[4] Later, under the Byzantine Empire, Edessa benefited from its strategic location, controlling the Via Egnatia as it enters the Pindus mountains, and became a center of medieval Greek culture, famed for its strong walls and fortifications.

[4] In the modern period, Edessa was one of Greece's industrial centers until the middle of the 20th century, with many textile factories operating in the city and its immediate vicinity.

[5] The Greek name Ἔδεσσα (Édessa) means "tower in the water"[4] and is generally thought to be of Phrygian origin,[6][7] although a minority of scholars consider it to be Illyrian instead.

The city disappears from the sources thereafter, and re-emerges only in the 11th century, in the account of the Bulgarian wars of Emperor Basil II by the chronicler John Skylitzes, with the Slavic name Vodena (τὰ Βοδηνά in Greek).

[16] The Bulgarian historian Vasil Zlatarski hypothesized that it was Vodena, and not Vidin on the Danube, that was a base of the Cometopuli in their revolt against Byzantium.

[16] Due to its strategic location, controlling the Via Egnatia as it enters the Pindus mountains, the town was much fought over in the subsequent centuries: the Normans under Bohemond I captured it briefly in 1083, but were eventually repelled by the forces of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.

[16] In 1519 (Hijri 925) the town had 68 Muslim and 116 Christian households; it was a joint zeamet of Murad of İpek, and Hüseyin the son of dizdar.

[20] According to the Ottoman general census of 1881/1882–1893, the district of Edessa (Vodine) had a total population of 33,113, consisting of 14,962 Muslims, 14,208 Greek Patriarchists, and 3,943 Bulgarian Exarchists.

A large segment of the population specialized in silk production, allowing Edessa to enjoy a high standard of living in the interwar period (1922–1940).

[25] In early 1949, the military forces of the Greek Government conducted a series of successful military operations that destroyed all communist forces and after the end of war in August 1949, many communists and sympathizers, both ethnic Greeks and Slav Macedonians were expelled from Greece and fled to the countries of Eastern Europe.