Alexandroupoli

Introducing Alexandroupoli

The appealing port city of Alexandroupoli (ah-lex-an-dhroo-po-lih) is eastern Thrace’s largest town and the axis of local travel in four directions. Everyone going to Turkey or Bulgaria passes through Alexandroupoli, and in summer it gets crowded with tourists waiting for ferries to Samothraki and other northeast Aegean islands. However, Alexandroupoli is worth closer examination, having as it does two marvellous museums, a pretty if somewhat kitsch lighthouse, good seafood restaurants and, with its population of students and hale young soldiers, elementary nightlife.

Part of the Greek state since 1920, Alexandroupoli was occupied by the Bulgarians from 1912 to 1914, and again during WWII. Today, this coveted prize near the Via Egnatia east–west highway is poised to reassert its strategic role, with the completion (expected by end of 2010) of a major oil pipeline starting in Burgas, on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast – something that raises concerns about its proximity to nearby forests and wetlands

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009