Kavala is a beautiful city in Macedonia with a rich history and the town and surrounding area has been continuously inhabited since prehistoric times. Its foundation dates back to the 7th century BC when Parian settlers from Thassos established the first colony which evolved into the important ancient city of Neapolis. Both the ancient and Byzantine cities were situated within the protective castle walls where today the traditional quarter of Panagia is located. The city grew in the Roman period as a junction of the important Egnatia road and especially in the first centuries of the Christian era as it was the first European port visited by the Apostle Paul in AD 49/50 in his travels. In neighbouring Philippi the first Christian community was founded and the first “European” Christian woman was baptized. Throughout the Byzantine period the city was a strong fortress and was called Christoupoli. In 1391 it was completely destroyed by the Turks and its Greek inhabitants fled. The deserted city was “re-founded” with the settlement of Muslims in the late 15th century and appears under the name Kavala, then in the early 16th century it was largely rebuilt with the construction of extensive urban infrastructure and the reconstruction of its port and fortress. From the beginning of the 18th century Kavala developed into a major commercial centre. In the 19th century the city achieved great economic and social prosperity as it was the main tobacco processing and trading centre of Macedonia. It was then that large-scale development began outside the walls and along the port where the tobacco warehouses, multi-storey buildings for the processing of tobacco, were built. The prosperity brought by tobacco in the early 20th century created a multi-ethnic society of Muslims, Greeks, Jewish Armenians and Europeans. During the period between the two world wars of the 20th century the city suffered from a short-lived Bulgarian occupation. After the end of the Second World War the processing of tobacco, which was the most important occupation of its inhabitants, gradually decreased, while by the end of the century, most of the tobacco warehouses were closed or demolished. Today the city of Kavala is the most important urban centre in eastern Macedonia with considerable commercial and tourist infrastructures.