Nea Smyrni

Municipality of Nea Smyrni Δήμος Νέας Σμύρνης (Νέα Σμύρνη)
Basic data
State :	Greece
Region :	Attica
Regional District :	Athens South
Geographic coordinates :	37 ° 57 '  N , 23 ° 43'  E Coordinates: 37 ° 57 '  N , 23 ° 43'  E
Area :	3.524 km²
Residents :	73,076 (2011)
Population density :	20,736.7 inhabitants / km²
Seat:	Nea Smyrni
LAU-1 code no .:	4807
Districts :	no
Local self-government :	no
Website:	www.neasmyrni.net.gr
Location in the Attica region

Park (Alsos) in Nea Smyrni.

Nea Smyrni ( Greek Νέα Σμύρνη , ( f. Sg. )) Is a Greek city ​​and municipality ( Greek Δήμος Νέας Σμύρνης , Dimos Neas Smyrnis ) in the Attica region . The municipality consisting only of the city of Nea Smyrni is part of the Athens-Piraeus metropolitan region and is one of the southern suburbs of the Greek capital.

After Greece's defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1922), a settlement for Greek refugees from the Turkish city of Izmir (Greek Smyrni ) was built in the previously sparsely populated area , called Nea Smyrni ("New Smyrni"). In 1928 210 inhabitants lived there, in 1933 there were already 6,500 inhabitants. In 1944 the place became a township ( Dimos ) with the official name Nea Smyrni .

geography

The municipality of Nea Smyrni is located in the Attic plain (Lekanopedio Attikis) immediately south of the Greek capital Athens. Nea Smyrni has no coast on the Saronic Gulf ; the closest stretch of coast is that of Paleo Faliro on the Bay of Faliro.

In the north Nea Smyrni borders on the municipality of Athens (Neos Kosmos district), in the northeast on the municipality of Dafni-Ymittos , in the east and southeast on the municipality of Agios Dimitrios , in the south and southwest on the municipality of Paleo Faliro and in the west and northwest on the Kallithea parish . The border between the municipalities of Nea Smyrni and Kallithea is the main traffic axis Leoforos Syngrou.

history

The present day area of ​​Nea Smyrni was known as “Analatos” (“not salted”) before the 19th century . The name was given to the area by a freshwater spring near the church of Agios Theodoros, where the Panionios Stadium is today. On April 24, 1827, Greek insurgents and troops of the Ottoman Empire fought for the conquest of the Acropolis as part of the Greek War of Independence ; this battle is also known as the "Battle of Analatos". In 1898, on February 14th, there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the Greek King George I. On the occasion of the unsuccessful course of the assassination, Queen Olga of Greece founded the church of Agios Sosti.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the area of ​​Nea Smyrni or Analatos was de facto not systematically populated. The first systematic settlement of Nea Smyrni took place at the beginning of the 20th century after the opening of the road from Athens to Paleo Faliro. After the “Asia Minor catastrophe”, the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War in 1922 with the “ population exchange ” subsequently agreed in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne between Greece and Turkey , the Greek government decided to establish a settlement for Greek refugees from Asia Minor on the territory of the today's city of Nea Smyrni. On August 14, 1923, 20 days after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, the future Greek Prime Minister Nikolaos Plastiras signed the ordinance for the establishment of refugee accommodation beyond the Leoforos Syngrou. A year later, the ordinance on the “New Plan of Athens” ( Greek Νέο Σχέδιο Αθηνών ) came into force, which provided for the establishment of an urban settlement for the refugees from Smyrna ( Greek Αστικό συνοικισμό των εκ Σμύρνης προσφωγωω .

Construction of the settlement began in 1926. Two years later, Nea Smyrni had only 210 inhabitants; five years later the population had risen to 6,500 and in 1940 reached 16,000 inhabitants. 1934 Nea Smyrni became an independent "rural community" ( Greek κοινότητα , Kinotita ).

At the end of April 1941, Nea Smyrni was occupied by the Wehrmacht after the German attack on Greece on April 6, 1941. The German occupation lasted until the beginning of October 1944. In the same year Nea Smyrni became a municipality (Dimos) and was officially named Nea Smyrni, which reminds of the Greek refugees from the city of Smyrna (today's Izmir ) who lived in Nea Smyrni.

Between 1955 and 1960 the construction of large tenement houses (Polykatikies) began around the central square of Nea Smyrni and Chyrsostomou Smyrnis. At the same time, the urban development expanded to the entire municipality and merged with the development of the neighboring municipalities, especially the city of Athens with its Neos Kosmos district in the north. Based on the development, the municipal areas of Athens and Nea Smyrni can no longer be differentiated, analogous to the situation in the German Ruhr area .

Population development of the municipality of Nea Smyrni (data based on census results)
year	Residents	Change absolutely	Change relative
1928	210	---	---
1933	6,500	+6,290	+2,995.24%
1940	15,000	+8,500	+130.77%
1951	22,074	+7,074	+ 47.16%
1961	32,865	+10,791	+ 48.89%
1971	42,512	+9,647	+29.35%
1981	67,408	+24,896	+58.56%
1991	69,749	+2,341	+ 3.47%
2001	73,986	+4,237	+ 6.07%

In 1991 and 2001 the proportion of the population of Nea Smyrni in that of the Athens-Piraeus agglomeration was 2.03 and 2.02%, respectively.

Administration and politics

administration

The municipality of Nea Smyrni consists only of the city of Nea Smyrni. This can be divided into neighborhoods (gitonies) in the sense of districts. Districts of Nea Smyrni are:

• Faros (Φάρος)
• Agia Fotini (Αγία Φωτεινή)
• Alsos (Άλσος)
• Kendro (Κέντρο; center)
• Chrysaki (Χρυσάκη)
• Agia Paraskevi (Αγία Παρασκευή)
• Mytilinaika (Μυτιληναίικα)
• Loutra (Λουτρά)

The districts have no administrative significance for the municipality of Nea Smyrni. The municipality of Nea Smyrni belongs to the Athens prefecture of the Attica region .

politics

Mayor has been Stavros Tsoulakis since the beginning of 2011. He was elected in the second ballot with 63.69% of the vote.

In the Greek parliamentary elections in 2009 , PASOK achieved 37.4% (2007: 31.72%) and thus - as in all of Greece - again outstripped the Nea Dimokratia , which received 27.64% (2007: 36.35%).

Economy, infrastructure, traffic

Infrastructure

Nea Smyrni owns all primary (Dimotiko Scholio) and secondary schools (Gymnasio, Lykio) of the Greek school system including vocational schools. These are distributed over:

• 16 primary schools (Dimotika Scholia; grades 1 to 6), two of which are private institutions,
• 13 secondary schools analogous to the German lower secondary level (grammar school; grades 6 to 9), two of which are private and one church (Protestant) institutions as well as a private evening school, and
• twelve secondary schools analogous to the German upper secondary level (Lykia; grades 10 to 12), one of which is an evening school.

Nea Smyrni has three vocational schools (TEE) and twelve kindergartens (Nipiagogia) , one of which is privately owned, as well as 13 day-care centers (Pediki Stathmi). There is no university or college in the Nea Smyrni area.

The Embassy of Armenia and the Honorary Consulate of Equatorial Guinea in Greece are based in Nea Smyrni .

Nea Smyrni has a larger football and athletics stadium with a capacity of 11,700 seats (original capacity about 20,000 spectators). The stadium was built in 1939 and is currently home to the professional football team of Panionios Athens . Other sports facilities include a swimming pool and a sports hall.

The municipality does not have a hospital or health center (polyclinic). Patients who require inpatient treatment must use the hospitals and health centers in the surrounding cities and communities. Basic medical care is provided by resident doctors. There are three radiologists and two diagnostic centers, four gynecologists , three gastroenterologists , two dermatologists , five cardiologists , five microbiologists and laboratory doctors, five neurologists and psychiatrists , 14  dentists , eight orthopedists , three urologists , six ophthalmologists , eight doctors for every 73,000 inhabitants General medicine, four pediatricians and two pediatric dentists, two plastic surgeons , four pulmonologists , two rheumatologists , a general surgeon, three ear, nose and throat specialists and seven psychologists .

Culture, sport, personalities

Culture

Nea Smyrni is the seat of a diocese (Mitropolis) with a bishop (metropolitan) of the Greek Orthodox Church of Greece at its head. Nea Smyrni has five Greek Orthodox churches: Agia Fotini, Agia Paraskevi, Agii Anargyri, Agios Charalambos and Agios Andreas. Simeon (civil Periklis Koutsas) has been the bishop of the diocese since 2002.

Every year the cultural festival "Ionian Celebrations" takes place in Nea Smyrni, which is organized by the municipal administration of Nea Smyrnis. Most of the events take place in the city's park and the theater there. In addition to this, Nea Smyrni has another theater.

There are five cinemas in the community.

Nea Smyrni is the place of publication for five newspapers, which appear weekly or monthly.

Sports

Nea Smyrni is home to two professional sports teams. The team from Panionios Athens (full Greek name "PAE Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis") plays in the first Greek football league and has won two Greek cups. The basketball division of the same club plays in the first Greek basketball league .

Personalities

• Georgios Anomeritis (born August 1, 1945, Nea Smyrni): politician of the conservative Nea Dimokratia party , in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis (2000-2004) Greek Minister for Agricultural Boom and Food ( Minister of Agriculture ).

Web links

Commons : Nea Smyrni  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Results of the 2011 census at the Greek Statistical Office ELSTAT ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Information from the Greek Ministry of the Interior about the municipality of Nea Smyrni.
3. ↑ Information from Greek Travel Pages about the diplomatic and consular missions in Nea Smyrni.
4. ^ Information from the Autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church of Greece about the Diocese of Nea Smyrni.
5. ↑ Information from the Greek Travel Pages about the Greek Minister of Agriculture Georgios Anomeritis