Penteli ( el, Πεντέλη) is a village and a municipality in the North Athens regional unit,

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 S ...

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 ...

. It belongs to the

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 ...

rural area. It takes its name from

Mount Pentelicus Mount Pentelicus or Pentelikon (, or ) is a mountain in Attica, Greece, situated northeast of Athens and southwest of Marathon. Its highest point is the peak ''Pyrgari'', with an elevation of 1,109 m. The mountain is covered in large part wi ...

Municipality

The municipality Penteli was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 3 former municipalities, that became municipal units: *

Melissia Melissia ( el, Μελίσσια) is a suburb in the northeastern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Penteli, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal ...

* Nea Penteli *Penteli

Geography

Penteli is situated on the southern slopes of the limestone Penteli mountains. The municipality has an area of 36.064 km², the municipal unit Penteli 28.878 km². It is 14 km northeast of central Athens. Some of the neighbourhoods of Penteli are Agia Triada, Agios Dimitrios, Daou and Kallithea.

History

The bones of prehistoric animals -

mastodons A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

, antelope, and giraffe, along with giant

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked t ...

s, hyenas and other animals no longer extant in the area - have been found among the limestone crags of the mountain that looms over the present suburb of Athens. The Penteli mountains were renowned in Classical Greece as well as in the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

as a source of the marble, which was also used to build the Parthenon. The Romans constructed a 140-foot water tower and aqueduct to supply water to the city of Athens. Penteli is the site of the ancient town of Pentele. During the Greek War of Independence, the French

philhellene Philhellenism ("the love of Greek culture") was an intellectual movement prominent mostly at the turn of the 19th century. It contributed to the sentiments that led Europeans such as Lord Byron and Charles Nicolas Fabvier to advocate for Greek i ...

Sophie de Marbois-Lebrun, Duchess of Plaisance supported the revolutionary leaders. When she settled in Greece in 1834, she bought large plots of land in Athens and on the Penteli mountain. She had the Rododafni Castle in Penteli built for her. In July 1995, Penteli was ravaged by a large forest fire. According to Turkish former prime minister, Mesut Yilmaz, many of the forest fires that raged the Greek countryside during that summer were actually started by Turkish secret service agents. The forests of Penteli suffered damage again from the August 2007 fires.

Transport

The area is serviced by Pentelis railway station on the Athens Airport–Patras line.

Historical population

Sights

* Monastery of Penteli *Rododafni Castle, also known as ''Pyrgos Doukissis Plakentias'', a mansion built for the

Duchess of Plaisance Sophie de Marbois-Lebrun, Duchess of Plaisance (Greek: Δούκισσα της Πλακεντίας) (1785–1854) was a French noblewoman, known as an important figure in Greek high society the first decades after Greek independence. She was b ...

. Construction was started in 1840, but it was not finished until 1961, when

Constantine II of Greece Constantine II ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Βʹ, ''Konstantínos II''; 2 June 1940) reigned as the last King of Greece, from 6 March 1964 until the abolition of the Greek monarchy on 1 June 1973. Constantine is the only son of King Paul a ...

moved into it. *The Penteli Astronomical Station of the

National Observatory of Athens The National Observatory of Athens (NOA; el, Εθνικό Αστεροσκοπείο Αθηνών) is a research institute in Athens, Greece. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest research foundation in Greece, as it was the first scientific rese ...

, completed in 1936

Byzantine monuments

The catholicon of the old Monastery of St.Nicholas (Kallesia-Penteli). A wall painting monument of George Markou the Argus, the great and prolific post-Byzantine ecclesiastic iconographer of the 18th century.(''"...Nel 1727, Marcou si trova di nuovo ad Atene, dove assume l’agiografia dei Templi di....e di San Nicola Callision a Pendeli. E evidente, che Marcou acquistò, di nuovo, la conoscenza con il Monastero Pendelis..."'') Evangelos Andreou

/ref>

Gallery

file:Κέντρο Πεντέλης.jpg, Center of Penteli file:Είσοδος Μονής Πεντέλης.jpg, Penteli Monastery entrance file:Penteli Monastery97716358.jpg, Inside the monastery of Penteli file:Πεντελικά Λιβάδια.jpg, Penteli fields file:Tourelle (Πυργίσκος) Πεντέλη.jpg, Tourelle tower file:Μνημείο Πεσόντων Πεντελιωτών.jpg, Penteli fallen residents monument

References

External links

Official website
{{Penteli div Municipalities of Attica Populated places in North Athens (regional unit)