Kallithea

Kallithea extends from the Filopappou and Sikelia hills in the north to Phaleron Bay in the south; its two other sides consist of Syngrou Avenue to the east (border to the towns of Nea Smyrni and Palaio Faliro), and the Ilisos River to the west (border to the towns of Tavros and Moschato) (photo 2).

On the longitudinal axis of the town (Thiseos Avenue), the Athens to Phaleron tramway once ran, from the beginning (1850) to (1955) and the end of its operations.

In the 1920s the town was flooded by thousands of refugees following the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), the Asia Minor Catastrophe (1922), and the Treaty of Lausanne (1923).

A few had arrived earlier (1919) from the north and east (Russian) coasts of the Black Sea, from places such as Odessos (Odesa), Marioupolis (Mariupol, the Sea of Azov) and elsewhere, after the failed attempt of the western allies (Greece included) against the young Bolshevik state during the Russian Civil War.

Black Sea immigrants of Greek origin also settled in Kallithea in the 1930s, as a result of the change of Soviet policy toward ethnic groups.

After its evacuation the building bound with the shooting range served as a school, until the Nazi Occupation of 1941, when it was converted to a prison.

Popular composers and singers once performed here; Markos Vamvakaris, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Yannis Papaioannou, Marika Ninou, Sotiria Bellou, Manolis Chiotis, Mary Linda, Giorgos Zampetas, Stelios Kazantzidis, Marinella, Poly Panou, and Viki Moscholiou.

Until 2004, south Kallithea (Tzitzifies) housed the only horse track in Greece (Ippodromos - Hippodrome), which later moved to Markopoulon, near Eleftherios Venizelos Airport.

Space photo showing the municipality ofKallithea (bordered with white dotted line), its location next to the Athens centre (to the right) and the Phaleron Bay (to the left), as well as the local layout of the Athens Metro (cyan line) and its stations (yellow circles). Click box right to enlarge
The fifth century BC fortification of Athens (red lines) superimposed on a recent astronaut photo. Also shown the river beds in ancient times (cyan lines), the new river bed (dotted cyan line), the ancient roads coinciding with existing ones (yellow dotted lines) and the Phaleron coastline at ancient times (blue line). Click box right to enlarge
The church Metamorphosi Sotiros