By Nikolas Bardis

For many decades the city of Kavala has been the “Mecca of Tobacco“, and not without reason, we would say. From the middle of the 19th century, until the 1950s, Kavala was the largest tobacco processing and export center in the Balkans. This resulted in the concentration of large European trading houses and many consulates in this picturesque city.

These are the years when the city experienced great prosperity, and its glamorous bourgeoisie was in constant contact with the rest of Europe, giving the city a cosmopolitan atmosphere and an air of development.

At the same time, thousands of jobs were created for tobacco workers, while brokers, tobacco experts, shipping agents, along with merchants and other professionals made up the middle class. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city reached one hundred and fifty tailor shops, ten luxury cinemas, entertainment centers, cafes, restaurants and pastry shops. The ruling class had tennis clubs, the nightlife menu even included Parisian ballets, while the city’s Grand Club was set by dances and lively bal masqués.

Witnesses of this glorious era are the mansions of the great tobacco merchants and the imposing tobacco warehouses that are preserved today in the center of the city. In total, we find 54 tobacco warehouses within the urban fabric, some in better condition and some in disrepair. The bureaucracy, however, and the high cost of their restoration resulted in most of them being unused. In fact, the renovation and reopening of such a space must, according to archaeology, be done with specific plans and materials, so as not to alter the identity of these historical buildings.

Now, the ravages of time are visible in most of the city’s smokehouses, where ceilings have caved in, windows are broken and dampness has ruined the wooden interior decoration. The residents, speaking to the camera of Where There is Greece, appeal to the decision-makers and the state to take immediate and drastic measures to save these emblematic buildings, which are inextricably linked to the modern history of Kavala and the local community.

In an effort to preserve this heritage, the Tobacco Museum was created in 2004. It is a modern, industrial and experiential museum with a wide variety of exhibits. Among other things, the visitor can see there objects and archival material on the cultivation and production of tobacco, its agricultural and commercial processing, industrial tobacco products and rare exhibition samples of tobacco.

The uniqueness of this thematic museum lies in the fact that it not only includes and exhibits the commercial processing of eastern tobaccos (which are not found in any other museum in the world), but also that it is a cultural space that highlights the economic and social history, as well as the technological historical development of Kavala, but also of the whole of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. If you find yourself in the area, it is worth a visit to this beautiful place, and to browse the intoxicating trails of tobacco, which changed the history of the city.