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Piraeus
Πειραιάς (Greek) | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Piraeus Location within the region  | |
| Coordinates: 37°56′34.8″N 23°38′49″E / 37.943000°N 23.64694°E | |
| Country | Greece |
| Administrative region | Attica |
| Regional unit | Piraeus |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Ioannis Moralis[1] (since 2014) |
| Area | |
| • Municipality | 10.865 km2 (4.195 sq mi) |
| • Urban | 50.417 km2 (19.466 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 87 m (285 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
| Population (2021)[2] | |
| • Municipality | 168,151 |
| • Density | 15,000/km2 (40,000/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 448,051 |
| • Urban density | 8,900/km2 (23,000/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
| Postal code | 185 xx |
| Area code(s) | 21 |
| Vehicle registration | Υ |
| Website | www.piraeus.gov.gr |
| Patron saint: Saint Spyridon (12 December) | |
Piraeus (/paɪˈriːəs, pɪˈreɪəs/ py-REE-əs, pirr-AY-əs; Greek: Πειραιάς Peiraiás [pireˈas]; Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: Πειραιεύς Peiraieús; Ancient: [peːrai̯eús], Katharevousa: [pire̞ˈefs]) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece.[3] It is located eight kilometres (5 mi) southwest of Athens' city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Athens Riviera.
The municipality of Piraeus and four other suburban municipalities form the regional unit of Piraeus, sometimes called the Greater Piraeus area, with a total population of 448,051. At the 2021 census, Piraeus had a population of 168,151 people, making it the fifth largest municipality in Greece and the second largest (after the municipality of Athens) within the Athens urban area.[2]
Piraeus has a long recorded history, dating back to ancient Greece. The city was founded in the early 5th century BC, when plans to make it the new port of Athens were implemented: A prototype harbour was constructed, which resulted in concentrating in one location all the import and transit trade of Athens, along with the navy's base.[4] During the Golden Age of Athens, the Long Walls were constructed to fortify the route from the main settlement to the port (Piraeus). During the classical period, the naval base in Piraeus had 372 trireme shipsheds.[5] Beginning in the 3rd century B.C., Piraeus went into a period of cumulative decline. However, it began growing once again in the 19th century, after Athens was made the capital of Greece. Today, Piraeus is a large city, bustling with activity, and an integral part of Athens. It is a huge marine and commercial-industrial centre, and home to Greece’s largest harbour.
The port of Piraeus is the chief port in Greece, the 5th largest passenger port in Europe[6] and the 24th largest passenger port in the world serving about 4.37 million passengers annually in 2020. With a throughput of 5.44 million TEUs,[7] Piraeus is among the busiest ten ports in Europe in terms of container traffic, and is the busiest container port in the Eastern Mediterranean.[8] The city hosted events in both the 1896 and 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens. The University of Piraeus is one of the largest universities in Greece, and includes the country's second-oldest business school, as well as the oldest academic department dedicated to the study of finance.[9]
History
Ancient and medieval times
Piraeus has been inhabited since at least the 26th century BC.[10] Piraeus is a rocky outcropping on the Greek coast that features the steep hill of Munichia and modern-day Kastella. Although long connected to the mainland by a land bridge that is consistently above water, Piraeus in prehistoric times was an island connected to the mainland only by a low-lying stretch of land that was flooded by sea water most of the year. Whenever the land bridge dried up, it was used as a salt field (its ancient name, the Halipedon, means the 'salt field'), and its muddy soil made for a tricky passage. Over time, however, the area became increasingly silted, high, and dry—and flooding ceased—so that, by early classical times, the land passage could be safely crossed at all times. Thus in ancient Greece, Piraeus assumed increased importance because of its three deep-water harbours: the main port of Cantharus and the two smaller ports, Zea and Munichia. The Piraeus harbours gradually replaced the older and shallower Phaleron harbour, which fell into disuse.
In the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC, the area became the focus of strategic and political improvements due to its natural advantages. For example, in 511 BC, the hill of Munichia was fortified by Hippias, and four years later Piraeus was made a deme of Athens by Cleisthenes. According to the ancient Greek historian Thucydides,[11] in 493 BC, Themistocles initiated fortification works in Piraeus, and later advised the Athenians to take advantage of its natural harbours' strategic potential instead of using the sandy bay of Phaleron.[12][13] A duty of 2 percent was levied on goods passing through the port. These were very effective at raising funds for the city of Athens. In the year 399 after the Peloponnesian War, for example, the city had collected 1,800 talents in harbour dues despite economic effects of the war.[14]
In 483 BC, a new silver vein was discovered in the Laurion mines, and the profit from mining that silver was utilized to fund the construction of 200 triremes;[11] the Athenian fleet was transferred to Piraeus, and the triremes were built in its shipyards. The Athenian fleet played a crucial role in the battle of Salamis against the Persians in 480 BC. From then on, Piraeus was permanently used as the navy’s base. After the second Persian invasion of Greece, Themistocles fortified the three harbours of Piraeus and created the neosoikoi (ship houses); the Themistoclean Walls were completed in 471 BC, transforming Piraeus into a great military and commercial harbour. The city's fortifications were later further improved by the construction of the Long Walls under Cimon and Pericles, which secured the route from Piraeus and its ports to the main city of Athens. Meanwhile, Piraeus was rebuilt, based on the famous grid plan of architect Hippodamus of Miletus, known as the Hippodamian plan. (The main agora of the city was named after him in honour of this achievement.) As a result, Piraeus flourished, becoming a highly secure port with booming commercial activity, and a city bustling with life.
In the second year of the Peloponnesian War, Piraeus suffered its first setback when the Athens plague spread to it.[15] In 429, the Spartans ravaged Salamis as part of an abortive attack on the Piraeus. But when the Athenians responded by sending a fleet to investigate, the Spartan alliance forces fled.[16] In 404 BC, the Spartan fleet under Lysander blockaded Piraeus, and subsequently Athens surrendered to the Spartans, putting an end to the Delian League and the war itself. Piraeus was to suffer the same fate as Athens and bear the brunt of the Spartans' rage, as the city's walls and the Long Walls were torn down; the Athenian fleet surrendered to the victors, some of the triremes were burnt, and the neosoikoi were pulled down.[17] As a result, the tattered and unfortified port city was not able to compete with prosperous Rhodes, which became the dominant commercial force in the region. In 403 BC, Munichia was seized by Thrasybulus and the exiles from Phyle,[12] in the battle of Munichia, where the Phyleans defeated the Thirty Tyrants of Athens, but in the following battle of Piraeus the exiles were defeated by Spartan forces.
After the reinstatement of democracy, a general Conon rebuilt the walls in 393 BC, founded the temple of Aphrodite Euploia and the sanctuary of Zeus Sotiros and Athena, and built the famous Skeuotheke (arsenal) of Philon, the ruins of which have been discovered at Zea harbour.[18] The reconstruction of Piraeus went on during the period of Alexander the Great, but this revival of the town was quashed by Roman Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who captured and totally destroyed Piraeus in 86 BC. The destruction was completed in 395 AD by the Goths under Alaric I. Piraeus was led to a long period of decline which lasted for fifteen centuries. During the Byzantine period the harbour of Piraeus was occasionally used for the Byzantine fleet, but it was very far from the capital city of Constantinople.
In the Middle Ages, the port was usually called by the Venetians the "port of Sithines" (that is, of Athens) and in the 14th century, the name "Lion" is first attested, after the colossal ancient sculpture of a lion, the Piraeus Lion, which stood at the harbour's entrance. This later become Porto Leone (Πόρτο Λεόνε).[19] It was also called Porto Drako (Πόρτο Δράκο) by Greeks, drako meaning not just "dragon", but any monster.[20]
Ottoman period
When Piraeus was taken by the Ottoman Empire in 1456, it became known as Aslan Liman ("Lion Harbour"), a translation of the existing Venetian name.
The Piraeus Lion itself was looted in 1687 by Francesco Morosini during his expedition against Athens (part of the Morean War) and was carried to the Venetian Arsenal, where it still stands today. A copy of the lion statue is on display at the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus.
Under Ottoman rule, especially before the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, Piraeus was mostly deserted, except for the monastery of Saint Spyridon (1590) and a customs house, and it was only used occasionally as a commercial port. Although there were numerous land owners, Athenians did not live in the area.
There were at least two failed attempts to create a new town, the first in 1792 by bringing a population from Hydra and the second during the Greek War of Independence in 1825 by the installation of people from Psara, but it was not until 1829 that permanent habitation of the area was restarted. Piraeus at first developed into a small town with few dwellings, far from its glorious past as a prosperous city, with its population consisting largely of fishermen.
Modern era
With the creation of the modern Greek state and the proclamation of Athens as its capital in 1832, the port, still named Πόρτο Λεόνε "Porto Leone" or Πόρτο Δράκο "Porto Draco",[21] again acquired a reason for growth, and began to develop into a commercial and industrial centre. Migrants, mainly from the Aegean Islands, continued to arrive. A town plan was also drawn up and approved by King Otto, but not completely fulfilled, as it was revolutionary for its time.[10]
The municipality was established in 1835, reviving the ancient name "Piraeus".[22] Following petitions from the new and emerging prosperous bourgeoisie, municipal elections were held to elect a mayor for the city, Kyriakos Serfiotis of Hydra. Piraeus had around 300 inhabitants at this time.
Piraeus, from a deserted small town, quickly became the leading port and the second largest city in Greece, with its prime geographical location and closeness to the Greek capital helping it continually to grow, attracting people from across the country. A number of events contributed to the development of the city; among these were its ultimate declaration as the leading port of Greece, the completion of the Athens-Piraeus Railway in 1869, the industrial development of the area in the 1860s, and the creation of the Corinth Canal in 1893, all of which left Piraeus more strategically important than ever. New buildings were constructed to cover the necessities of this growth, such as educational institutions, churches, the Stock Exchange Building, the Town Hall, the Central Market, the Post Office Building and charity institutions; the port was also supplemented and modernised, with dredging operations, the construction of the Royal Landing, the Troumba Pier and the quay-ways up to the Customs House area, the commencement of construction work on the Outer Moles and the completion of permanent dry-docks. At the end of the 19th century, Piraeus had a population of 51,020 people.
The establishment of the Port Committee in 1911, which controlled the works of construction and maintenance of the port, and the Piraeus Port Authority in 1930, which made a more efficient job of managing a port slowly increasing in traffic, played a catalytic role in the city's development. The town flourished and neo-classical buildings were erected; one of them, which continues to ornament the present town, is the Piraeus Municipal Theatre, an excellent example of the area's once wider neoclassical architecture. After the decisive period for Greece of 1912–1922, Piraeus experienced a major demographic explosion, with its population almost doubling to reach 251,659 in 1928 from 133,482 in 1920, an increase owed to the arrival of Greek refugees from Asia Minor after the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War and the Genocide of the Greeks in Anatolia and finally the subsequent population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Although there was an increase in the labour force, a variety of social problems also emerged with the concentration of new populations in the suburbs of the city, such as Nikaia, Keratsini, Perama, Drapetsona and Korydallos.
The involvement of Greece in World War II came as a major setback to the city's progress. After the war, the city began its development once more, as damage to the port and the city were repaired and new additions took shape after 1955. Piraeus is now the fifth largest municipality in Greece; the city proper with its suburbs form the Piraeus urban area, which is incorporated in the Athens urban area, thus making Piraeus an integral part of the Greek capital. The port of Piraeus is now an important international port, and the largest in the country.
Geography
Piraeus is situated in the southwest part of the central plain of Attica, also widely known as the Attica Basin, which the Athens urban area (or agglomeration) sprawls across. Piraeus is bounded by the Mount Aigaleo to the northwest, and the Saronic Gulf to the south and west, and connected with the rest of the Athens urban area to the east and northeast. The "city proper" of Piraeus consists of a rocky peninsula, originally an island, featuring three natural harbours. In addition to the central one, called Kantharos in ancient times, the smaller harbours to the east are still in use: Zea, also known as Pasalimani, and Munichia, the smallest of the three and widely known as Mikrolimano and Tourkolimano . Nowadays, the Greater Piraeus includes the harbours of Drapetsona, Keratsini and Perama. The central harbour is a hub of commercial and passenger shipping, whereas the two smaller ones cater to recreational and fishing craft. The municipality has an area of 10.865 km2.[23]
Climate
Under Köppen climate classification Piraeus has a hot semi-arid climate (BSh) and according to the Hellenic National Meteorological Service climate atlas it is the only area in Attica, Greece that clearly falls into this climate category.[24][25] Due to summer night land breezes in Athens, Piraeus records high minimum summer temperatures while the mean annual temperature stands at 19.4 °C (66.9 °F).[26][27]
| Climate data for Piraeus Hellenic National Meteorological Service (1981-2010) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 14.1 (57.4) |
14.4 (57.9) |
16.6 (61.9) |
20.3 (68.5) |
25.1 (77.2) |
29.9 (85.8) |
32.8 (91.0) |
32.9 (91.2) |
29.1 (84.4) |
24.2 (75.6) |
18.9 (66.0) |
15.4 (59.7) |
22.81 (73.06) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 11.1 (52.0) |
11.2 (52.2) |
13.3 (55.9) |
16.9 (62.4) |
21.4 (70.5) |
26.3 (79.3) |
29.0 (84.2) |
28.8 (83.8) |
25.2 (77.4) |
20.6 (69.1) |
15.8 (60.4) |
12.6 (54.7) |
19.35 (66.83) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 8.2 (46.8) |
7.9 (46.2) |
10.0 (50.0) |
13.4 (56.1) |
17.7 (63.9) |
22.2 (72.0) |
24.8 (76.6) |
25.0 (77.0) |
21.5 (70.7) |
17.4 (63.3) |
12.9 (55.2) |
9.7 (49.5) |
15.89 (60.60) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 41.95 (1.65) |
36.26 (1.43) |
34.09 (1.34) |
30.34 (1.19) |
15.95 (0.63) |
5.08 (0.20) |
5.56 (0.22) |
3.07 (0.12) |
11.37 (0.45) |
30.5 (1.20) |
58.87 (2.32) |
58.84 (2.32) |
331.9 (13.07) |
| Source: National Technical University of Athens[26] | |||||||||||||
| Climate data for Piraeus Port | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 19.3 (66.7) |
19.8 (67.6) |
24.6 (76.3) |
28.6 (83.5) |
30.8 (87.4) |
36.3 (97.3) |
41.8 (107.2) |
37.7 (99.9) |
33.2 (91.8) |
30.2 (86.4) |
26.7 (80.1) |
21.6 (70.9) |
41.8 (107.2) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 15.2 (59.4) |
15.4 (59.7) |
18.5 (65.3) |
21.6 (70.9) |
24.8 (76.6) |
30.8 (87.4) |
35.0 (95.0) |
33.3 (91.9) |
29.0 (84.2) |
25.1 (77.2) |
21.3 (70.3) |
17.6 (63.7) |
24.0 (75.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 12.8 (55.0) |
12.7 (54.9) |
15.3 (59.5) |
18.4 (65.1) |
21.4 (70.5) |
27.1 (80.8) |
31.0 (87.8) |
30.0 (86.0) |
25.8 (78.4) |
22.1 (71.8) |
18.4 (65.1) |
15.1 (59.2) |
20.8 (69.5) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 10.3 (50.5) |
10.0 (50.0) |
12.2 (54.0) |
15.2 (59.4) |
18.1 (64.6) |
23.4 (74.1) |
27.1 (80.8) |
26.7 (80.1) |
22.6 (72.7) |
19.2 (66.6) |
15.6 (60.1) |
12.5 (54.5) |
17.7 (64.0) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 4.6 (40.3) |
0.7 (33.3) |
7.5 (45.5) |
10.5 (50.9) |
14.1 (57.4) |
18.4 (65.1) |
20.1 (68.2) |
21.9 (71.4) |
15.8 (60.4) |
15.6 (60.1) |
7.8 (46.0) |
7.5 (45.5) |
0.7 (33.3) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 51.9 (2.04) |
26.4 (1.04) |
27.9 (1.10) |
9.7 (0.38) |
14.9 (0.59) |
6.6 (0.26) |
1.3 (0.05) |
16.2 (0.64) |
64.2 (2.53) |
4.5 (0.18) |
53.6 (2.11) |
29.6 (1.17) |
306.8 (12.09) |
| Source 1: National Observatory of Athens Monthly Bulletins (Apr 2022 – Apr 2024)[28] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Piraeus Port N.O.A station, [29] World Meteorological Organization[30] | |||||||||||||
Demography
Piraeus is the fifth most populous municipality in Greece with an official population of 168,151 (in 2021).[2] The Greater Piraeus, part of the greater Athens urban area, comprises the city proper (municipality of Piraeus) and four other suburban municipalities, having a total population of 448,051 people (in 2021).[2]
The table below shows the historical population of Piraeus and Piraeus regional unit in recent times.[31]