Χριστούπολις, η βυζαντινή Καβάλα

Christoupolis, the Byzantine town-port of Eastern Macedonia and known nowadays as Kavala, is the subject of this paper. The main landmarks of Christoupolis’ historical evolution are studied according to Byzantine and Latin sources, archaeological finds (seals, sculptural fragments) and monastic documents.Christoupolis (the town of Christ) was the Byzantine nomination of the ancient Greek and Roman town of Neapolis, where Apostle Paul reached for the first time Europe in order to teach the religion of Christ. Although the name Christoupolis is first stated at the beginning of the 9th century, there were mentions of Neapolis in the works of the Byzantine authors Hierocles and Procopius. The important port of Christoupolis was devastated by the Normans in 1185 according to an inscription on a wall slab. After the fall of Constantinople in 1204 Christoupolis was conquested by Lombard knights, who fought against Henri of Flanders (1206-1216), Latin emperor of Constantinople, during the winter of 1207/8. Christoupolis was liberated by the despot of Epirus Theodore Angelus Ducas Comnenus by the end of 1224 and in 1246 was part of the European provinces of John III Vatatses, emperor of Nicaea.During the 14th century the main milestones in the history of Christoupolis were the two Byzantine civil wars (1321-1328 and 1341-1347) and its conquest by the Turks. The citizens of this Byzantine port supported prince Andronicus III Palaeologus in the quarrel with his grandfather Andronicus II Palaeologus. In the second Byzantine civil war of the first quarter of this century Christoupolis sided with the emperor John V Palaeologus and against the aristocrat John Cantacuzenus. By the end of 1345 Christoupolis was the only town of the Eastern Macedonia that was not under the Serbian occupation of kral Stephan Dusan.The date of the conquest of Christoupolis by the Turks was probably 1383, when Drama and Serres were captured as well. In 1390 citizens of this port enforced, with a war ship, the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus to recapture Constantinople from his nephew John VII Palaeologus. An attempt of a Venetian fleet to captured Christoupolis in 1425 has temporary success and the town remained under the Turkish control