Komotini

Komotini is the capital of the East Macedonia and Thrace region and, with the Democritus University of Thrace at its heart, one of the youngest-feeling cities in the north-east. Set on the plain between the Rhodope Mountains and the Thracian coast, it has been a crossroads for well over a thousand years, and its everyday life still reflects that unusually mixed heritage.

The city grew from a Byzantine fortress, still visible in fragments near the centre, and expanded greatly in the Ottoman period around the Imaret, a charitable complex founded by Gazi Evrenos that is thought to be one of the oldest surviving Ottoman monuments in Europe. Mosques, a covered market and old caravanserais sit within the tangle of the old town, alongside neoclassical houses and Orthodox churches. The result is a townscape where minarets and belfries share the same skyline.

What makes Komotini distinctive is that this mixture is living rather than preserved. The city is home to Greeks, a Muslim minority of Turkish and Pomak background, and descendants of Armenian refugees, and the old bazaar remains a genuine commercial and social heart, full of workshops, coffee houses, tavernas and shops. The pace is easy, the squares are busy with students, and the food draws on Anatolian as well as Greek traditions.

The city's museums repay a visit, particularly the Archaeological Museum, which gathers finds from across Thrace, and the smaller collections devoted to folklore and ecclesiastical art. Beyond the centre, the university lends Komotini a cultural energy out of proportion to its size, with concerts, festivals and a busy nightlife during term time.

Komotini sits conveniently on the Egnatia Motorway and the rail line, midway between Xanthi and Alexandroupoli, so it slots naturally into a tour of the region. Nearby lie the coastal wetlands of Vistonida and Porto Lagos with its lagoon monastery, and the beaches of the Thracian Sea. Most travellers give the city a half-day or an overnight stop, best enjoyed in spring or autumn when the plain is neither too hot nor too grey.