Xanthi Old Town

Xanthi grew rich on tobacco in the nineteenth century, and the merchants built upward on the slope above the modern centre. The old town is a grid of narrow climbing lanes lined with tall houses in ochre, deep red and blue, their upper storeys jutting out over the street on carved brackets, iron balconies and shuttered windows behind. Some are restored to a high standard, others are held together by scaffolding and habit. Two adjoining mansions house the folklore museum, which is the easiest way to see an interior. Lower down, the long brick tobacco warehouses that paid for all of it still stand along the approach streets.

What's there

• The mansion lanes - climbing streets of painted houses with overhanging upper floors.
• The Folklore Museum - two linked merchant houses kept with their painted ceilings and fittings.
• The tobacco warehouses - long brick industrial buildings in the lower town.
• The carnival - the largest in northern Greece, held over the weeks before Lent.

When to go

Spring and autumn are pleasant for walking the slope, which is steeper than it looks from below. The carnival falls in February or March depending on the Orthodox calendar and takes over the whole town for a weekend. Summer here is hot and the old town has little shade. Museum hours are short and skew to mornings.

Before you go

A good number of the mansions are shuttered, peeling or propped up, and the contrast with the restored ones is stark. The modern town below is ordinary concrete and there is not much else to hold you. The whole quarter can be walked in ninety minutes. Carnival weekend books out every bed in the region months ahead, and outside it the lanes are very quiet.

Nearby

The Nestos river gorge is west of town and Kavala's old town is under an hour away.