Φίλιπποι, Philippi, Филиппы, Macedonia, Hellas, UNESCO

Philippi (Greek: Φίλιπποι, Philippoi) was a major city northwest of the nearby island, Thasos. Its original name was Crenides (Greek: Κρηνῖδες, Krenides "Fountains") after its establishment by Thasian colonists in 360/359 BC. The city was renamed by Philip II of Macedon in 356 BC and abandoned in the 14th century after the Ottoman conquest. The present municipality, Filippoi, is located near the ruins of the ancient city and is part of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Kavala, Greece. It was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016 Thasian colonists established a settlement at Krenides (meaning "springs") in Thrace in 360/359 BC near the head of the Aegean Sea at the foot of Mt. Orbelos, now called Mt. Lekani, about 13 km (8.1 mi) north-west of Kavalla, on the northern border of the marsh that, in antiquity, covered the entire plain separating it from the Pangaion hills to the south.In 356 BC King Philip II of Macedon conquered the city and renamed it to Philippi.
The Macedonian conquerors of the town aimed to take control of the neighbouring gold mines and to establish a garrison at a strategic passage: the site controlled the route between Amphipolis and Neapolis, part of the great royal route which runs east-west across Macedonia and which the Roman Republic reconstructed in the 2nd century BC as part of the Via Egnatia. Philip II endowed the city with important fortifications, which partially blocked the passage between the swamp and Mt. Orbelos, and sent colonists to occupy it. Philip also had the marsh partially drained, as the writer Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC) attests. Philippi preserved its autonomy within the kingdom of Macedon and had its own political institutions (the Assembly of the demos). The discovery of new gold mines near the city, at Asyla, contributed to the wealth of the kingdom and Philip established a mint there. The city became fully integrated into the kingdom during the reign (221 to 179 BC) of Philip V of Macedon. The city contained 2,000 people. When the Romans destroyed the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon in the Third Macedonian War (168 BC), they divided the kingdom into four separate states (merides). Amphipolis (rather than Philippi) became the capital of the eastern Macedonian state. Almost nothing is known about the city in this period, but archeological remains include walls, the Greek theatre, the foundations of a house under the Roman forum and a little temple dedicated to a hero cult. This monument covers the tomb of a certain Exekestos, is possibly situated on the agora and is dedicated to the κτίστης (ktistēs), the foundation hero of the city.
The New Testament records a visit to the city by the apostle Paul during his second missionary journey (likely in AD 49 or 50)(Acts 16:9-10). On the basis of the Acts of the Apostles and the letter to the Philippians, early Christians concluded that Paul had founded their community. Accompanied by Silas, by Timothy and possibly by Luke (the author of the Acts of the Apostles), Paul is believed to have preached for the first time on European soil in Philippi.AcThis Basilica of Paul, identified by a mosaic As in other cities, In 473 Ostrogothic troops. There was a small amount of activity there in the 7th century, but the city was now hardly more than a village.
The Byzantine Empire possibly maintained a garrison there, but in 838 the Bulgarians under kavhan Isbul took the city and celebrated their victory with a monumental inscription on the stylobate in Basilica B, now partially in ruins. The site of Philippi was so strategically sound that the Byzantines attempted to recapture it around 850. Several seals of civil servants and other Byzantine officials, dated to the first half of the 9th century, prove the presence of Byzantine armies in the city. Around 969, Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas rebuilt the fortifications on the acropolis and in part of the city. These gradually helped to weaken Bulgar power and to strengthen the Byzantine presence in the area. In 1077 Bishop Basil Kartzimopoulos rebuilt part of the defenses inside the city. The city began to prosper once more, as witnessed by the Arab geographer Al Idrisi, who mentions it as a centre of business and wine production around 1150.After a brief occupation by the Franks after the Fourth Crusade and the capture of Constantinople in 1204, the city was captured by the Serbs. Still, it remained a notable fortification on the route of the ancient Via Egnatia; in 1354, the pretender to the Byzantine throne, Matthew Cantacuzenus, was captured there by the Serbs.

The city was abandoned at an unknown date. When the French traveller Pierre Belon visited the area in the 1540s there remained nothing but ruins, used by the Turks as a quarry. The name of the city survived - at first in a Turkish village on the nearby plain, Philibedjik (Filibecik, "Little Filibe" in Turkish), which has since disappeared, and then in a Greek village in the mountains.