Is Xanthi Worth Visiting?

Xanthi built its old town on tobacco wealth, leaving behind a stretch of Ottoman era mansions that still anchors the city more than a century later.

Xanthi's old town grew wealthy on the tobacco trade in the 19th century, and the money shows in the streets that remain, colorful Ottoman era houses standing beside neoclassical mansions along cobbled lanes protected as a heritage settlement since 1978. The Folk and History Museum occupies two matching mansions built by a pair of tobacco merchant brothers who shared the same courtyard, and it's one of the clearer windows into how the city lived a century ago.

The city's population mix of Greek, Muslim Greek, and Pomak communities gives it a different texture than most mainland cities, and that shows up most directly in the food. Kavourmas, a cured meat, and saragli, a rolled version of baklava, turn up in bakeries around the old town, and the central bazaar, dating to the Ottoman period, still functions as a working market rather than something staged for visitors.

Outside the city, the Nestos river gorge offers rafting and hiking a short drive away, and the Livaditis Waterfall, the largest in the Balkans, sits about two hours into the Rhodope foothills. Lake Vistonida and the Porto Lagos lagoon draw flamingos for much of the year, and the coast itself is only about 25 kilometers from the city center.

Xanthi suits travelers who want a multicultural mainland city paired with real outdoor activity, from rafting and waterfalls to a route through Komotini or Kavala.