Thrace (Greece): an example of pacific religious and cultural cohabitation

The Thrace is the region to the north east of Greece which confines with Turkey and Bulgaria. The Turkish population of Thrace with the Greek population of Costantinopoli and the ones of the islands of Imvros and Tenedos were free from the exchange of population of 1923, when the eastern Thrace was given to Turkey. For this reason Thrace is a very interesting place from the cultural and ethnographic point of view. The minarets of the mosques rise up together with the domes and the bell towers of the orthodox churches, the tobacco plantations alternate to green valleys and forests. Just the tobacco mostly moves the agricultural economy of Thrace, where orthodox Christians and Muslims live together pacifically showing a perfect example of cultural cohabitation. The border with Turkey is marked by the Evros river whose delta constitutes one of the most important swampy areas of Europe. The turtles and the storks characterize the fauna of this region. On the coast the town of Alessandropoli is a modern port and an important center of Thrace, in the interior the town of Xanthi is famous for the cultivation and manufacture of tobacco.

To know more:
www.ente-turismoellenico.com/Cosa_Sapere/viaggio_virtuale/Thracia/Thrac_1.htm (italian)
www.gnto.co.uk/geninfo/thrace.html (English)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrace (english)

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