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Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
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Attica
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Attica is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea, the modern administrative region of Attica is more extensive than the historical region and includes the Saronic Islands, Cythera, and the municipality of Troizinia on the Peloponnesian mainland. The history of Attica is tightly linked with that of Athens, Attica is a triangular peninsula jutting into the Aegean Sea. It is naturally divided to the north from Boeotia by the 10 mi long Cithaeron mountain range, to the west, it is bordered by the sea and the canal of Corinth. The Saronic Gulf lies to the south, and the island of Euboea lies off the north, mountains separate the peninsula into the plains of Pedias, Mesogaia, and Thriasion. The mountains of Attica are the Hymettus, the portion of the Geraneia, the Parnitha, the Aigaleo. Four mountains—Aigaleo, Parnitha, Penteli and Hymettus —delineate the hilly plain on which the Athens-Piraeus metroplex now spreads, Athens water reservoir, Lake Marathon, is an artificial lake created by damming in 1920. Pine and fir forests cover the area around Parnitha, Hymettus, Penteli, Myrrhinous and Laurium are forested with pine trees, whereas the rest are covered by shrubbery. The Kifisos is the longest river of Attica, according to Plato, Atticas ancient boundaries were fixed by the Isthmus, and, toward the continent, they extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes. The boundary line came down toward the sea, bounded by the district of Oropus on the right, during antiquity, the Athenians boasted about being autochthonic, which is to say that they were the original inhabitants of the area and had not moved to Attica from another place. The traditions current in the classical period recounted that, during the Greek Dark Ages, Attica had become the refuge of the Ionians, who belonged to a tribe from the northern Peloponnese. Supposedly, the Ionians had been forced out of their homeland by the Achaeans, supposedly, the Ionians integrated with the ancient Atticans, who, afterward, considered themselves part of the Ionian tribe and spoke the Ionian dialect. Many Ionians later left Attica to colonize the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, during the Mycenaean period, the Atticans lived in autonomous agricultural societies. The main places where prehistoric remains were found are Marathon, Rafina, Nea Makri, Brauron, Thorikos, Agios Kosmas, Eleusis, Menidi, Markopoulo, Spata, Aphidnae, all of these settlements flourished during the Mycenaean period. According to tradition, Attica comprised twelve small communities during the reign of Cecrops, strabo assigns these the names of Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Decelea, Eleusis, Aphidna, Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephisia, and possibly Phaleron. These were said to have been incorporated in an Athenian state during the reign of Theseus. Modern historians consider it likely that the communities were progressively incorporated into an Athenian state during the 8th. Until the 6th century BC, aristocratic families lived independent lives in the suburbs, only after Peisistratoss tyranny and the reforms implemented by Cleisthenes did the local communities lose their independence and succumb to the central government in Athens
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Neighbourhood
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A neighbourhood, or neighborhood, is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members, the Old English word for neighbourhood was neahdæl. ”Most of the earliest cities around the world as excavated by archaeologists have evidence for the presence of social neighbourhoods. Historical documents shed light on life in numerous historical preindustrial or nonwestern cities. Neighbourhoods are typically generated by social interaction among people living near one another, in this sense they are local social units larger than households not directly under the control of city or state officials. In addition to social neighbourhoods, most ancient and historical cities also had administrative districts used by officials for taxation, record-keeping, administrative districts are typically larger than neighbourhoods and their boundaries may cut across neighbourhood divisions. In some cases, however, administrative districts coincided with neighbourhoods, for example, in the T’ang period Chinese capital city Chang’an, neighbourhoods were districts and there were state officials who carefully controlled life and activity at the neighbourhood level. Neighbourhoods in preindustrial cities often had some degree of social specialisation or differentiation, ethnic neighbourhoods were important in many past cities and remain common in cities today. One factor contributing to neighbourhood distinctiveness and social cohesion in past cities was the role of rural to urban migration and this was a continual process in preindustrial cities, and migrants tended to move in with relatives and acquaintances from their rural past. Neighbourhoods have been the site of delivery or service interventions in part as efforts to provide local, quality services. Alfred Kahn, as early as the mid-1970s, described the experience, theory and fads of neighbourhood service delivery over the decade, including discussion of income transfers. Neighbourhoods, as an aspect of community, also are the site of services for youth, including children with disabilities. While the term neighbourhood organisation is not as common in 2015, community and economic development activists have pressured for reinvestment in local communities and neighbourhoods. Community and Economic Development may be understood in different ways, and may involve faith-based groups, urban sociology even has a subset termed neighbourhood sociology which supports the study of local communities and the diversity of urban neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods are also used in studies from postal codes and health disparities. Neighbourhoods are convenient, and always accessible, since you are already in your neighbourhood when you walk out your door, successful neighbourhood action frequently requires little specialised technical skill, and often little or no money. Action may call for an investment of time, but material costs are often low, with neighbourhood action, compared to activity on larger scales, results are more likely to be visible and quickly forthcoming. The streets are cleaner, the crosswalk is painted, the trees are planted, visible and swift results are indicators of success, and since success is reinforcing, the probability of subsequent neighbourhood action is increased. The social support that a neighbourhood may provide can serve as a buffer against various forms of adversity
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Nikolaos Gyzis
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Nikolaos Gyzis was considered one of Greeces most important 19th-century painters. He was most famous for his work Eros and the Painter and it was auctioned in May 2006 at Bonhams in London, being last exhibited in Greece in 1928. He was the representative of the so-called Munich School, the major 19th-century Greek art movement. Gyzis was born in the village of Sklavochori, on the island of Tinos which has a long artistic history, as his family settled in Athens in 1850, he soon embarked on a study at the Athens School of Fine Arts. His studies there, formed the foundation of his artistic education, in 1865, having won a scholarship, he went to continue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where he settled for the rest of his life. He was very soon incorporated into the German pictorial climate, and this is expressed in the painting News of Victory of 1871, which deals with the Franco-Prussian War, and the painting Apotheosis i Thriamvos tis Vavarias. From 1886 onward he was professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich and his students included Ernst Oppler, Fritz Osswald, Anna May-Rychter and Stefan Popescu. Towards the end of his life, in the 1890s, he took a turn toward more religious themes and his works are today exhibited at museums and private collections in Greece, Germany and elsewhere. Gysis painting The Secret School was depicted on the reverse of the Greek 200 drachmas banknote of 1996-2001
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Panathinaikos A.O.
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Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos, also known simply as Panathinaikos, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in the City of Athens. It has the trifolium as its emblem, symbol of harmony, unity, nature. Green and white are their colours, Panathinaikos is one of the most successful multi-sport club and one of the oldest clubs in Greece. It is amongst the most popular clubs in the country and one of the biggest worldwide, Panathinaikos teams and individual athletes have won numerous titles and have made notable participations in domestic and international competitions. The basketball and football teams of the club are the most successful Greek teams in terms of achievements in the European competitions, the football team of Panathinaikos is the only Greek team that has reached the UEFA Champions League final and also the semi-finals twice. It is also the only Greek football team that has played for the Intercontinental Cup, the basketball team of the club is the most successful in Greece and one of the most successful in Europe, with six European championships, one Intercontinental Cup and two Triple Crowns. The teams of Panathinaikos have played overall in 15 European and international finals, in the individual sports, Panathinaikos has a remarkable tradition in the athletics, cycling, shooting, fencing and boxing departments. It has produced numerous athletes, World champions and European champions, winners at the Olympic, Football made its appearance in Greece at the end of the 19th century. In 1908, an athlete of Panellinios, Giorgos Kalafatis, dismayed by his clubs decision to discontinue its football team, left with 40 other athletes. Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, the great Greek athlete of the early 20th century, the team of Kalafatis was renamed to Panellinios Podosferikos Omilos – i. e. Panhellenic Football Club – in 1911. In 1918, it was decided that the official crest of the club would be the trifolium, symbol of unity, harmony, nature, and good luck, an idea of player Michalis Papazoglou. The officials of the club were looking for a universal, non-nationalistic or localistic symbol, aiming to represent the whole Athens at the country and further at the world. Papazoglou was also the instigator of the Panathenaic Idea, the idea for the creation of a new club -for the Greek standards- which will participate in as more sports as possible. With the help of the others of the four of the club. In 1919, Kalafatis was a member of the Greece national football team participated in the Inter-Allied Games in Paris. There, he collected informations also about basketball and volleyball and after his return to Athens, in 1924, the club took its final and current name Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos, from now on a multi-sports club. The athletics department was founded in 1919, in the same year, Panathinaikos was one of the first clubs in Greece to form a volleyball team. In 1924, the tennis department was founded, in 1926 the tennis department and in 1928 the cycling, shooting
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Ampelokipoi, Athens
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Ampelokipoi or Ampelokipi is a large, central district of the city of Athens. Ampelokipoi is in the centre of Athens, near Zografou, Goudi, Psychiko, the area is famous for hosting Panathinaikoss home ground since it was inaugurated in 1922. Two metro stations are located in the district, ambelokipi station Panormou station Before the Greek independence, at the beginning of 19th century Ampelokipoi was a village few kilometers north-east of Athens. The village Ampelokipoi is noted in the maps of this period, at the late of 19th century the village still remains outside the boundaries of Athens agglomeration. Then some cottages of rich Athenian were built in this area, due to its healthy climate, many hospitals were built in Ampelokipoi in the late of 19th century and the beginning of 20th. Today in this there are the hospitals Erythros Stavros Hospital, Errikos Dynan Hospital, Ippokrateio Hospital, Elpis Hospital. The population explosion in Ampelokipoi happened after the Asia Minor Disaster, in 1922, for the residence of the refugees, the government had originally chosen the area of the stadium of Panathinaikos that had been built in the same period. So a conflict broke out between refugees and Panathinaikos fans and finally the government changed the place for the settling of refugees, the new district was named Kountouriotika and was located around of Panathinaikos stadium. Few years later the government built a new neighbourhood for the refugees opposite of Panathinaikos stadium and these houses were built between 1933 and 1935 and today some of them have proclaimed monuments of historical heritage. Ampelokipoi is where Panathinaikos ground lies today and it as also the home to Ampelokipoi B. C. a basketball club founded in 1929. O. Stadium Athens Tower Apollo Tower - the tallest residential tower in Greece and it is 80m tall and consists of 25 floors. Most of these are named after geographic locations
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Kerameikos
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The area took its name from the city square or dēmos of the Kerameis, which in turn derived its name from the word κέραμος. The cemetery was also where the Ηiera Hodos began, along which the moved for the Eleusinian Mysteries. The quarter was located there because of the abundance of clay mud carried over by the Eridanos River, the area has undergone a number of archaeological excavations in recent years, though the excavated area covers only a small portion of the ancient dēmos. It was originally an area of marshland along the banks of the Eridanos river which was used as a cemetery as long ago as the 3rd millennium BC. It became the site of a cemetery from about 1200 BC, numerous cist graves. Houses were constructed on the drier ground to the south. During the Archaic period increasingly large and complex grave mounds and monuments were built along the bank of the Eridanos. The building of the new city wall in 478 BC, following the Persian sack of Athens in 480 BC, at the suggestion of Themistocles, all of the funerary sculptures were built into the city wall and two large city gates facing north-west were erected in the Kerameikos. The Sacred Way ran through the Sacred Gate, on the southern side, on the northern side a wide road, the Dromos, ran through the double-arched Dipylon Gate and on to the Platonic Academy a few miles away. State graves were built on side of the Dipylon Gate, for the interment of prominent personages such as notable warriors and statesmen. The construction of such lavish mausolea was banned by decree in 317 BC, the Roman occupation of Athens led to a resurgence of monument-building, although little is left of them today. During the Classical period an important public building, the Pompeion and this served a key function in the procession in honour of Athena during the Panathenaic Festival. It consisted of a courtyard surrounded by columns and banquet rooms. During the 2nd century AD, a storehouse was constructed on the site of the Pompeion, the ruins became the site of potters workshops until about 500 AD, when two parallel colonnades were built behind the city gates, overrunning the old city walls. A new Festival Gate was constructed to the east with three entrances leading into the city and this was in turn destroyed in raids by the invading Avars and Slavs at the end of the 6th century, and the Kerameikos fell into obscurity. It was not rediscovered until a Greek worker dug up a stele in April 1863, Archaeological excavations in the Kerameikos began in 1870 under the auspices of the Greek Archaeological Society. They have continued from 1913 to the present day under the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, during the construction of Kerameikos station for the expanded Athens Metro, a plague pit and approximately 1,000 tombs from the 4th and 5th centuries BC were discovered. The Greek archaeologist Efi Baziotopoulou-Valavani, who excavated the site, has dated the grave to between 430 and 426 BC, thucydides described the panic caused by the plague, possibly an epidemic of typhoid which struck the besieged city in 430 BC
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Kolonaki
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Kolonaki, literally Little Column, is a neighborhood in central Athens, Greece. It is located on the slopes of Lycabettus hill. Its name derives from the two column that defined the area even before a single house had been built there. Kolonaki is a wealthy and upmarket district, as one of the capitals leading shopping areas, it includes a number of high-end boutiques from young adult to casual fashion to prestigious haute couture from Greek and international designers. One of its shopping streets, Voukourestiou Street, is now known for its jewellery. Museums and galleries also abound in Kolonaki, the Benaki Museum, inside a preserved neoclassical manor house, and the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art and are two of the finest private collections in the country. Two smaller museums to be found in Kolonaki are the Museum of the History of Greek Costume, a walk across the street from Vasilissis Sofias Avenue are the Byzantine Museum, and the War Museum of Athens. There is a plethora of options for nightlife, including bars, ouzeries. Outdoor seating on pedestrian walks is typical, creating an atmosphere at night. The main Kolonaki Square is surrounded by cafes and restaurants, the Lycabettus Funicular, a funicular railway, links Kolonaki to the summit of Lycabettus hill. Kolonaki also hosts two metro stations, Evengelismos and Megaro Mousikis
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Kypseli, Athens
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Kypseli is a neighbourhood in central Athens, Greece. It occupies much of the 6th municipal department of the City of Athens, the boundaries of Kypseli are set by Patission Street at the west, by Tourkovounia hill at the east, by the Municipality of Galatsi at the north and by Pedion Areos park at the south. Extensions of Kypseli are Nea Kypseli which ends at Gyzi neighbourhood and Ano Kypseli which borders with Attiko Park, Papandreou neighbourhood, until 1908, when the county engineer Athanasios Georgiadis first bounded and planned Kypseli, Kypseli was a rural area with estates and country houses. In such a house Constantine Kanaris, fighter of the Greek revolution and later minister of Greece. A clearly urban development of Kypseli began in the 1930s with the construction of family houses, the development of apartment buildings was contemporary with Kolonaki and other central neighbourhoods. In 1937 the municipal market of Kypseli on Fokionos Negri Street, moreover, the shops on the street level made Kypseli a shopping area. Shopping districts were Kypselis Square, Patission Street, Kypselis Street, Fokionos Negri Street, during the 1960s Kypseli also had a vibrant nightlife with many theatres and cinemas, restaurants and cafés, bars and clubs. Consequently, the value of real estate decreased even if high apartments on Fokionos Negri Street can be sold more expensively in comparison to the rest of the district, several areas have remained commercial such as Patission and Fokionos Negri Streets. The popular chillwave duo Keep Shelly In Athens is named after a pun on Kypseli, Kypseli is the seat of Panellinios G. S. which was founded in 1891. Other sport clubs based in Kypseli include Athinaida F. C. a football club founded in 1938 Modern architecture in Athens
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Metaxourgeio
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Metaxourgeio or Metaxourgio or Metaxouryio is a neighbourhood of Athens, Greece. The neighbourhood is located north of the centre of Athens. Metaxourgeio is frequently described as a transition neighbourhood, moreover, local efforts to beautify and invigorate the neighbourhood have reinforced a budding sense of community and artistic expression. Anonymous art pieces containing quotes and sayings in both English and Ancient Greek have begun springing up throughout the neighbourhood, containing statements such as Art for arts sake, guerrilla gardening has also helped to beautify this area, taking advantage of the ample sunshine in Greece. The heart of the neighborhood is Avdi Square, which residents and visitors with its open space, greenery, periodic festivals and gatherings. Metaxourgeio is built on the Dimosio Sima, the ancient cemetery of eminent Athenians, for centuries, the area was largely rural and stood on the outskirts of the city. The construction of the Metaxourgeio factory in the early 19th century paved the way for the inclusion in the larger urban area. During the course of Athens dramatic growth in the late 19th century, Metaxourgeio became a thriving working-class neighbourhood, housing many craftsmen, tradesmen, and small-business owners. The population of the continued to grow during the course of the early twentieth century, maintaining its working-class profile. Metaxourgeios abrupt population decrease during this period reflects the situation in Athens. A lack of building renewal and restrictive traffic regulations exacerbated this trend in Metaxourgeio, continuing into the 1980s, the areas image of abandonment combined with a decrease in employment opportunities further discouraged new inhabitants. Since January 2000, the district has been connected with the Athens metropolitan line 2. Since his first Athens exhibition in 1959 he has more than 70 personal exhibitions in Paris, Athens, Thessaloniki, Milan, New York, London, Tokyo, Beirut, Hamburg, Munich. Apart from painting he has worked on scribing, poster creation, illustration of books and various publication in Greece, anthony Samarakis was born in Athens in 1919. He studied law at Athens University, with great social activity he was one of the most famous Greeks both as a writer and as an active citizen. Vicky Moscholiou is a famous Greek singer born in the Metaxourgeio neighbourhood of Athens singer born in 1943 and she was commonly described as having a ‘different’ voice. She rose to fame in 1964 with Stavros Xarhakos song Hathike to feggari, two of her hits gave their names to night clubs in Athens, Deilina and Ximeromata. She was one of the first in Greece to sing both in clubs and concerts, and she has also sung in the royal courts of Greece, Persia
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Monastiraki
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Monastiraki is a flea market neighborhood in the old town of Athens, Greece, and is one of the principal shopping districts in Athens. The area is home to clothing boutiques, souvenir shops, and specialty stores, the area is named after Monastiraki Square, which in turn is named for the Church of the Pantanassa that is located within the square. The main streets of this area are Pandrossou Street and Adrianou Street, the Monastiraki Metro Station, located on the square, serves both Line 1 and Line 3 of the Athens Metro. Photo Album of Monastiraki Monastiraki Photo Guide
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Pangrati
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Pangrati or Pagrati is a neighborhood in the Municipality of Athens, Greece. It is not to be confused as a suburb, as it is part of the City of Athens proper. However, it is mistaken as such, possibly because of it bordering the actual suburbs of Vyronas. One of the most important landmarks of Pangrati is the Panathinaiko Stadium that hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, the First Cemetery of Athens, the official cemetery for the City of Athens, lies within Pangrati. Pangrati has numerous squares, Plastira, Pangratiou, Messolongiou, Proskopon, Profitis Ilias, Deliolani, Plyta, Pangratiou Square is home to the Pangratiou Park, together with a major street named Spirou Merkouri, which runs into Konstandinou Ave and up towards Evangelismos Metro Station. The Arcadia Center, a cultural institution, is also located in Pangrati. The center operates study-abroad programs through the College of Global Studies at Arcadia University, Pangrati is served by buses #054,203,204,209,732 and trolleys #2,4 and 11
listen)); is a neighbourhood of Athens, Greece.
Gyzi
