The Old Town of Xanthi (north part of Xanthi) is a historical place which covers an area of 380.000 sq. m. The city was built after 1829 and after the earthquakes that completely destroyed the previous settlement.

In the 19th century Xanthi was a town with 8,000 inhabitants and it kept flourishing financially due to agriculture and the treatment of tobacco, but also because of its geographical position on important trade routes.

The city is built by Epirus and Macedonian masons and it is characterized by wide cobblestoned alleys, Balkan houses, inns, shops, typical churches of the last Ottoman period and neoclassical mansions which mainly belonged to tobacco merchants.

The old city was declared a protected village in 1976. Today there are 1,200 listed buildings out of which 140 are characterized as “highly remarkable”, 130 are characterized as “remarkable” and 260 are classified as “interesting”.