about the tobacco warehouses in Kavala

Kavala' s latest history is strongly connected to the cultivation and trading of tobacco, for this has been, for a very long time, one of the main products on which the economy and evolution of the city was based.

Brief history The cultivation of tobacco began during the ottoman occupation. After its liberation in 1918 Kavala, being already an important port, attracted foreign investment. After 1922 (Asia Minor catastrophe) the city doubled its population. These changes gave ground to the expansion of the existing tobacco companies and to the creation of new ones.  More than 600 tobacco warehouses were spread all over the city, owned by more than 50 tobacco merchandising companies, controlling the Macedonian and Thrace tobacco production. Half of the tobacco workers of Greece were now working in Kavala. The flourishing tobacco industry created an economic growth but at the same time generated intense social and economical differences. The social struggles led to one of the strongest labor movements in greece.

At that time "the city looked like a nest of bees, when this human beehive went in and out of the warehouses. By the end of the working time the narrow streets flooded from a human mass. Men came out first, from far away you could distinguish only their heads covered with red hats. When the road was emptied from men, within 10 minutes, a second wave followed, this time from women. They were all dressed in black and holding colorful umbrellas, which they held to be protected from the hot summer sun.”

The buildings

The ground floor was used to store raw tobacco in dark rooms so that they wouldn't get dry. To the upper floors were the elaboration spaces. These spaces, when there was no electricity, were used for the sorting-out of tobacco, as there was more daylight. The workers used to sit in pairs back to back, next to the window, to get the best use of the light.

So to the upper floors there are many symmetrical "openings", as well as on the roof. To the lower floors, where the need for ventilation is more important than light, the windows are of the same number but smaller.

Today there is a great desertion instead. Only 50 tobacco warehouses are now existing and only 8 are functioning. The rest are closed and out of use. Recently the tobacco warehouses, as most of the old industrial buildings in Greece, were recognized as buildings of great historical and architectural importance. Most industrial buildings are restored are used for cultural, entertainment or commercial functions.

But it is still a question how these buildings can be attached to the urban tissue ( and the contemporary life of the city) and what functions they should host. In Kavala there have been two big restoration projects: a commercial center and a municipal center of culture.