With the creation of the modern Greek state and the proclamation of Athens as the capital in 1832, the port of Piraeus again acquired a reason for existence and growth, and developed into a great commercial and industrial centre; populations, mainly from the Aegean Islands, continued arriving to reside in Pireas City. A town plan for Pireas was also drawn up and approved by King Otto, but it was not completely fulfilled , as it was revolutionary for its time. Following the establishment of Pireas as a municipality in 1835 and the petitions from the new prosperous bourgeoisie that was emerging, municipal elections were held to elect a mayor for the city, who was to be Kyriakos Serfiotis from Hydra. Pireas Port numbered around 300 inhabitants at the time.

Pireas, from a deserted small town, quickly became the leading port and the second largest city in Greece, while its prime geographical location and closeness to the Greek capital helped it continually to grow, attracting people from across the country. A number of events contributed to the development of the city; amongst 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, still stands as the Municipal Theatre, an excellent example of the area’s once wider neoclassical architecture.

After the decisive for the Greek nation period of 1912–1922, Pireas City experienced a great 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 Greco-Turkish War and the Asia Minor Catastrophe. 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 old city, such as Nikaia, Keratsini, Drapetsona and Korydallos.

However, the involvement of Greece in World War II came as a major setback to the city’s progress. After the war the city began to develop once more, as damage to the port and the city were repaired and new additions took shape after 1955. Pireas City is now the third 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 Pireas an integral part of the Greek capital. Furthermore, the port of Pireas is an important international port and the largest of the country.

Geography

Pireas City is situated in the southwest part of the central plain of Attica, which encompasses the Athens agglomeration and is widely known as the Attica Basin. Pireas City is bounded by Mount Egaleo to the northwest, the Saronic Gulf to the south and west, and is connected with the rest of the Athens urban area to the east and northeast. The city proper 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. Nowadays, Pireas City larger urban area includes the suburban harbours of Drapetsona, Keratsini and Perama. The central harbor is a hub of commercial and passenger shipping, whereas the two smaller ones cater to recreational and fishing craft as well as passenger hydrofoils.

Archaeological sites

Among the archaeological sites of Pireas City, parts of the ancient Themistoclean Walls and Eetioneia, a mole in the entrance to the harbour, are still preserved in good condition. Excavations in Pasalimani revealed the Skevotheke, an ancient structure where ship rigging equipment was stored, designed by architect Philon. In Kastella the Syrangion is to be found, which probably served as a sanctuary to the local hero Syrango, and the Cave of Arethusa, both prehistoric. Ruins of the ancient city at the basement of the cathedral of Agia Triada and the ancient Theater of Zea next to the Archaeological Museum, the ancient neosoikoi in Zea, Munichia and Kantharos navy yard, can also be seen.

Landmarks

The city of Pireas is stamped by the diversity of culture among its neighborhoods. The hill of Kastella is one of the most prosperous and attractive neighbourhoods of the city, with a panoramic view over Athens and the Saronic Gulf. It is characteristically elegant due to the numerous neo-classical mansions and luxurious houses, while the Veakeio Theater and a church dedicated to the Prophet Elijah are the most popular buildings.

The coastal area of Neo Faliro has been upgraded and is also prominent with the Peace and Friendship Stadium and the Karaiskakis Stadium, an indoor arena and a football ground respectively lying opposite one another, predominating. Mikrolimano and Pasalimani, the smaller harbours of the city, attract large numbers of visitors because of their picturesqueness and vigorous nightlife, hosting fishing boats as well as yachts and cruise ships. On the other hand, Kaminia is a working class neighbourhood which still preserves the traditional look of past ages. The Municipal Theater in downtown Piraeus was built in 1885 and today is an impressive neo-classical building. Located across the Neo-Byzantine Piraeus Cathedral, it constitutes one of the most renowned landmarks of the city and a popular meeting place.

Piraeus, a name which roughly means ‘the place over the passage’

Piraeus or Pireas is a city in the periphery of Attica, Greece and within the Athens urban area,[2] located 12 km southwest of its center and upon the Saronic Gulf. According to the 2001 census, Piraeus has a population of 175,697 people within its administrative limits, making it the third largest municipality in Greece and the second within the Greek capital following the municipality of Athens. The Piraeus urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits to the suburban municipalities, with a total population of 466,065.

Piraeus has a long history, which dates back to ancient Greece. The effects of its natural space and geographical place have been critical factors for the configuration of the historical fate of Piraeus. The development of the harbour has been always combined with periods of proportional acme and progress of the city, while in the periods of the harbour’s decay the city languished. The city was largely developed in the early 5th century BC, when it was selected to serve as the port city of classical Athens and was transformed into a prototype harbour, concentrating all the import and transit trade of Athens. Consequently, it became the chief harbour of ancient Greece but declined gradually after the 4th century AD, and began to grow again in the 19th century, especially after the declaration of Athens as the capital of Greece. In modern era, Piraeus is a big city bustling with life and an integral part of Athens, having the biggest harbour in the country and all the typical characteristics of a huge marine and commercial-industrial center.

The port of Piraeus is the chief port in Greece, the largest passenger port in Europe and the third largest in the world, servicing about 20 million passengers annually. With a through-put of 1.4 million TEUs, Piraeus City is placed among the first ten ports in container traffic in Europe and the top container port in Eastern Mediterranean. The city hosted events in both the 1896 and 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens.

Ancient times

Piraeus, a name which roughly means ‘the place over the passage‘, has been inhabited since the 26th century BC. In prehistoric times, Piraeus City was a rocky island consisted of the steep hill of Munichia, modern day Kastella, and was connected to the mainland by a low-lying stretch of land that was flooded with sea water most of the year and was used as a salt field whenever it dried up. Consequently it was called the Halipedon, meaning the ‘salt field’, and its muddy soil made it a tricky passage. Through the centuries, the area was increasingly silted and flooding ceased, thus by early classical times the land passage was made safe. In ancient Greece, Pireas City assumed its importance with its three deep water harbours, the main port of Cantharus and the two smaller of Zea and Munichia, and gradually replaced the older and shallow Phaleron harbour, which fell into disuse.

In the late 6th century BC, the area caught the attention due to its advantages. In 511 BC, the hill of Munichia was fortified by Hippias and four years later Pireas City became a deme of Attica by Cleisthenes. In 493 BC, Themistocles initiated the fortification works in Piraeus and later advised the Athenians to take advantage of its natural harbours’ strategical potential instead of using the sandy bay of Phaleron. In 483 BC, the mighty Athenian fleet was transferred to Piraeus and was built in its shipyards, distinguishing itself at the battle of Salamis against the Persians in 480 BC. Since then Pireas City was permanently used as the navy base for the developed and powerful fleet of Athens. After the second Persian invasion of Greece, Themistocles fortified the three harbours of Pireas City and created the neosoikoi (ship houses); the Themistoclean Walls were completed in 471 BC, turning Pireas City into a great military and commercial harbour. The city’s fortification was farther reinforced later by the construction of the Long Walls under Cimon and Pericles, with which Pireas City was connected to Athens. Meanwhile, Pireas was rebuilt to the famous grid plan of architect Hippodamus of Miletus, called Hippodamian plan, thus the main agora of the city was named after him as an honour. As a result, Pireas City flourished and became a port of high security with a great commercial activity and a city throbbing with life.

During the Peloponnesian War, Piraeus suffered the first breakdown. In the second year of the war the first cases of the Athens plague were recorded in Pireas City. In 404 BC, the Spartan fleet under Lysander blockaded Piraeus and subsequently Athens surrenderred to the Spartans who put an end to the Delian League and the war itself. Pireas City would follow the fate of Athens and was to bear the brunt of the Spartan rage, as the city’s walls and the Long Walls were torn down, the Athenian fleet surrendered to the winners and some of the triremes were burnt, while the neosoikoi were also pulled down. As a result the unfortified and tattered port city was not able to compete with prosperous Rhodes, which controlled the commerce. In 403 BC, Munichia was seized by Thrasybulus and the exiles from Phyle in the battle of Munichia where the Phyleans defeated the Thirty Tyrants of Athens, but in the following battle of Pireas City the exiles were defeated by the Spartan forces.

After the reinstatement of democracy, 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 Skevothiki of Philon, the ruins of which have been discovered at Zea harbour. 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. Pireas City was led to a long period of decline which lasted for fifteen centuries. During the Byzantine period the harbour of Pireas was occasionally used for the Byzantine fleet, but it was very far from the capital city of Constantinople. The city lost even its ancient and original name that was forgotten, named Porto Leone by the Venetians in 1317, meaning ‘Lion’s Port’ from the Pireas Lion standing at the harbour’s entrance, and Porto Draco by the Franks.

Pireas from Satelite

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