Nearby are two Macedonian tombs, discovered by the French archaeologist Heuzey during his Greek travels in the mid-19th century.

Even from Mycenaean times (1400 BC) settlements were found in the hills north of the excavation site.

The eastern part of the settlement has slipped into the sea; the western half is preserved, but has not yet been excavated.

Pydna was already a part of the Macedonian kingdom under Alexander I; first mentioned by the Greek historian Thucydides, it gained importance during the Peloponnesian War.

After the city was taken, Archelaus moved its population to a new site 20 stadia farther inland, the present location of Kitros.

[3] The inhabitants of Pydna moved back to their old seaside site after Archelaus's death in the early 4th century.

[4] Parts of the city wall, built in the 5th century BC, are located 500 m north of the ancient site.

[5] On 22 June 168 BC, Perseus, the last Macedonian king, lost the Battle of Pydna to the Roman commander Aemilius Paullus, who afterwards took the epithet "Macedonicus".

This battle ended the reign of the Antigonid dynasty over Macedonia, and Pydna subsequently became a Roman colony.

In the apse, facing the sea, there was a Fryktoria, to exchange light signals with the opposite Chalkidiki peninsula.

Late in the first millennium of the Christian era Pydna became a bishopric under the name Kitros or Citrus.

In the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade Citrus became a Latin Church diocese, as witnessed by a letter of Pope Innocent III in 1208, which does not give the name of the bishop of the see.

In the 14th century the inhabitants left the village and settled in today's Kitros, in the inland of the country.

The remains of the ancient Polis from the Classical, Hellenistic and, possibly, pre-Greek period are lying, at least partly, under the Byzantine buildings.