Visited August 2016.

It is possible to visit Philippi as a day trip from Thessaloniki, although you should start very early in the morning. Take the first bus to Kavala from KTEL Makedonia bus station at 6 am (around 2h20min) and change there for a local bus going towards Drama, get out in Philippi (20 min, lots of buses), very close to the entrance to the site.

The entry fee to the site and the museum is 6 €. You will get a leaflet with the plan of site and potential paths to follow. No guide or guide books in English available.

The site itself is not very enormous and comprises 3 parts. Acropolis situated above the archaeological remains contains mostly medieval walls and is not very spectacular, but the views from there are really nice: you get the panorama of the Roman and Christian sites and the battlefield from 42 BC. To get there involves a steep 30-minute hiking through the bushes – the path is not easy to find, it stars just behind the fence very close to the museum.

The other parts of the property are divided by a road that used to be part of Roman Via Egnatia. The upper part of the old walled city comprises Greek/Roman theatre, remains of some temple and footings of an old basilica, called Basilica A. Every year in August there is a Theatre Festival held at the site. Although the city was founded by Philip II of Macedonia, because of the silver mines in this area, it reached its peak during Roman times. And the visit of the apostle Paul in the ’40 of the first century made it a very important pilgrimage site too, but only for a short period. The hole in which St. Paul was imprisoned is located in the SW side of the basilica. (I was told that there were some painting on the wall of the hole but I have not seen them.) Then you can go to the small but interesting museum, passing by Basilica C, not accessible for tourists.

The museum has 4 galleries: Prehistoric period, Hellenistic city, Roman colony, Early Christian and Byzantine. All artefacts were found in Philippi, the most interesting are stone and marble stelae and glass products.

In the lower city there are remains of agora, octagonal building with some mosaics in situ and the biggest basilica (called B or Direkler). Behind the basilica there are 50 public toilets which seem to be one of the most interesting part of the site.

I spent around 4 hours at this WHS, including climbing the acropolis, but I am sure that everything can be “done” in just one hour and a half.

You return to Thessaloniki the same way by bus, but if you still have time, spend some time in Kavala, in its old ottoman upper city, walk along the shore or the aqueduct and have a lunch in one of the restaurant serving wonderful sea food.