Keratsini
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Keratsini municipality Δημοτική Ενότητα Κερατσινίου (Κερατσίνι) |
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| Basic data | |||
| State : |
 Greece
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| Region : |
Attica
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| Regional District : | Piraeus | ||
| Municipality : | Keratsini-Drapetsona | ||
| Geographic coordinates : | 37 ° 58 ′ N , 23 ° 37 ′ E | ||
| Height above d. M .: | 40 m center |
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| Area : | 7.601 km² | ||
| Residents : | 77,077 (2011) | ||
| Population density : | 10,140.4 inhabitants / km² | ||
| Code No .: | 510201 | ||
| Structure: |
1 municipality |
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| Located in Keratsini-Drapetsona Municipality and Piraeus Regional Unit | |||
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Keratsini ( Greek Κερατσίνι ( n. Sg. ), Traditionally also Keratsinio and Keratsinion ) is a western suburb of the Greek capital Athens and Piraeus , with which it has grown together in terms of settlement.
Keratsini formed an independent municipality until 2010: in 1934 some settlements were spun off from the municipality of Piraeus and first recognized as a municipality under the name Tambouria (Ταμπούρια), a short time later as Agios Georgios Keratsiniou , and in 1948 it was renamed Keratsini. On January 1, 2011 the merger with the southern neighboring municipality of Drapetsona to Keratsini-Drapetsona took place . Keratsini has the administrative headquarters here and is one of two municipal districts.
location
Keratsini is east of Perama , northwest of Piraeus , west of Nikea and south of Chaidari . To the south it borders on Drapetsona and the Saronic Gulf . The distance to the center of Athens is around 14 km.
character
Keratsini, like the neighboring coastal towns of Drapetsona and Perama, is characterized by commercial ports, shipyards, refineries and industrial companies that have penetrated into previously agricultural areas in a dynamic but largely uncontrolled development in the vicinity of the port of Piraeus since the 1930s and increasingly since 1950 .
In the container port of Ikonio, millions of tons of commercial cargo are unloaded from transatlantic container ships .
history
The first settlement in the area was around 3000 BC at the foot of the hill Agios Georgios, as evidenced by the excavations next to the church of Agios Georgios.
In the 17th century the first chapel was dedicated to St. Nicholas on the hill of Agios Georgios. During the Greek Revolution , Georgios Karaiskakis settled here and created the fortifications known as Tambouria . In 1827 the place was devastated by the Turks; he remained orphaned for a few years until residents settled again and a new village of Tseratsinion , belonging to Athens , emerged, which in 1870 became a rural municipality of Keratsinion , independent of Athens . The citizens of Piraeus built a church in honor of Karaiskakis near the chapel of St. Nikolaos, which was expanded into a majestic monastery church in 1879. In 1963 this church was demolished and a new one built in its place, which was finally completed in 2000.
After the refugees from Asia Minor were accepted in the 1920s, Keratsini developed into an independent community. In 1934 the community of Tambouria was established , which included the surrounding areas and a little later was called the community of Saint Georgios of Keratsini ( Greek Δήμος Αγίου Γεωργίου Κερατσινίου ). In 1936, the then mayor named the municipality Amfialis , and in 1947 it finally took the name Keratsini ( Greek Δήμος Κερατσινίου ).
The Keratsini industrial area
During the 1930s, heavy industry for the whole country was concentrated in the industrial area that stretched from Piraeus to Perama. In Keratsini there was except the thermal power plant of the English POWER the cement plants of AGET IRAKLIS (ΑΓΕΤ ΗΡΑΚΛΗΣ). There was also the fertilizer company Lipasmaton (Λιπασμάτων), which employed around 5,000 workers, the naphthalene factory ΝΑΦΘΑ , the Vasiliadis shipyard , the Loulis mills Agiou Georgiou , the large military fleet equipment factory KOPI (ΚΟΠΗ) with 2,000 workers, textile industry units , etc. A considerable number of smaller but important companies came, such as soap, tobacco, glass and plaster mills and small carpet weavers.
The fight for the power station
During the Metaxas regime and after the invasion of the German armed forces in Greece, numerous opposition members in Keratsini and the surrounding communities joined the national resistance of the "National Liberation Front" EAM and the People's Liberation Army ELAS . One unit sabotaged ships used in the service of the occupying forces, another collected weapons, another sabotage factories, and still others were dedicated to educating the population.
When the German occupiers realized in October 1944 that they could no longer hold out, they blew up the shipyards, the customs office, the port headquarters and the buildings of the Piraeus port authority (Ο.Λ.Π.). Their intention was to also razed the KOPI works, fuel depots, factories and the flour mill and the Keratsini electricity company. The ΣΕΚ, the railway company Piraeus-Athens-Peloponnese (ΣΠΑΠ), the KOPI works, the cadet school, the flour mill, Shell and Standard were saved by defusing ignition mechanisms and fighting by the ELAS of Tambouria.
The German occupiers initially withdrew from the power station. But to be on the safe side, a 15-strong resistance unit remained at the plant, and another unit was stationed near the hill with the church of Agios Georgios. This turned out to be saving, as the Germans advanced against the power station with 60 heavily armed men and four machine guns. After several hours of undecided fighting, the German forces gave up. But the ELAS also recorded eight fatalities, together with 17 who had fallen in the previous days.
The fight for the power station meant the end of the German occupation of Greece. A few days later, on October 18, 1944, the government under Georgios Papandreou returned from exile.
environmental issues
For a long time, domestic and industrial wastewater from large parts of the greater Athens area slipped into the sea without being treated, which led to serious chemical and bacterial pollution. The wastewater has been treated on the small island of Psyttalia off the coast since 1983 . In the current state of development, the wastewater will be reduced by around 63% of the solids and 38% of the organic load before it is carried through pipelines into the sea. The Psyttalia sewage treatment plant produces around 800 tons of sewage sludge every day. This was last temporarily stored on the plant site, while it had previously been taken to the Ano Liossia landfill. The interim storage of sewage sludge posed considerable risks for public health and the environment and violated the relevant EU regulations (directives 75/442 / EEC on waste and 91/271 / EEC on municipal wastewater). There has recently been a new sewage sludge drying plant, the construction of which was supported by EU funds and which has been operational since September 26, 2007. This restored the compliance of the sewage treatment plant operation.
The plant is to be expanded further by 2026; then the Saronic Bay is to be gradually restored to a zone suitable for fishing and leisure activities.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Results of the 2011 census, Greek Statistical Office (ΕΛ.ΣΤΑΤ) ( Memento from June 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (Excel document, 2.6 MB)
- ^ AP Grimanis et al., Pollution studies of trace elements in sediments from the Upper Saronikos Gulf, Greece . In: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 1977, p. 761 (English)
- ↑ Efstratiou et al., Correlation of bacterial indicator organisms with Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus ans Candida albicans in sea water . In: Letters in Applied Microbiology 1998, doi : 10.1046 / j.1472-765X.1998.00345.x (English)
- ↑ Website of the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP SA) (English) ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
