Peristeri (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Περιστέρι, meaning "pigeon/dove" in Greek) is a suburban municipality in the western 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 139,981 inhabitants (2011 census), it is the seventh-largest municipality of Greece by population.

History

The ancient

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 ...

Leuconoe In Greek mythology, the name Leuconoe (; Ancient Greek: Λευκονόη, ) may refer to: *Leuconoe, one of the Minyads, more commonly known as Leucippe. *Leuconoe, daughter of Lucifer ( Eosphorus) and mother of Philammon by Apollo.Hyginus, '' ...

, is believed that it was located at Peristeri.

Geography

Peristeri is located about northwest of the centre of Athens. It lies between the Egaleo Mountain in the northwest and the Cephissus river in the southeast. The municipality has an area of . Its built-up area is continuous with that of central Athens and the neighbouring suburbs

Aigaleo Aigaleo or Egaleo ( el, Αιγάλεω ) is a suburban municipality in the western part of Athens, belonging to the West Athens regional administrative unit. It takes its name from Mount Aigaleo. Its population was 69,946 at the 2011 census. G ...

Chaidari HaidariFor the spelling, see thmunicipal website ( el, Χαϊδάρι, ''Khaidari'') is a suburb in the western part of the Athens agglomeration, west of central Athens. Geography The municipality has an area of 22.655 km2. The geography of ...

, Petroupoli, Ilion and Agioi Anargyroi.

Transportation

Motorway 1 (Athens-Thessaloniki) passes through the southeastern part of the municipality. Athinon Avenue (

Greek National Road 8 Greek National Road 8 ( el, Εθνική Οδός 8, abbreviated as EO8, common name: old Athens-Patras national road) is a single carriageway with at-grade intersections in the Attica, Peloponnese and West Greece regions. It connects Athens with ...

Athens-Korinthos-Patras) passes through the southwestern part. Peristeri is served by three

Athens metro The Athens Metro ( el, Μετρό Αθήνας, Metro Athinas, translit-std=iso) is a rapid-transit system in Greece which serves the Athens urban area and parts of East Attica. Line 1 opened as a conventional steam railway in 1869 and electrif ...

stations on Line 2: Anthoupoli, Peristeri and Agios Antonios. The Kifissos Bus Terminal where long-distance buses from Peloponnese, Epirus, Macedonia, Ionian Islands and Thrace arrive, stands at the east border of Peristeri near

Sepolia Sepolia ( el, Σεπόλια ) is a neighborhood north of the center of Athens, Greece. The Sepolia metro station is situated in the neighborhood. Sepolia owes to its name in the Greek phrase ''esopolis'' (έσω πόλις), which means "inside th ...

Historical population

Sports

The most important sport clubs based in Peristeri are Atromitos with presence in Super League Greece and

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

qualification rounds and Peristeri BC, with long-time presence in A1 Ethniki basketball & in European competitions, such as the

FIBA Korać Cup The FIBA Korać Cup was an annual basketball club competition held by FIBA between the 1971–72 and 2001–02 seasons. It was the third-tier level club competition in European basketball, after the FIBA European Champions' Cup (later renamed th ...

, Euroleague &

FIBA Europe Cup The FIBA Europe Cup (FEC) is an annual professional club basketball competition organised by FIBA for eligible European clubs. It is FIBA's European-wide second level. Clubs mainly qualify for the competition based on their performance in natio ...

Peristeri Arena

The Peristeri Arena (or

Andreas Papandreou Andreas Georgiou Papandreou ( el, Ανδρέας Γεωργίου Παπανδρέου, ; 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek economist, politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics, known for founding the political party PASOK, ...

Arena) is an indoor basketball sporting arena. The

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of the arena is 4,000 people. The arena is owned by the municipality of Peristeri. The arena is currently home to the Greek professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

team Peristeri Athens of the Greek A1 League. The hall was opened in the year 1989. The arena is named after the late

, who was the former

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 i ...

of Greece. The arena is an older, smaller version of the Larissa Neapolis Arena and the

Dimitris Tofalos Arena Dimitris Tofalos Arena (alternate spelling: Dimitrios Tofalos Arena) is an indoor sports arena that is located in Proastio, Patras, Greece. The arena is named after the great Greek wrestling champion of the early 20th century, and gold medalist ...

, which were based on Peristeri Arena, but built 6 years later and with a larger

Landmarks

* Cathedral * Peristeri Arena * Peristeri Stadium * Town Hall

Culture

Peristeri has one municipal

outdoor cinema An outdoor cinema consists of a digital or analog movie projector, scaffolded construction or inflatable movie screen, and sound system. History Outdoor cinemas first began at around 1916 in Berlin, Germany. During the 1920s, many "rooftop theatr ...

and four municipal

theatres Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

Notable people

* Angela Dimitriou, singer * Evangelos Koronios, professional basketball player and coach * Giannis Poulopoulos, singer-songwriter * Grigoris Bithikotsis (1922–2005), singer and songwriter *

Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou Nikoleta 'Nikol' Kyriakopoulou ( el, Νικολέτα "Νικολ" Κυριακοπούλου, born 21 March 1986) is a Greek pole vaulter. Nikoleta was 8th at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021. She also won the bronze medal at the World Champions ...

(born 1986),

Pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

athlete * Vangelis Ploios, actor * Vangelis Mantzaris, basketball player *Leonidas Michailidis, brain surgeon * Orfeas Tzortzopoulos, drummer of Suicidal Angels * Argiris Pedoulakis, professional basketball player and coach

International relations

Peristeri is twinned with: * Iaşi,

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, and ...

Rousse Ruse (also transliterated as Rousse, Russe; bg, Русе ) is the fifth largest city in Bulgaria. Ruse is in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, approximately south of ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of Attica Populated places in West Athens (regional unit)