Kifissia or Kifisia (also Kephisia or Cephissia; el, Κηφισιά, ) is one of the most expensive northern suburbs of
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...
,
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 wit ...
, mainly accessed via Kifissias Avenue, running all the way from central Athens up to Theseos Avenue in the suburb of
Nea Erythraia. It has traditionally been home to rich Greek families and major
Greek political families.
Municipality
The municipality Kifisia was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 3 former municipalities, that became municipal units:
*
Ekali
*Kifisia
*
Nea Erythraia
The municipality has an area of 35.100 km
2, the municipal unit 25.937 km
2.
Geography
Kifisia is situated in central
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 ...
, at the western end of the forested
Penteli mountain range. The small river
Kifisos forms the western border of the municipality. Kifisia is situated 12 km northeast of Athens city centre. The built-up area of Kifisia is continuous with those of the neighbouring suburbs
Lykovrysi,
Nea Erythraia,
Marousi
Marousi or Maroussi ( el, Μαρούσι, also Αμαρούσιο ''Amarousio'') is a suburb in the northeastern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Marousi dates back to the era of the ancient Athenian Republic; its ancient name was Athmon ...
and
Pefki. Kifisia consists of the following neighbourhoods: Adames, Ano Kifisia, Kato Kifisia, Kefalari, Nea Kifisia and Politeia (or Politia). It is a green suburb with many parks and tree-lined streets.
The main thoroughfare is
Kifisias Avenue, which connects Kifisia with central Athens and the northern beltway
Motorway 6. The
Kifisia station is the north terminus of
Athens Metro Line 1.
History
Antiquity
Cephisia was a
deme
In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Classical Athens, Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th ...
of ancient
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...
. It was the home of the famous dramatist
Menander
Menander (; grc-gre, Μένανδρος ''Menandros''; c. 342/41 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek dramatist and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His re ...
(circa 342-291 BC).
Cephisia had become a famous retreat of philosophers during the reign of the Roman emperor
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman '' municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispan ...
, when the wealthy
Herodes Atticus
Herodes Atticus ( grc-gre, Ἡρώδης; AD 101–177) was an Athenian rhetorician, as well as a Roman senator. A great philanthropic magnate, he and his wife Appia Annia Regilla, for whose murder he was potentially responsible, commissioned ...
of
Marathon, Greece
Marathon (Demotic Greek: Μαραθώνας, ''Marathónas''; Attic/Katharevousa: , ''Marathṓn'') is a town in Greece and the site of the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, in which the heavily outnumbered Athenian army defeated the Persians. Leg ...
built the Villa Cephisia. In his ''Attic Nights'',
Aulus Gellius
Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book ...
describes the unique ambiance of intellectual ferment and aristocratic leisure in an idyllic setting which he created there. It was also the practice of Herodes to provide free instruction in philosophy for selected youths from
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...
.
The remains of some of his family funeral monuments lie at the centre of the town in Platonas Square. He also beautified a sanctuary to the
Nymph
A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...
s in the ravine of Kokkinara, in the nearby district of Kefalari.
[Tomkinson, John L.]
''Athens''
Anagnosis Books, Athens (2006) pp217-231
Medieval period
The history of Kifisia during the medieval period is obscure, but the remains of a monastery church dedicated to the Virgin of the
Swallow
The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...
(Panagia Chelidonas) is associated with a story about a battle fought there between local people and unspecified "invaders". This chapel is a rare example of a monastery church originally provided with a fireplace, for the chimney remains.
[
]
Ottoman Era
During Ottoman period, in 1667, Kifisia was visited by the Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi
Derviş Mehmed Zillî (25 March 1611 – 1682), known as Evliya Çelebi ( ota, اوليا چلبى), was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman explorer who travelled through the territory of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring lands over a period of forty ye ...
. He described a small country town set in a fertile plain of paradisaic beauty, with three hundred tile-roofed houses. Half the inhabitants of the town were Muslims and half were Christians. He records that there was a single mosque, without a minaret, and many small Christian chapels - some of which survive today.[
]
Post Greek Independence
The temperature in Kifisia tends to be significantly lower than that of the city, so following the independence of Greece, it quickly became a summer resort of the ruling class of the new state.
The village was home to an Arvanitika
Arvanitika (; Arvanitika: , ; Greek: , ), also known as Arvanitic, is the variety of Albanian traditionally spoken by the Arvanites, a population group in Greece. Arvanitika is today endangered, as its speakers have been shifting to the us ...
speaking community, however due to its proximity to Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...
, it has undergone a language shift. The popularity of Kifissia faded somewhat during the middle of the nineteenth century when the danger of raids by brigands who infested the nearby mountains was very real. However, the suppression of brigandage, and the arrival of the railway in 1885, led to the dramatic development of the area.
It became the fashion for wealthy Athenian families to build summer houses in Kifisia, and keen social competition led to the creation of a unique architectural ambiance, as villas in ever more exotic styles proliferated. For those unable to afford a summer house, many hotels were built, where the slightly less affluent could spend the holiday months rubbing shoulders with their social betters.
The heyday of Kifisia was probably during the inter-war period, when the leaders of the two main rival political parties frequented different hotels in the town together with their most important supporters.[
]
World War II and Civil War
Following the liberation of Greece from German occupation in 1944, the British Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
ill-advisedly made its headquarters in Kefalari, taking over several hotels. With the outbreak of the Greek Civil War
The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος όλεμος ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom ...
, the RAF personnel were first besieged, then forced to surrender, and marched across the mountains into northern Greece; being released in Trikala
Trikala ( el, Τρίκαλα; rup, Trikolj) is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios. According to the Greek National Stati ...
only after a truce had been arranged.[
]
Museums
The Goulandris Museum of Natural History is situated in the heart of Kifissia and has collections from the natural wildlife of the Greek territory.
Economy
Accenture
Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A ''Fortune'' Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022. Accen ...
, Aegean Airlines
Aegean Airlines S.A. ( el, Αερογραμμές Αιγαίου Ανώνυμη Εταιρεία ''Aeroporía Aigaíou Anónimi Etairía'', ) is the flag carrier airline of Greece and the largest Greek airline by total number of passengers carri ...
, Barcleys, BP, Eurobank Ergasias, Eltrak, EllaktorELLAKTOR Groupis the largest infrastructure group in Greece and one of the leading in Southeastern Europe, with an international presence and a diversified portfolio of activities, focusing on construction, concessions, environment, renewable energy ...
, Kioleides
N. Kioleides is the largest Greek manufacturer of trailers (civilian and military) and truck bodies with successful exports to several countries. It was founded in 1968. A company division is exclusively responsible for the production of a larg ...
, Ferrari Metaxa, Metro S.A.
Metro S.A. is a Greek supermarket chain based in the Metamorfosi suburb of Athens, Greece.
It was established in 1976 as a partnership of eight independent grocery stores. In the same year, Metro opened its first self-branded supermarket in Athen ...
, Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
, and Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
have their head office in Kifisia.
Sports
Kifissia has several sport clubs in different sports. From them, most notable are ZAON, club with many Panhellenic titles in Greek women volleyball, Kifissia AC that plays almost constantly in men volleyball first division (A1 Ethniki) and Nea Kifissia B.C.
Nea Kifissia or Nea Kifisia B.C., or New Kifissia B.C. (Greek: Νέας Κηφισιάς KAE), is a Greek professional basketball club that is based in Kifissia, Athens, Greece. The club's full name is Athletic Union Nea Kifissia (Αθλητική ...
that plays in basketball first division (Greek Basket League
The Greek Basket League (GBL), often also referred to as the Greek A1 Basketball League, or Greek Basketball Championship (originally called Panhellenic Basketball Championship), and also known as the Stoiximan Basket League for sponsorship reaso ...
). The football team of Kifissia is Kifissia F.C., and plays in Football League 2
The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...
(third division). Kifissia also is the seat of Athina 90
Athina 90 is a futsal club based in Athens, Greece. Ιt was the first futsal club established in Greece and has won more trophies than any other team in Greek futsal, including a record 15 League titles and a record 7 Cups. Only three other te ...
(most times winner in Futsal League), AOH Hymettus (most times winner in Field Hockey League), and Iraklis Kifissias Presence in A1 Womans Category, with more than 200 athletes in Iraklis Kifissias Volleyball Academy.
Historical population
The population grew fast between 1991-2001 by 18,3% while in 2001-2011 the percentage was lower, 7.13%
Notable people
*Menander
Menander (; grc-gre, Μένανδρος ''Menandros''; c. 342/41 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek dramatist and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His re ...
(circa 342-291 BC), dramatist, born in Kifisia
* Emmanuel Benakis, merchant and politician, died in Kifisia
* Andreas Empeirikos (1901 in Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
- August 3, 1975), poet, died in Kifisia
*Penelope Delta
Penelope Delta (; 1874, Alexandria, Khedivate of Egypt – 2 May 1941, Athens, Greece) was a Greek author. She is widely celebrated for her contributions to the field of children's literature. Her historical novels have been widely read and hav ...
(1874 Alexandria – 27 April 1941)
*Theodoros Pangalos
Lieutenant General Theodoros Pangalos (; 11 January 1878 – 26 February 1952) was a Greek general, politician and dictator. A distinguished staff officer and an ardent Venizelist and anti-royalist, Pangalos played a leading role in the Septemb ...
, general, died in Kifisia
* Themistoklis Sophoulis, politician, died in Kifisia
* Evgenios Spatharis (1924–2009), shadow theatre
The Shadow Theatre is an Edmonton-based theatre company born of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival in 1990.
History
Shadow Theatre was incorporated in 1992, operating under the governance of a volunteer Board of Directors. Co founded by ...
artist, born in Kifisia
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Municipalities of Attica
Populated places in North Athens (regional unit)
Shopping districts and streets in Greece
Acropolis Rally
Arvanite settlements