The creation of Alexandroupolis started in 1870 when the Ottoman Empire decided to connect Edirne (Andrianoupolis) with the sea by railway. The largest port of the area until that time was our neighboring city of Enez (Ainos), but the port of Enez was gradually closing due to the embankments of Evros river.

So, at first the port was constructed and then used for the transportation of the materials necessary for the construction of the railway. Since then and until 1920 Alexandroupolis was a multicultural city with the first inhabitants who came to live and work being Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Bulgarians, Jews and Levantines.

In 1920, when Thrace was united with the rest of Greece most Turks and Bulgarians left the city. In 1922, because of the Treaty of Lausanne, refugees from North and East Thrace, Asia Minor and Pontus began to arrive in Alexandroupolis. Out of the many thousands of people that arrived at that time, more than 6.000 settled permanently doubling the city’s population.

The largest refugee populations that arrived in Alexandroupolis came from Enez, East Romelia, Karagats and Edirne, Cappadocia, Apolloniada, Sile and Pontus. The Sarakatsani, a nomadic group of people of the wider region of Thrace, also followed.

In the 1960s, when the phenomenon of urbanism started in the area, many habitants of rural areas from all over Evros left the countryside and settled in the city, increasing the population to 37.000 people by 1990. After 1992, there is a second refugee and immigrant wave of people from the former Soviet Union, who also settled in Alexandroupolis. According to the 2011 population census, the habitants of Alexandroupolis reach the number of 73.000 people.