Along the Egnatia road, in many cities of Thrace, Macedonia and Epirus, several Muslim monuments survive that reflect the evolution of Ottoman architecture from the ^14th century, initially with Byzantine influences, to the 16^th century, when the classical form was created. There are four important centres of Ottoman architecture on the wider axis of the Egnatia: Constantinople, Adrianople, Thessaloniki and Ioannina. The first two major cities were the architectural archetype in the Balkan possessions of the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottomans’ conquest of the Balkans took place in sections over the course of a century, from the second half of the 14^th century to the end of the 15^th century, coinciding with the first century of Ottoman expansion. For this reason, several early Muslim buildings were built in several cities of northern mainland Greece, which survive to this day.
Ottoman architecture is mainly urban architecture. In the large urban centres, the Turks gave priority to building their religious mosques with their characteristic minarets, large public hammams and bezestens, in order to make the political and religious change and the new social and urban planning image of the conquerors distinctive.
The Ottoman buildings that have survived are religious: mosques, tekkes (monasteries), madrasas (seminaries); secular: baths, bezesteni, schools, turbeds (tombs), imarets (poorhouses), castles, clock towers, command posts, barracks and residences. The Greek state protects and preserves Ottoman monuments, including them in its architectural heritage. Several of them remain monuments open to visitors and others house various uses.
In our survey-guided tour of the Egnatia axis, we limit ourselves to the most important features and sights of Ottoman monuments (mosques, baths, bezestens, imarets, tombs, governorates, castles) which, however, give a complete picture and characteristics of the overall Ottoman architecture.