Keratea ( el, Κερατέα) is a town in

East Attica East Attica ( el, Ανατολική Αττική) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Attica. The regional unit covers the eastern part of the urban agglomeration of Athens, and also the rural area to its east. Adm ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality

Lavreotiki Lavreotiki is a municipality at the southeasternnmost tip of the Attica peninsula in the Greek regional unit of East Attica. Its municipal seat is the town of Laurium (''Lavrio''). It is historically important as a significant ancient mining dis ...

, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 129.864 km². It is part of Athens metropolitan area.

Geography

Keratea is situated in the hills in the southeastern part of the

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...

peninsula, 6 km west of the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...

coast, at about 200 m elevation. It lies at the northern foot of . It is 5 km southeast of

Kalyvia Thorikou Kalyvia Thorikou ( el, Καλύβια Θορικού) is a town and a former municipality in East Attica, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Saronikos, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The m ...

, 12 km northwest of

Lavrio Laurium or Lavrio ( ell, Λαύριο; grc, Λαύρειον (later ); before early 11th century BC: Θορικός ''Thorikos''; from Middle Ages until 1908: Εργαστήρια ''Ergastiria'') is a town in southeastern part of Attica, Greec ...

and 29 km southeast of

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

city centre.

Greek National Road 89 Greek National Road 89 is a road in East Attica, Greece. It connects Gerakas with Sounio, via Koropi and Lavrio. Between Gerakas and Koropi it has lost importance after the opening of the Motorway 6. There are plans to upgrade the section between K ...

(Gerakas - Koropi - Lavrio - Sounio) passes through Keratea. In antiquity, the area of present Keratea was part of the

deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ...

Cephale Cephale or Kephale ( grc, Κεφαλή) was a deme of ancient Attica of the ''phyle'' Acamantis, that appears, from the order in which it occurs in the list of Pausanias, to have been situated south or east of Hymettus, perhaps in the neighbourhoo ...

, of the

phyle ''Phyle'' ( gr, φυλή, phulē, "tribe, clan"; pl. ''phylai'', φυλαί; derived from ancient Greek φύεσθαι "to descend, to originate") is an ancient Greek term for tribe or clan. Members of the same ''phyle'' were known as ''symphylet ...

Acamantis Acamantis ( el, Ακαμαντίς) was one of the phylai (tribes) of classical Athens, created during the reforms of Cleisthenes. It was named after the legendary hero Acamas, and included the demes of Cholargos, Eiresidai, Hermos, Iphistiadai, ...

in Mesogeia area of Ancient Athens.

Historical population

The town has historically been an

Arvanite Arvanites (; Arvanitika: , or , ; Greek: , ) are a bilingual population group in Greece of Albanian origin. They traditionally speak Arvanitika, an Albanian language variety, along with Greek. Their ancestors were first recorded as settlers ...

settlement.

Historical monuments

The church of St. Athanasius (Kronizes). A wall painting monument (1744) of George Markou the Argus, the great and prolific post-Byzantine ecclesiastic iconographer of the 18th century (''"....'' ''Il Santo Athanasio, che si trova alla Regione Cronizes di Kerateas dell 'Attica...."'' ''Evangelos Andreou'' http://ketlib.lib.unipi.gr/xmlui/handle/ket/849 )

Sports

Keratea hosts the sport teams Keravnos Keratea F.C., one of the most successful East Attica football clubs, and the multi-sport G.S. Kerateas (Gymnastikos Syllogos Kerateas), the women's volleyball team has represent the town in Greek A1 Division for several years.

References

External links