Drama, Greece

The Ottoman Empire conquered the region in 1371. In 1519 (Hijri 925) the town had 116 Muslim and 153 Christian households; it was in the jurisdiction of the beylerbey of Rumeli, Ferhad Pasha.[5] In the 19th century, the town became centre of the Sanjak of Drama. In 1912, during the First Balkan War, Bulgarian troops took Drama from the Ottomans. In 1913, as a result of the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War, the area became part of Greece - along with the rest of eastern Macedonia.

Monument for the Drama uprising

During World War II, in the wake of the 1941 German invasion of Greece, Bulgarian troops occupied Drama from 1941 to 1944.

On 28 September 1941, the local communist party organized a series of guerrilla attacks against the occupying forces in the villages of Drama and the surrounding villages. In response, the Bulgarian occupation forces applied harsh reprisals in Drama, Doxato and several villages like Choristi, Kyrgia, Koudounia, and Prosotsani.[6] The following day, 29 September, the leaders of the attacks were all killed in battle or in their attempts to escape to the German occupation zone.[7] Bulgarian troops moved into Drama to suppress the uprising and arrested all men between 18 and 45. They were reported to have executed between 360 and 500 people in Drama.[8] According to the Bulgarian military reports, up to 1,600 Greeks were killed in the uprising and in the weeks that followed.[9]

The massacres precipitated an exodus of Greeks from the Bulgarian to the German occupation zone in Central Macedonia. The terror and famine became so severe that the government in Athens considered plans for evacuating the entire Greek population to German-occupied Greece.[10]

On 4 March 1943, after midnight, the Bulgarian military authorities rounded up the Jewish population across their zone of occupation in eastern Macedonia and Thrace. The 4,000-strong community, including 589 Jews from Drama, was carried by train into Bulgarian territory and assembled in tobacco warehouses, which were empty at that time of year. From there they were taken by train to the Treblinka extermination camp. None of the 589 Jews from Drama ever returned.[11][12]

Drama has a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and chilly, wet winters.

The town is served by Drama railway station on the Thessaloniki-Alexandroupoli line, with daily services to Thessaloniki and Alexandroupolis.

The Archaeological Museum of Drama covers human presence in the regional unit of Drama from the mid Paleolithic Period (50,000 years before present) with traces of life from Paleolithic hunts in the caves of the source of the Angitis, up to modern times (1913).

The exhibition space consists of three main halls. In the first archaeological finds from the cave of Maara give witness to the presence of nomadic hunters in the area from the mid Palaeolithic period, while other finds show us about the life of settled farmers and animal rearers from Neolithic villages and the passage of the Copper Age in the city of Drama and the village of Sitagri. The reproduction of a Neolithic house with finds which describe the activities of Neolithic man and his daily activities is the main centre of interest for visitors of all ages.

Bust of Dionysius, found in the area of Kali Vrysi. The same hall continues the journey through time to the Iron Age and later years where the main element was the worship of Dionysius at the city of Drama itself and at Kali Vrysi and other areas of the regional unit. In the second hall architectural sculptures, pottery and coins confirm that life continued in the city and throughout the whole regional unit during early Christian, Byzantine and post-Byzantine years.

The visitor is taken through modern recent history by a photographic exhibition relating to the city of Drama, the towns of the regional unit and the mountain villages. The exhibition covers the period from the beginning of the Ottoman period up to the middle of the 19th century. In the third hall which is roofed with an atrium, the visitor can admire sculptures arranged into three thematic groups. The first includes architectural sculptures dating from ancient times up to Turkish occupation. The second contains votive monuments connected with the worship of various gods in the Greco-Roman pantheon as well as local deities, with particular reference to Dionysius while the third group of sculptures focuses on funerary monuments from Hellenistic and Roman times.

The history of the Christian Church in Drama began during the Byzantine period and underwent difficult and troubled times. From the 14th century when the city was captured by the Ottomans until the 20th century with successive foreign occupations, the Greek Orthodox Church in Drama struggled without end, fed by the blood of many faithful, martyrs to the faith and to the Hellenic ideal and provided succor to its followers through difficult periods.

The collection of icons dating from Byzantine times to the 20th century forms the basic core of the museum's exhibits. The Museum of the Cathedral of Drama, founded during the reign of the honourable Bishop Dionysius 1st, is now housed in a recently restored five-storey wing of the Bishop of Drama's palace on Venizelou St. In the spacious and well-attended halls, ecclesiastical treasures of priceless spiritual and artistic value are on exhibition. The Icons of the Virgin Ηοdegetria and the Blessing Lord from the 13th century, icons from the 17th century and particularly from the 19th century decorate and sanctify the place. Moreover, the episcopal canonicals, holy vessels and their covers, many from the 19th century, relics of Chrysostomos of Drama and Smyrni, constitute the most important exhibits in the museum.

Many of the exhibits are relics brought by refugees from Asia Minor and Pontus in 1922 from the churches of their ancient homes to their new home, valuable reminders of who they were and where they came from. Organized groups of pilgrims and visitors to the city are advised to contact the office of the Diocese of Drama before visiting the museum to make arrangements.

• Folklore Museum (Drama)

Drama hosts many sport teams in various sports. The most famous and most popular is Doxa Dramas, founded in 1918. Other successful clubs with presence in Greek national divisions are KAOD (basketball club), Pandramaikos FC, Drama 1986 and Amazones Dramas.

• Tabanıyassı Mehmed Pasha- Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, (died 1637)
• Mahmud Dramali Pasha (1780–1822) - Ottoman General during the Greek Independence War
• Yesari Asım Arsoy (1900–1992), classical Turkish music composer - singer
• Koulis Stoligkas (1910–1984), actor
• Michael Athans (b. 1937), electrical engineer, retired MIT professor
• Apostolos Nikolaidis (1938–1999), Greek singer
• Basilis C. Xanthopoulos (1951–1990), theoretical physicist
• Nikos Sergianopoulos (1952–2008), television and stage actor
• Tania Tsanaklidou,(b. 1952) singer
• Athanassios Tsakiris (b. 1965), five-time Winter Olympian
• Petros Gaitanos (b. 1967), singer
• Natassa Theodoridou, (b. 1970), singer
• Paraskevas Antzas (b. 1977), footballer
• Charikleia Bouda (b. 1980), Olympic sprinter
• Stratos Perperoglou (b. 1984), basketball player
• Konstantinos Douvalidis (b. 1987), Olympic hurdler
• Dimitris Siovas (b. 1988), footballer
• Panagiota Tsakiri (b. 1990), Olympic biathlete and cross-country skier
• Ioannis Fetfatzidis (b. 1990), footballer
• Anna Korakaki (b. 1996), shooter, Gold medalist Women's 25m pistol, bronze medalist in the 10m air pistol at the 2016 Summer Olympics