This former soup kitchen, on the crossroads of ancient civilisations, is now an Ottoman masterpiece you can stay in

I am in Thrace, a large, historical area shared by Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. More specifically, I am in Kavala, one of the region’s major port cities in northern Greece, positioned at the crossroads of civilisations between Europe and Asia Minor.

‘Constantinople 460km’ reads a road sign, stamped with a Byzantine eagle, beneath the city’s landmark aqueduct. Athens lies 652 kilometres — or 405 miles — in the opposite direction.

My two-hour drive to Kavala from Thessaloniki is haunted by the ghosts of ancient peoples who traversed this route. Xerxes’s army marched through this valley in 480BC. In that bay floated the fleet of Brutus, who would be defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Philippi. There went Philip II of Macedon, to fortify the city that now bears his name; a city where, some 400 years later, St Paul baptised Lydia, the first European Christian, and was subsequently imprisoned.

Kavala, the Neapolis of Antiquity and Christoupolis of Byzantium, dates, today, almost entirely to its period of Ottoman rule, which lasted from 1387–1912. There’s the famous aqueduct, built in the 1520s by Ibrahim Pasha, Grand Vizier of Suleiman the Magnificent; the Neoclassical houses of wealthy merchants; the 19th-century tobacco warehouses; and, most importantly, the magnificent Ottoman-Baroque Imaret, perched above a Byzantine sea wall.

To call Imaret a hotel would be a misnomer. The vast, two-storey complex sits around three internal gardens and consists of eight exquisite guest suites. Founded by Kavala-born Mehmet Ali Pasha in 1813 as both a religious and secular academic institution, with an imaret (soup kitchen) for the poor of all denominations, it comprised a hammam, mosque, underground cistern, store rooms and student rooms — all of which still exist, meticulously restored and transformed by Anna Missirian, another Kavala native, whose family is the region’s last major tobacco trader.

Every morning, Missirian delivers the Imaret Gazette which she writes and personalises to each guest. Bursting with local tips and historical facts, it’s best read over breakfast, outside (my suite opens onto the arcade framing the water garden), with a Greek coffee (served in Haviland’s rose-patterned Impératrice Eugénie porcelain) and freshly-baked koulourakia.

The day I’m due to visit Mount Pangaion, my copy of the Gazette is themed around the symbolism of the rose in mythology, and in both Islamic and Christian cultures.

The mountain range is best known as the home of the cult of Dionysus and the demise of Orpheus, and famous for its monasteries, for its rich ancient gold and silver mines that funded the campaigns of Alexander the Great and for the beauty and fragrance of its wild roses, extolled by Herodotus. Not for the first time, I am astonished by the Imaret’s team’s attention to infinitesimal detail.

The same care has been lavished on the interiors: Persian carpets and Egyptian kilims rest on solid Athos chestnut floors, old black-and-white photographs of Egypt grace polished mortar walls, and huge Egyptian brass lamps hang from the ceilings. There are also plenty of books and Islamic antiques.

Every night, someone lights scores of candles in the original fireplaces and, in the domed suites — each one with a distinct character — the weighty Rubelli curtains and fabrics are replaced, come summer, with airy natural linens. My enfilade, forged from three cells, once housed 24 students.

To fully appreciate Imaret’s place in Kavala, I walk some 650 feet through the Old Town to the house where Pasha lived, before serving as the governor of the Province of Egypt (1805–48), and established a dynasty that would last until 1952. Now a museum — restored by Missirian — it is considered one of the finest extant examples of 18th-century Ottoman domestic architecture in Greece, complete with sachnisi (protruding windows), selamlik and haremlik (male and female quarters).

‘Ali’s family originated in Konya where there was a strong Sufi influence,’ says Missirian, of Pasha’s famously tolerant views, ‘but he never forgot his native town, and gave the Imaret to Kavala as a waqf —an inalienable charitable endowment, under Islamic Law. It functioned as such for 100 years.’

The complex was inhabited by refugees following the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, and gradually fell into ruin by the late 1960s. Imaret still belongs to Egypt so Missirian had to spend six years negotiating a lease before she had the right to restore the dilapidated landmark. ‘It was a very complex process,’ she says, ‘and the renovation involved so much research. We had to bring [in] Egyptian workmen… the only people who knew how to replace the lead covering Imaret’s 67 domes.’

Following the €20 million restoration of the two buildings (during which a 16th-century bejewelled and gilded sword was discovered inside Imaret’s walls), Imaret reopened earlier this year. As well as the original hammam, there is now — in the healing hands of Ayurvedic master Sharu — a spa, where the candle-lit cistern was once fed by Kavala’s aqueduct.

The founding principles of Mehmet Ali Pasha extend far beyond the mere fabric of the two buildings. The museum is also home to MOHA, a research centre for promoting understanding between pan-Islamic and Western cultures. Nor has Imaret’s original function been forgotten: ‘Soup appears on all our menus,’ says Missirian, ‘in memory of the original soup kitchen here.’

Dinner is served in a different setting each night. In the gazebo one evening, the soup is chilled almond with grapes, followed by three courses of traditional Ottoman recipes including Imam bayildi (‘the Imam fainted’). As Missirian is telling me about the mysterious disappearance of the famous Imaret library — last documented in the National Library of Egypt — a cat sashays past, tail aloft, with all the grace of a pampered Odalisque. The waitress opens the door to let her through, without breaking step. She is, true to the spirit of Imaret, a rescue cat, but, from her demeanour, she is to the manor born.

Imaret has a five-night minimum stay, from €11,500 per person on a full-board basis. The price includes treatments, curated journeys and private transfers to and from Kavala and Thessaloniki airports. Visit the Imaret website for more information and to book.

This feature originally appeared in the September 16, 2026, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe