Guide of Eastern Macedonia & Thrace

Abdera is located at the south of the Prefecture of Xanthi, a few kilometres from the modern settlement under the same name, between Vistonida lake and the mouth of Nestos river. Its inhabitants are mostly farmers and fishermen.
According to Herodotus, a group of people from Clazomenae in Asia Minor colonized the area and founded Abdera in 650 BC. The city was destroyed by the Thracians and was rebuilt by the Greeks from the city of Teos in Asia Minor, in 543 BC. During the Persian wars, the Persians conquered the area that served as their military base for the following campaign against Greece. It was liberated in 479 BC, when it formed part of the Athenian League and deposited annually ten golden talents into the Fund of Delos. It was conquered by Phillip II of Macedon in 376 BC and afterwards by the Romans in 146 BC. Byzantine sources refer to the city of Abdera with the name of Polystylon.
Abdera developed in a great cultural centre and was the homeland of many illustrious ancient Greeks like Leucippus and Democritus, the founders of the Atomic Theory; the sophist Anaxandrus; the rhetorician Pytagoras; the philosopher Hecataeus; the poet Nicaenetus and the mathematician Bion.
Visitors can see part of the Western wall, a street 74 m long and 6 m wide, and the gate. There are also houses with stone-paved courtyards and mosaic floors. The Acropolis dominated above the sea. Several cist graves and tiled-roof graves were unearthed along with cemeteries, funerary vessels, stone and clay sarcophagi including jewellery, vessels and figurines.
The mid-Byzantine three-aisled basilica is distinguishable in the village as well as the mansion of Pamokntsoglou. The rich collection of finds is also exhibited in the local museum. The village of Abdera is rich in its cultural history.
The Monastery of St Nicolas, under the administration of the historic Monastery of Vatopedi in Mount Athos, is located at Porto Lagos, a rather small, organized port that is also the biggest settlement in the Municipality. The chapel is actually built in the water and connected with the land by a wooden bridge. Tens of visitors visit the place daily as well as the nearby Vistonida lagoon, which is a wetland of great natural importance. It is an earthly paradise and a refuge for herons and other migratory birds.