Tavros ( el, Ταύρος, which means "bull"), is a suburb in the southwestern part of 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 ...

agglomeration,

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

Moschato-Tavros Moschato-Tavros ( el, Μοσχάτο-Ταύρος) is a municipality in the South Athens regional unit, Attica, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Moschato. The municipality has an area of 4.450 km2. Municipality The municipali ...

, of which it is a municipal unit.

Geography

Tavros is situated 3 km southwest of Athens city centre, 3 km west of the

Acropolis of Athens The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. Th ...

and 5 km northeast of

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...

. The municipality has an area of 2.125 km². Its built-up area is continuous with those of Central Athens and the neighbouring suburbs. The main thoroughfare is

Peiraios Street Peiraios Street ( el, Οδός Πειραιώς, ''Odos Peiraios'', "Piraeus Street") is a main road in Athens, Greece linking the center of the city with the port of Piraeus. It is part of the system of national roads, as number 56 ( el, Εθνι ...

, the old road from Athens center to Piraeus. Tavros has a metro station (

Tavros – Eleftherios Venizelos metro station Tavros, officially Tavros–Eleftherios Venizelos ( el, Ταύρος–Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος) is a station on Line 1 (Athens Metro), Line 1 of the Athens Metro, 6.171 km from the line's southern terminus at Piraeus station, ...

History

In the ancient times, the area of Tavros was part of the vast Athenian municipality of Eleonas, extending from Parnitha to the Phallic Breeze, was sparsely populated with few peasant inhabitants whose main occupation was the cultivation of the olive from which it took its name, Tavros was in NA area of the ancient municipality of Eleonas ( gr, Ελαιώνα). The cultivation of the olive continued throughout the Ottoman domination until the middle of the 19th century and the area of Tavros continued to be overwhelmingly covered by olive groves. In the middle of the 19th century many farmers began to create

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

s and

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

s instead of olive groves, but the settlement was always of an agricultural nature until the refugees after the 1920s created the present suburb. The first inhabitants of the new settlement of Tavros were refugees from Asia Minor who came to the region with the contribution of then

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Eleftherios Venizelos Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos ( el, Ελευθέριος Κυριάκου Βενιζέλος, translit=Elefthérios Kyriákou Venizélos, ; – 18 March 1936) was a Greek statesman and a prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movem ...

. The refugees, a few years after their arrival in the area in 1926, as people who were very active in sport, founded the football association Fostiras, which soon emerged as one of the largest football clubs in Attica. Until 1934, the present Tavros was part of the municipality of Athens and then it was detached as an autonomous community called Nea Sfageia ( gr, Νέα Σφαγεία). In 1972 Nea Sfageia became a municipality and renamed to Tavros by refugee residents as a reminder of their place of origin, the mountain range of the

Tavros Tavros ( el, Ταύρος, which means "bull"), is a suburb in the southwestern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Moschato-Tavros, of which it is a municipal unit. Geo ...

in Asia Minor. The Asia Minor refugees built a number of churches and chapels such as Saint George in the center of the city, where they transported pieces of relics of St. Demetrius and Saint Nestor as well as the miraculous icon of St. Demetrius of Myrovlistos from the district of Derk in Istanbul. The sacred temple of the Crucified is also at the center a little further north of the OSE lines, erected in 1960 and celebrated every 14 September at the Feast of the Holy Cross, feasts around the temple site. The Temple of the Crucified is known for its many charitable activities. Also the Minorite refugees brought from Antalya the icon of Panagia Attaliotissa or Jigo-Panagia as they called it and placed it from 1929 in the Holy Temple of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, built on the initiative of the Association of Atheliots and Alaiots. The feast of "Jigo-Panagia" in Tavros, Athens, takes place each year on the Myriopheras Sunday as well as in Antalya, Asia Minor. The new inhabitants replaced the olives and the vineyards with vegetable gardens, after the 1950s due to the great industrial development and the proximity to Rentis and Vegetables quickly developed into an industrial area. In 1975, a ministerial order banned

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

farming in the area, since then the settlement was converted into industrial but is still sparsely populated with housing. Keeping the stream of Prophet Elijah allows the Tavros area to retain some elements from its old character. Many churches like Zoodochos Pigi ( gr, Ζωοδόχου Πηγής) have been built very close to the stream.

Sports

Tavros hosts the clubs

Fostiras F.C. Fostiras Football Club ( el, Α.Π.Ο. Φωστήρας Ταύρου) is a Greek football club based in Tavros, a suburb of Athens, Greece. They play in the Gamma Ethniki, the fourth tier of the Greek football league system. They played Alpha Et ...

with earlier presence in A Ethniki and Ajax Tavrou with earlier presence in

Delta Ethniki Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also r ...

Historical population

Notable people

Maria Dimitriadi Maria Dimitriadi ( el, Μαρία Δημητριάδη) (11 April 1950 – 6 January 2009), was a Greek singer. She was one of the most renowned performers of the songs of Mikis Theodorakis and Thanos Mikroutsikos. Dimitiradi primarily connected w ...

(1951–2009), singer

References

External links

Stadia.gr - Tavros
{{Moschato-Tavros div Populated places in South Athens (regional unit)