There is no castle in Drama. But there are remains of the Byzantine walls of the city, which, until recently, were completely neglected.
There are remains of the Byzantine walls in the northern neighborhood of the city, around the old church of Agia Sophia. In addition, there are other inconspicuous and scattered sections throughout the city, in house yards, in open areas, etc. It is characteristic in Drama that, very often, parts of the wall serve to demarcate properties.
It’s not known exactly when the walls were built, but logically the construction should have been the result of multiple interventions from ancient years till the Turkish occupation.
It seems that the surviving walls of Drama are entirely of Byzantine origin. There are no signs of Roman fortification, while it seems that there were no serious interventions even during the Turkish occupation.
The boundaries of Drama in the Byzantine era did not exceed those of the city’s natural fortifications. The plateau on which the historical center of Drama was built, which is bounded by a large torrent on the north and east sides, is bounded by the waters of Agia Barbara on the south, and by a strong deepening of the ground on the north side, where the waters of more northern regions.
These natural barriers essentially limited the Byzantine enclosure within a relatively small area of 60 acres.
The total length of the walls is estimated to be around 850m. Every 60 to 80m are square towers, of which four are on the east side, one on the north and one on the north-east corner. The northern tower, where the wooden floor wall sockets can be seen in its highest part, is the one best preserved when compared to all the others. The total height, together with the ramparts, was 14m. The thickness of the wall varies from 1.70 to 3.30m, depending on whether the wall is single, like the southern and the western ones, or double, like the other two.
The Byzantine walls of Drama were classified as a “historical preserved monument” by a decision of the Greek state in 1962, while today maintenance work is being carried out.
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