Guide of Eastern Macedonia & Thrace

The archeological space of Philipi consists of the ruins of a fortified construction unit, shaped in different phases. The prime construction is the one of the new city of Philipi on the existent settlement of Krinides, built after its conquest from Alexander’s the great father, Philip B of Macedonia. It has a fortifying surrounding wall the building of which began during the period of Philipos the second kingship and continued during the years of Ioustinianos’ A kingship (527-565). Here we meet the biggest church that has ever been found in excavations and belongs to the architectural rhythm of Vasiliki (=royal): the Christian Vasiliki A (end of the 5th century) which is 136 meters in length, 50 meters in width and has three aisles, and the Vasiliki B, which differs from the Greek type of Vasiliki with a wooden roof and approaches the type of Vasiliki with a dome, like the St. Sofia of Constantinople. There is an especial construction built in the 5th century. A baptistery, a public bath, an Episcopal manor and storehouses are serialized around an octagonal church. The episcopacy was built in the same period. It has a central open air closed yard and sections with apartments, reception halls, gathering halls and many warehouses. The roman market (forum) was built in the 1st century and is located at the center of the ancient city, between the two big parallel tilled roads connected with ancient Egnatia road that connected the two gates of the walls of the city and was the decumanus maximus (the biggest artery) of the Roman colony that followed the Macedonian city. The palaestra (=arena, ring) was built in the 2nd century and was demolished during the city’s destruction. Thermae and the club were built in the 3rd century and include two sections with gathering halls, baths, hot water supply and three big rooms with pools. The fortifications’ diagram shows the city’s orientation from north to the south, it includes an acropolis, a theatre and a paleastra pointing out the ancient Greek type of the city designed for providing education for the citizens. Posterior buildings shaped an architectural morphology that preserved the Greek characteristics with geometrical, linear land planning of the functions between main parallel roads with rectangular arrangement and the crossing roads, especially at the center.