Palaiologou Street where you can see the Arap Mosque at the junction of Megalou Alexandrou Street and L. Labrianidou Street. The Municipality of Drama plans to convert the minaret into an art gallery. On Megalou Alexandrou Street, go towards 19 May Street which was created when the Monastiraki Stream was fi in the 1960s and constitutes a signifi shopping street in the town. From 19 May Street, head towards EleftVenizelos Street. Going up this main road around which the town was built, you see the Byzantine Pammegiston Taxiarchon Church on your left The walls were made with the ‘opus incertum’ technique, and parts of the interior walls have survived, with some of their icons (Circle of Passions and the Archangels Michael and Gabriel), Ga- briel, dating back to the fi two decades of the 14th century. On the south side there is a crypt (ossuary). The church is thought to have been a burial chapel for Empress Ireni - Palaiologina. At the junction of Venizelos Street and Kountouriotou Street, is the his- toric Eleft cafe, a two storey neoclassical building, which was built by the Greek Community of Drama at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, there is a café on the ground fl and a cultural centre on the fi fl . The entrance is on Kountouriotou Street. To the right, a part of the eastern Byzantine wall can be discerned as well as the rear of the inns whose façade is on Venizelos Street. The Byzantine Walls of Drama, 850m in perimeter, date to the 10th century. In 1206 they were completely rebuilt by Boniface of Mont- ferrat. In the Taxiarches Church precinct (SE corner of the walls) there are visible traces of one of two known stairways. The town clock, which was removed in 1945, was on a tower on the crum- bling north side wall, accessible from 19 May Street. At 18 Kountouriotou Street, one can admire an excellent example of urban architecture; the tobacco agent Gian- noulils Dakos mansion built in 1926- 1927. Carry on till Agia Sophia Church, the oldest surviving church in the town. The 10th century church, which is approximately 2 metres below present ground level, consists of a transitional style basilica (octagonal dome) and peristyle and is of a similar structure to that of the walls. The pillared antechamber west of the church and the clock tower (former minaret) were added when the church was transformed into a mosque under Ottoman Rule. Originally dedicated to the Assumption, the church took its present name from refugees in 1922. Next to Agia Sophia is the Bouboura Mansion (1972), which, with its extravagant exterior relief decoration and a main entrance in the Art Nouveau style, unavoidably attracts attention. Return to E. Venizelos Street, where the “OLYMPIA” cinema, one of the oldest in Greece, can be found on the corner. Owned by the Israeli Community of Drama, it operated from the beginning of the 1920s. In 1940 it was named “Olympia”. It was bought by the Mu- nicipality of Drama and now serves as as a cultural centre. Every year, in September, fi from The Greek and International Short Films Festival are screened here for a week. A truncated aisled basilica with a pitched roof can be seen op- posite “OLYMPIA” - the old Metropolitan Church of Drama – built in 1834 on the site of an older church of 1721, which was prob- ably destroyed in the earthquake of 1829. There are remarkable icons from the mid 19th century on the ornate wooden iconostasis. Some bear the signatures of the artists Stergiou and Anthimou from Nevrokopi and the artist Iakovos Melenikiotis. The Ecclesiastic Museum is at the end of Venizelos Street on the right. The treasures on display mainly come from heirlooms brought by refugees from Asia Minor and Ponto between 1922- 1924. Particularly valuable are the icons of Theotoko Odigitria and Mr. Evlogoudos, which are among the oldest found to date. The Greek Schools of Drama are at the junction of Perdikka Street and Venizelos Street, built between 1907-1908 with a donation by the family of Macedonian Fighter Pavlos Melas and the support of Bishop Chrisostomos, National Martyr of Drama. Continuing your walk down Perdika Street, you fi yourself in front of Pabouka Mansion, an ex- ample of late 19th and early 20th century eclectic ar- chitecture. Its designer, Chr. Dimopoulos, was as- sistant to the Austrian architect, Konrad von Vilas. The incorporation of the building on this particular plot, shows Dimopoulos’ ability in architectural composition. An impressive large multi-storey tobacco warehouse, work of Konrad von Vilas, awaits you at 10, Perdikka Street. The façades indicate central European infland elements of Art Nouveau. Machinery has been preserved inside, as has the stairwell with its iron banister which leads to the fifl, where the offi used to be. The tobacco warehouse belongs to the Municipality of Drama and hosts some of the events during the Short Film Fes- tival every year. In Taxiarches Square, the Taxiarchia, or Tzimou mansion, was built in 1925 by Konrad von Vilas for the tobacco merchant Andreas Tzimou, an example of eclecticism with ele- ments of the Renaissance, Baroque and recent central European architecture. Vilas brought craftfrom Austria to build the mansion. From here, go down Perdikka Street once more, turn right into Elli Street, go along Kilkisi Street until you come to Agia Barbara church, patron saint of Drama. On the night of her name day celebration, children flsmall boats decorated with candles lit in her honour in the springs. You are in the area of the Agia Barbara springs, that earthly paradise of still and running water, which travelers have praised and locals worship. In the southern area of the Agia Bar- bara springs, stone built pre-industri- al establishments can be discerned: traditional watermills of the 19th cen- tury: The blower drive mechanism and grinding area with its millstones and the miller’s two storey house have been preserved at Zonke mill. Dimitropoulos watermill has survived almost intact behind Melina hall. Pantoulis watermill has been converted into a leisure centre. The Monument to Jewish Holocaust Martyrs stands next to the small outdoor theatre (where Giosef Faratzi’s tobacco warehouse used to be and where the Nazis locked up Jews in 1943, before moving them to Tremplinka) and behind the Visitors Information Centre, which used to be an old OSE pump station. On the north side of the park, the multi-story tobacco warehouse belonging to the Swiss-Jewish tobacco merchant, Erman Spirer, from 1925, (property of Manolis Ledaki today and presently being converted into a luxurious hotel) is witness to the golden age of the town, when tobacco workers swamped the tobacco shops and basmas scattered its heady aroma everywhere. Finish your walk with a meal at one of the small tavernas in the park. 

Archaeological Museum of Drama

 The Drama Archaeological Museum was built by the Municipality of Drama and beguested to the Ministry of Culture. In this way the local community managed to speed up the procedure for the founding of an Archaeological Museum in the town. Even though the museum is small, marks the beginning of a major effort to systematize archaelogical research and promote the cultural identity of the area. The archaelogical finds record the gratual steps towards civilisation taken in the Drama region, firest by presenting the Middle Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers (50,000 B.C.), then the earliest Neolithic farmers and pastoralists of the Drama plain (5,500 - 3,000 B.C.) the first, patriarchal, Bronze Age communities (3,000-1.050 B.C.) and the mighty tribes of the Early Iron Age (1,050-700 B.C.). The warlike Thracian tribes that ancient Greek litterature records as living in the Drama region were descended from the warriors with iron swords whose tombs the archaeologist΄s brought to light in the Drama industrial Zone. From the beggining of the 7th century B.C., with the founding of the southern Greek colonies on the island of the Thasos and along the coast of Macedonia, the Greek world started to penetrate inland into the area now covered by the Prefecture of Drama. Thasos, and its coastal colonies between the rivers Strymon and Nestos, opened the way for trade and cultural exchanges between the Thracian hinterland and the Greek city states on the coast. The Thasians were followed by the Athenians, later by the Macedonians and then by the Romans, as the region became increasingly urbanised. Mount Pangeon cast its shadow over the Drama plain, and loomed large in its history and its culture as a source of wealth with its gold and silver mines, and as the mountain sacred to Dionysos. The god was worshipped by Thracians and Greeks alike, as can be seen from the votive offerings recoveredfrom the sanctuary of dionysos in the ancient settlement of Drama. The historical record makes almost no mention of the region during the Archaic and Classical periods, and archaeology has little to add due to the lack of large-scale excavations to date. It seems, however, that powerful Thracian kingdoms or autonomous city-states had not arisen. Overall, the Drama basin and its surrounding uplands entered history as a province first of the kingdom of Macedon and then of the Roman Empire, with Philippi as its principal urban centre. Philippi remained the region's administrative and cultural capital during the Early Christian period (4th-6th century A.D.), when the Drama area flourished as a district of the diocese of Philippi. Only after the ancient world collapsed at the end of the 6th century A.D and Philippi declined did the area acquite its own urban centre. The citadel of Drama appears during the Early Byzantine period, as the headquarters of the local military comander in control of the area. In the Late Byzantine period, the citadel and the surrounding land, though reapetdedly overrun by Latins and Bulgars, remained Byzantine from the mid 13th century until conquered by the Serbs in the mid 14th century, In 1371 it was recovered by the Byzantine emperor Manuel Paleologos, and became an administrative centre and the seat of an archibishopric until 1383, when it fell to the Ottomans.During thr period of Turkish occupation, Drama, its population increased by Turkish colonists from Anatolia, remained the regions's principal town and administrative centre. it was, however, administratively and culturally directly dependent on constantipole,capital of the Ottoman empire and seat of the Oecumenical Patriarchate. The Greek-Orthodox communities of the Drama area, together with all the subjugated Greeks, rallied round the Patriarchate to protect their interest and organise the preservation of their ethnic identity through education. Drama's prosperity, which in the 17th and 18th centuries was founded on the cultivation of rice and cotton, rose to new heights on the 19th century with the growing and trading of tobacco. At this time Drama and the nearby towns flourished economivally and culturally as a result of the contacts made through the tobacco trade with Western Europe. At the end of the 19th century the region was caught up in the conflict brought on the newly-formed Bulgarians state's desire to expand into Macedonia, and paid a high price for its part in the Macedonian struggle and the Balkan Wars, In the early 20th century, with the end of the Balkan Wars in 1913, Drama and the surrounding area were incorporated into the Greek state. Prehistory (50,000-700 B.C.) The earliest traces of human settlement in the Prefecture of Drama come from the springs of Angitis Cave, where finds have revealed occupation by Paleolithic hunters. These finds consist of animal bones and stone tools dating to the Middle Paleolithic Age, Mousterian period (50,000 B.C).The first Neolithic farmers and pastoralists made their appearance in the Drama basin in the sixth millennium B.C. A large number of Middle and Late Neolithic settlements attests to the area?s rising population from the sixth to the end of the fourth millennium B.C. A full picture of Neolithic culture in Drama basin is provided by finds from the excavation at the sites of Sitagri and Arkadiko. Tools, jewelery and pottery fired in high temperatures and decorated with elaborate techniques represent the earliest technical achievements of Neolithic man in the Drama region, and his cultural relations with neighbouring areas. The finds throw light on Neolithic architecture, and Neolithic man?s activities connected with food preparation and storage processes, weaving, basket-making, and also the attempt to express his personality and to communicate with the forces of nature through idols and ritual vessels. In the prehistoric settlement of Sitagri we have the first evidence of metal-working at the end of the Neolithic Age. Other finds from Sitagri settlement give us a picture of the area?s culture during the Early Bronze Age (3,000-2,000 B.C), a time of rapid cultural transformation throughout Europe. The pottery evidence shows that at this time the Drama area developed cultural links central Europe and the North-Eastern Aegean. Late Bronze Age finds from tombs at Potami and Exohi reveal links with the and the continental Balkans and Central Macedonia, while the local Mycenaean pottery provides the first examples of contact with the Mycenaean world. Pottery, weapons, tools and jewelery from the tombs excavated in the Drama Industrial Zone confirm that the region?s links with the Balkan hinterland and central Macedonia continued into the Early Iron Age (1.050-700 B.C.) Antiquity (700 B.C.-324 A.D.) Surface pottery with proto-geometric decoration offers the earliest known evidence of links between the Drama region and the Thasian colonies, along the coast between the Strymon and Nestos rivers, From the late 6th and early 5th century B.C. Attic pottery appears, together with other imported items such as the Corinthian helmet found in the Kalambaki settlement. The marble bust of Dionysos From the sanctuary if Dionysos in Drama is the earliest evidence of the cult this god in the hinterland if mount Pangeon. The Late Classical and Hellenistic Ages are represented by more abundant finds. The monumental building at kali Vrisi, the votive offerings from the sanctuary of Dionysos and the Macedonian tomb in the ancient settlements of Drama, as well as the tombstones and grave monuments from the cemeteries of other ancient settlements all attest to the economic and cultural prosperity that resulted from the region?s incorporation into the kingdom of Macedon. The hoard of 860 coins found at Potami confirms that immediately after Phillip?s conquest of the area in the 4th late 4th century B.C., the Macedonian king?s Hrd currency began to supplant the coinage of Thasos and its Colonies. Hoards of coins were often placed in tombs as grave goods, in pots that were mostly locally made. The milestone from the ancient settlement of Kalambaki is evidence if the road building carried out in the area by the Macedonian kings. The Via Egnatia milestone from the same area confirms that this great Roman road followed an older Macedonian road from Amphipolis to Phillippi. During the Roman Period the greater part of the present-day prefecture of Drama belonged to the province of the Roman colony of Philippi. The archaeological finds reveal a co-existence of the Greek and Roman worlds, into which the local Thracian tribes were absorbed. The bronze statuette of Zeus found at Marmaria shows that during the Roman period the Early Classical style, known throughout the Greek world, was used for statues of Zeus. The gravestone found near the village of Grammeni records the brilliant military career of Tiberius Claudius Maximus, the Roman legionary who, fighting beside the emperor Trajan in the Dacian war, captured and behaded the last Dacian king, Decebalus. Early Christian and Byzantine period (324 A.D.-1383 A.D.) Architectural sculpture testifies to the quality of the art that flourished in the Drama region during the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., under the influence of the city of Philippi. Ceramics and coins confirm the Drama was inhabited and flourished continuously from Early Christian to Late Byzantine times. Excavations in the Philipi plain and the surrounding uplands have shed light on the way of life in the region?s farms and hill forts. Byzantine monuments are few and scattered. And 11th ? 12th century chancel-screen panel from Sitagri and a mid-Byzantine stanchion from Kallifito testify to the existence of Byzantine churches in the areas. The monastic complex of St George Diasorite, which has been excavated near the village of Paleohori, belonged to the foremost monastic centre in the diocese of Drama, the Eikosifinissa monastery. One of the most interesting finds from this excavation was a stone sundial inscribed with the hours and its date of manufacture, 1069. Remains of Byzantine Drama include the city walls, in which two building phases, the early Christian and the Byzantine, can be distinguished, the church of Agia Sofia, built in a 10th century style, and the small Paleologue church of the Archangels (Taxiarches), which has preserved valuable evidence of architecture and painting on Drama during the Byzantine period. Part of an 11th-12th century Byzantine bath has been excavated at the Agia Varvara springs. The repairs to the walls are mentioned in an inscription on a lintel dated to the 10th-11th century or according to the others the 9th century. The marble icon stand which has been used as a skylight in the century as a skylight in the church of the Presentation of the Virgin originally came from a 12th-13th century Byzantine church. Pottery, coins and jewelery from excavations within Drama and the other sites such as Xiropotamos portray public and private life during the Byzantine period. Of particular interest are two hoards of coins from Drama and Volakas containing 12th and 13th century gold and bronze bent coins. Recent History (1383-1913) A marble relief from the west door of the church of St. George at Krithara (built 1870-1880) placed at the entrance to the 5th room of the museum is devoted to the recent history of Drama, a painted roof (1869) from a house in Drama on the ceiling of the same room, a post-Byzantine icon of the Deisis, a decorative relief and hoards of both Ottoman and European coins create the proper ambience for an exhibition of photographs covering the monuments and history of Drama and its environs from the beginning of the Turkish period to the liberation of the city on 1913. The photographic exhibition is divided into tree sections, referring respectively to Drama itself, to the urban centers outside the city and the mountain villages from the beginning of Turkish period until the mid 19th century, and to the monuments of the second half of the 19th century both in Drama and the surrounding area.THE MUSEUM IS OPENFROM 08:30 – 15:00 MONDAY closedTicket: € 2, Reduced ticket: € 1Amenities for the physically challenged:There is access for people with disabilities and catalog of findings in Braille system.Service Unit: 18th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical AntiquitiesTel.: +302521031365Source: http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/1/eh151.jsp?obj_id=34...
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