The settlement of Abdera was established within the ancient Byzantine city of the same name. The main occupation of the inhabitants was tobacco cultivation. The oldest documents mentioning this date from 1784. In the second phase of the settlement, the residential buildings were predominantly peasant houses with verandas and outbuildings, which served agricultural work and the family's livelihood. Around the middle of the 18th century, due to economic development, led by the occupation of tobacco processing, more sophisticated buildings were erected, adopting features of both popular Macedonian architecture and urban architecture, many of which were executed by guilds of Epirote master craftsmen. Their style is a combination of traditional local and neoclassical models, executed using traditional methods and materials. The settlement's two-story old school was also built during the same period. The wealth of the small town is evident in the patrician and tower houses that have survived to this day, as well as in the two fountains decorated with stone reliefs in the tradition of Pelion and Thessaly. In 1886, Abdera had an active population of 910 and maintained a two-class elementary school with 60 students and a kindergarten. The echoes of the community's 19th-century flourishing and prosperity can be seen in the townscape today in the public and private buildings and structures that have been preserved (patrician houses, tower houses, farmhouses, fountains, the old school, the old general store), in the built-up and undeveloped surroundings (ornamental and vegetable gardens), and in the road network.