Chalandri (,

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

: Φλύα, ''Phlya'', also ''Halandri'', ''Khalandri'') is a town and a suburb in the northern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. It is a municipality of the

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

region.

Geography

Chalandri is a suburb in Northern Athens, around from the centre; its location corresponds with one of the 10 ancient

deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or (, plural: ''demoi'', δήμοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Classical Athens, Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, bu ...

s (boroughs) of Athens, known as Phlya (). The municipality has an area of 10.805 km². Chalandri was a small village until the rapid expansion of Athens during the 1960s and 1970s. Its built-up area is now continuous with those of the neighbouring suburbs

Filothei Filothei () is a green, affluent northeastern suburban town in the Athens agglomeration, Greece, consisting mainly of hillside villas, relatively close to the Olympic Stadium in the nearby town of Marousi. Since the 2011 local government reform ...

Marousi Marousi or Maroussi (), also known as Amarousio (), is a city and a suburb in the northeastern part of the Athens#Athens Urban Area, Athens urban area, Greece. Marousi dates back to the era of the History of Athens, ancient Athenian Republic; its ...

Vrilissia Vrilissia () is a suburban town and a municipality of the North Athens regional unit, in the Attica region. It is located in the Athens basin, at the southwestern foot of the Penteli Mountain. At the 2021 census, the municipality had 32,417 res ...

Agia Paraskevi Agia Paraskevi (, ''Agía Paraskeví'') is a suburb and a municipality in the northeastern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. It is part of the North Athens regional unit. Agia Paraskevi was named after the main church of the town, which ...

Cholargos Cholargos (, also: ''Holargos'') is a town and a suburb in the Athens urban area, Greece, located northeast of the Athens city proper and about away from Syntagma Square. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality ...

, Neo Psychiko and

Psychiko Psychiko ( ) is a town and a suburb in the Athens#Athens Urban Area, Athens agglomeration, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Filothei-Psychiko, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal ...

. Nevertheless, it has still a high ratio of open green areas per citizen in the Athens agglomeration. Several

embassies A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes a ...

are based in Chalandri. It is one of the largest suburbs in terms of population, with more than 70,000 residents. It holds an independent municipality status since 1944. Chalandri is served by the Chalandri,

, Doukissis Plakentias as well as Nomismatokopio and Cholargos metro station (the latter two being shared with Papagou-Cholargos). According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Chalandri has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, abbreviated "Csa" on climate maps.

Neighborhoods

*Agia Varvara *Ano Chalandri *Doukissis Plakentias (Neo Chalandri) *Kato Chalandri *Patima *Metamorfosi *Polydroso *Rizarios *Toufa (or Fragoklisia) *Sidera *Synoikismos *Center Chalandri

History

Antiquity

In antiquity, Chalandri constituted the ancient Athenian municipality of Phlya located in the Mesogeia of Attica county, according to the administrative division of

Cleisthenes Cleisthenes ( ; ), or Clisthenes (), was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. For these accomplishments, historians refer to him as "the fath ...

. Today it constitutes a prosperous and beautiful area in the northern sector of

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. The bulk of the buildings have been built in the last 30 years, although Athenians have resided in Chalandri for at least a century. The administrative boundaries of the modern municipality extend from the gully of the same name to the foothills of

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 ...

. Hesychios refers to the name ''‘Phlya’'', which comes from the verb ''’φλει’'' meaning ''‘fertility’'', as the land of Chalandri is rich in vegetation. The municipality of Flya was first inhabited during the Prehistoric or Protohistoric Period and extends in the wider area from

and

, to

and

, i.e. the entire area enclosed by

Tourkovounia The Tourkovounia (), also known as Lykovounia (Λυκοβούνια, "wolf mountains") and in Antiquity called Anchesmos (), is a hill range in Athens, Attica. The name has also been transferred to a neighbourhood in Central Athens and a neighbo ...

, Penteli and

Hymettus Hymettus (), also Hymettos (; ; ), is a mountain range in the Athens area of Attica, East Central Greece. It is also colloquially known as ''Trellós'' (crazy) or ''Trellóvouno'' (crazy mountain); the latter originates from the French "très ...

. The area shows evidence of settlement during the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

(2,600-2,000 BC) and the Late Helladic period (1,550-1,100 BC). In classical times it appears as the place of origin of many prominent citizens of the period, such as

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

and

Themistocles Themistocles (; ; ) was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. As a politician, Themistocles was a populist, having th ...

, while in Roman and Early Christian times it is plundered and deserted. The installation of marble workers in the area dates back to the time of the construction of the Parthenon, when marble blocks were brought there and cut with wooden wedges, which were wet with water to make them swell. The abundant water available in the underground rivers of Halandri was the reason for their preference, a reason that until recently made the mega-marble cutting factory called ‘AKROPOLIS’ operate in the area, which also gave the name to the ‘AKROPOLEOS’ stop.

After the founding of the Greek State

After the departure of the Turkish land owners, the pastures of Chalandri were given by distribution or by usufruct to Greek breeders and farmers. Gradually the suburb became a pole of attraction for wealthy people of the urban class of Athens, who bought plots of land with huge gardens and built two-storey villas. There were hundreds of such detached houses - villas with huge gardens until 1980, but today there are only few of them left. In the years of the modern Greek state, Chalandri appears in the administrative jurisdiction of

. In

1910 Events January * January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military. * January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...

the first city plan was implemented and in

1925 Events January * January 1 – The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini m ...

it was detached from the municipality of

and recognized as an autonomous community of the East Attica Prefecture. A year later, in

1926 In Turkey, the year technically contained only 352 days. As Friday, December 18, 1926 ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Saturday, January 1, 1927 '' (Gregorian Calendar)''. 13 days were dropped to make the switch. Turkey thus became the ...

, the building cooperative ‘Agropoleion Company’ is founded, which builds a small area adjacent to

Ymittos Ymittos (), is a town and a suburb in the Athens urban area, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Dafni-Ymittos, of which it is a municipal unit. With a land area of 0.975 km2, it was the second-sma ...

and is detached as an autonomous community of

. In

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

, the northeastern end of Chalandri was also seceded under the name

, but a few months later it was re-included in its administrative boundaries and retained until

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

, when the latter was recognized as the capital of the eastern prefecture.

Settlement of Asia Minor

After the

Asia Minor Catastrophe Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, many families of

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

refugees settled in the area and to commemorate the event, a Monument of Asia Minor uprooting has been erected in the park of the streets of ''Mikras Asias'' and ''Zalokosta'', in the suburb of Chalandri. During these years, Chalandri was a huge land area with scattered single-family houses - villas (mansions), in a verdant environment of pine and plane trees. Its economy was based on livestock and crops, especially fruit trees. With the improvement of the urban plan and because of its good climate, Chalandri became a holiday resort of Athens.

German occupation (1941-1944) and post-war years

1941 The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, wa ...

with the German occupation, Chalandri was in chaos until

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...

, a date which marks the new era of Chalandri as an autonomous municipality of

. During the occupation, Chalandri was the headquarters of a Wehrmacht battalion, as it was a route for ELAS guerrillas to communicate from Penteli and Parnitha to Athens. In the northeastern areas of the municipality, at the foot of the mountain, lived farmers and stockbreeders who exploited the state-owned agricultural land until 1949, the year in which part of it was detached for the settlement of Vrilissia. The Municipality of Chalandri managed to keep a residential strip up to the foot of the mountain. The village is connected to the capital through the railway network that runs along Paleologos Avenue, where today there is a green space of Agia Anna. At the end of the 50's the railway network is dismantled and access is possible via Apostolopoulou Avenue, while later main roads are designated as Kifissia and Mesogeion Avenues. The Municipality of Chalandri comes full circle until it becomes part of the Athenian Urban Complex again. The taverns of Chalandri around Dourou Square, with roast lambs, piglets and hunts have gone down in history. The singer Attik and

Nikos Gounaris Nikos Gounaris (; Zagora, 1915 – 5 May 1965 in Athens) was a Greek tenor who was enormously popular as a "pop" singer in the 1950s. Biography Gounaris began playing the mandolin at the age of four. He attended the musical Conservatory of Mu ...

were based in Chalandri. Their bust is on Kifissias Avenue.

Dictatorship-Start of immigration

At the beginning of the dictatorship of the Colonels, Chalandri had only 15,000 to 20,000 permanent residents. It was the area of taverns, villas and pine trees. On Penteli Avenue, 1-2 cars per minute were being driven on Penteli Avenue, since Vrilissia and Penteli had not yet been urbanized and were deserted areas. Only in and around Dourou Square it is estimated that there were at least ten famous luxury taverns, where the Athenian bourgeoisie frequented. Some of them were ''"Astoria"'' (having two "Titania" cinemas next to it), ''"O Mimis"'' (roast piglets), ''"O kynegos, to kynegi"'' (hunting goods), ''"O Mistos"'' (a tavern for barrel-feeders), etc. Chalandri had many cinemas, both winter and summer, one of which was a luxury cinema for the time, the Cine ''"Eleftheria"'' (double winter and summer) which was destroyed by fire. In this cinema, every Saturday, up-and-coming rock and pop bands of the time gave performances, which brought out famous musicians, such as

Aphrodite's Child Aphrodite's Child was a Greek rock and pop band formed in 1967, by Evangelos Papathanassiou, later known professionally as Vangelis (keyboards, flutes), Demis Roussos (bass, acoustic and electric guitar, vocals), Loukas Sideras (drums and v ...

(

Demis Roussos Artemios "Demis" Ventouris-Roussos ( ; , ; 15 June 1946 – 25 January 2015) was a Greek-Egyptian singer, songwriter and musician. As a band member, he is best remembered for his work in the progressive rock music act Aphrodite's Child, but as a ...

, Vangelis Papathanasiou), Vlasis Bonatsos,

Kostas Tournas Kostas Tournas (; born 23 September 1949) is one of the pioneers of modern Greek rock. He is a singer and composer of many hits in the '70s including ''Ti Na Mas Kanei I Nychta'' (''What Can The Night Do For Us''). He shaped Greek rock music in ...

, etc. The booming rise of tourist arrivals during the dictatorship resulted in insufficient numbers of beds in the existing Athenian hotels and the mainly American tourists of the time were sent to the 3 small hotels of Chalandri. During this period, many jobs were created in the area, attracting new residents who migrated from other districts of Attica or other parts of Greece altogether (islands, Epirus, Peloponnese, etc.).

From 1974 to the present

After the

Metapolitefsi The Metapolitefsi (, , " regime change") was a period in modern Greek history from the fall of the Ioannides military junta of 1973–74 to the transition period shortly after the 1974 legislative elections. The metapolitefsi was ignited by ...

, the centre of Athens faced significant problems, such as

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

, traffic chaos, constant demonstrations and high real estate costs. Thus, in the years that followed, the area of Chalandri became particularly popular for residents of the basin seeking a better standard of living than in the suffocating center. Due to the large size of the municipality, the slow and gradual integration of its land into the urban plan and its inaccessible economic character, Chalandri continues to be built up to this day. But the damage has already been done. It is estimated that 90% of its trees have been cut down, 95% of its single-family mansions have been demolished, and of course its quaint taverns. In their place came multi-family houses, mega department stores, arcades, corporations, pedestrian walkways, etc. In the modern history of the city of Chalandri, a particularly prosperous municipality has now been formed that manages to combine its commercial strength with meeting the housing needs and the employment of staff and small traders. The entire area around ''Kifissias Avenue'' is covered by highly aesthetic professional roofs of all kinds, large areas of the municipality are covered by clinics, both public and private, while many of the country's embassies are being built at the entrance to the city (National Resistance Avenue). The commercial

pedestrian street Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...

of the city is considered to be, along with

Kifissia Kifisia or Kifissia (also Kephisia or Cephissia; , ) is a municipality and one of the most affluent northern suburbs in the Athens agglomeration, Attica, Greece, mainly accessed via Kifissias Avenue, running all the way from central Athens up to ...

, one of the most popular destinations of the wider region and not only, while in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

it is decided to that the Ministry of Economy and Finance is to be relocated to an area of the Municipality. The main problem of Chalandri today, apart from the overbuilding, is that it is forced to accept all the traffic of wheeled vehicles to Melissia, Vrilissia, Penteli, etc. through its core. While during the dictatorship there was maximum one car parked in the Central Square and Dourou Square, plus 1-2

taxis A taxis (; : taxes ) is the motility, movement of an organism in response to a Stimulus (physiology), stimulus such as light or the presence of food. Taxes are innate behavioural responses. A taxis differs from a tropism (turning response, often ...

, today it is impossible to find any parking space.

Historical population

{, class="wikitable" ! Year !! Population , - , 1981 , , 54,320 , - , 1991 , , 66,285 , - , 2001 , , 71,684 , - , 2011 , , 74,192 , - , 2021 , , 77,102 The village was historically

Arvanitika Arvanitika (; Arvanitika: , ; Greek: , ), also known as Arvanitic, is the variety of Albanian traditionally spoken by the Arvanites, a population group in Greece. Arvanitika was brought to Southern Greece during the late Middle Ages by Alb ...

speaking, with 3,000

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

inhabiting it,{{Cite book , url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/43579226 , title=Ο ξεριζωμός και η άλλη πατρίδα: οι προσφυγουπόλεις στην Ελλάδα , date=1999 , publisher=Εταιρεία σπουδών νεοελληνικού πολιτισμού και γενικής παιδείας , isbn=960-259-098-X , location=Athens , pages=170 , language=el , oclc=43579226 however due to its proximity to

, it has undergone a language shift. After the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe and the 1923 Greco-Turkish population exchange, some

Greek refugees Greek refugees is a collective term used to refer to the more than one million Greek Orthodox natives of Asia Minor, Thrace and the Black Sea areas who fled during the Greek genocide (1914-1923) and Greece's later defeat in the Greco-Turkish W ...

settled in the town.

Culture

Education

American Community Schools ACS Athens – American Community Schools of Athens is a private school offering international JK–12 education to local, national and international students in Greece. ACS Athens embraces American educational philosophy, principles and values. ...

is located in Chalandri.Contact Us
"

. Retrieved on 20 February 2015. "129 Aghias Paraskevis Ave. & Kazantzaki Street Halandri 15234, Athens Greece"

Sports

Sport clubs of Chalandri with presence in Greek national divisions are AE Chalandriou (Athlitiki Enosi Chalandriou), GS Chalandriou (Gymnastikos Syllogos Chalandriou) and Nireas Chalandriou. The municipality of Chalandri has also created an extensive channel of sports installations such as tennis courts, football pitches, volleyball and basketball indoor and outdoor courts and also an indoor and outdoor

olympic-size swimming pool An Olympic-size swimming pool is a swimming pool which conforms to the regulations for length, breadth, and depth made by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) for swimming at the Summer Olympics and the swimming events at the World Aquatics Champions ...

in order to enhance the athletic spirit of the inhabitants. Also, due to the geographical convenience of the area of Chalandri there is an extensive bike route, covering the neighbourhoods from Doukissis Plakentias metro station, to Vrilissia and Gearakas area, reaching until Chalandri downtown city centre, providing safe transportations for families and individuals improving the life level of the area. {, class="wikitable" , - !colspan="4", Sport clubs based in Chalandri , - !width="150", Club !Founded !Sports !Achievements , - , AE Chalandriou, , 1939 , ,

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, , Earlier presence in

Beta Ethniki The Football League () was the second highest professional football league in Greece since its inception in 1962 as ''Beta Ethniki'' and until 2019. It then served as a third tier after the creation of the Super League 2 as the new second tier ...

, - , GS Chalandriou, , 1981, ,

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, , Presence in Beta Ethniki basketball , - , Nireas Chalandriou, , 1989, ,

Water Polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

, , Earlier presence in A1 Ethniki

References

{{reflist

External links

{{Commons category, Chalandri
Official website
{{in lang, el {{Geographic location , Centre = Chalandri , North =

, Northeast =

and Penteli , East =

Gerakas Gerakas () is a town, a suburb of Athens and a former municipality in East Attica, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pallini, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. In antiquity Gerakas consti ...

, Southeast =

, South =

, Southwest = Neo Psychiko and

, West =

, Northwest = , image = {{Kallikratis-Attica {{Authority control Municipalities of Attica Populated places in North Athens (regional unit) Arvanite settlements