Maroussi (also known as Amarousio) is the seat of the
Municipality of Amarousio and is located in the heart of the
Northern Sector of Athens, in the Athenian Field of Attica. It
occupies an area of 13 sq. km. and its population amounts to 72,333
inhabitants according to the 2011 Census.
With its historic
headquarters in the ancient Atmonon, founded by King Cecrops to
protect Athens from barbarian raids and a continuous settlement from
ancient times until today, Amarousio is famous for the appeal of its
inhabitants to the ceramic arts and the worship of Artemis, Goddess
of the hunt, in the 7th century BC, the first fine neoclassics, but
also the promotion of the Olympic Games, with the distinguished
athlete Spyros Louis.
The modern settlement is developed at
an altitude of 230 meters, two kilometers south of Kifissia and
eleven kilometers northeast of the center of Athens, while it is
surrounded by the regional municipalities of Penteli, Vrilissi,
Psychiko, Nea Ionia, Heraklion, Chalandrio and Pefki. .
The
municipality participates in the Association for the Protection and
Redevelopment of Pentelikos (S.P.A.P.), the Association of
Municipalities of Northeast Athens (S.V.A.P.) and is a headquarters
for large important Greek and multinational companies in the field
of construction , financial services, telecommunications and retail.
It is a point of reference for all residents of the complex and is
world-renowned for its rich cultural and sports infrastructure, with
the most characteristic landmarks being the OAKA, the Town Hall, the
Art Gallery, the Northern Library and the busy transport hubs
"Neratziotissa" and "Maroussi" ».
The mayor of the region
since 2019 is Theodoros Ambatzoglou.
The most ancient name of the area found in the texts of Plutarch and
other ancient and more recent historians is "Athmonon". In newer texts,
she also appears as "Athmoni".
The modern name Marousi appears in
Katharevousa as Amarousion, a term derived from the epithet Amarissia.
This epithet refers to the worshiped goddess of the hunt Artemis and
indicates the origin of the cult from Amarynthos of Evia (Artemida
Amarynthia > Amarysia), which was also transferred to Athmonon of
antiquity. In fact, the first municipality founded in 1836 with its
headquarters in Marousi is called "Amarysia Municipality" (according to
the Municipality of Athens, later the Municipality of Chalandria, etc.).
The history of Amarousi is lost in the myths of ancient Greece,
where most references are made to the ancient Atmonon, an area
geographically identified with the modern city. The Athmonians had
built a sanctuary dedicated to Aphrodite Urania, patroness of
Platonic love. The sanctuary was founded by Porphyrion, an ancient
mythical king of Athens many millennia before Christ.
One of
the twelve municipalities he founded around 3,000 BC. Cecrops, was
the Athmonon, with the purpose of protecting Athens from the raids
of the barbarians. Its inhabitants were peaceful and industrious,
with a long tradition of oil and wine production. In fact,
Aristophanes in his work Irene praises the Athmoneans saying,
referring to Trygaios, that "he preferred to deal with his vines and
olives, rather than slander and scheming". Similar references are
also made in Ornithes with Peisthetairos struggling together with
his friend Evelpides to rid Athens of the demagogues. An inscription
that was discovered in a Christian church bore the name "PISTOKLIS
PEISTHETAIROS ATHMONEUS". It was a municipality that maintained
close ties with other cities of ancient Greece in the field of art
and culture. The cult of Artemis, Goddess of the hunt, was soon
introduced from Amarynthos in the 7th century BC.
Its
inhabitants had even established a sanctuary, in front of which they
organized every year the "Amarisia", regional Olympic Games in honor
of the Amarisia Artemis, as it was called. Every year in the spring,
athletes from all over Greece gathered on the plain of Athmona to
compete, dance, have fun and indulge in wine-drinking contests.
During the games, the lords who had performed their duties
successfully were rewarded with golden wreaths.
Around the
6th century BC and after the death of the tyrant Peisistratos, the
great lawgiver Cleisthenes, in his attempt to establish equality and
equality, divided the Attic land into the city, the midland and the
coastal country. He abolished the clans and established ten
artificial ones, distributing their population equally among
municipalities from all three regions. Every municipality sent
representatives every year to the Athenian parliament. Athmonon was
located in the Mediterranean country and belonged to the Kekropida
tribe that honored King Kekrops with its name. In 358 BC, the first
president of the Athenian parliament was Charinos Athmoneus, who
fought to turn the Greek cities into unity and alliance with Athens.
During the period of the Roman empire, Athens was occupied by
the Romans and Athmon was looted by the conquerors. However, the
emperor Hadrian carried out groundbreaking works, who built the
famous aqueduct, with pipes that passed under the municipality to
Athens. The interest of Herod of Atticus, who moved the sanctuary of
Artemis to a hill, was also great.
In the Byzantine years,
Athmonos is still inhabited, as excavations revealed a cemetery in
the Church of Agios Georgios which has been characterized as a
"prominent Byzantine monument". With the prevalence of Christianity,
a multitude of churches were established which are rare relics in
the wider region. Some of them are the Church of Panagia
Neratziotissa in the ruins of the sanctuary of Artemis, Agios
Ioannis Pelikas, in the place of the new sanctuary, Panagia
Marmariotissa, the Holy Incorporeal Taxiarches and many others. The
city had prevailed to be called Amarysion from Amarysia Artemis.
During the Turkish rule, the Turkish Bey Ali Babas settled, who
occupied lands in the area and transferred them to Ottoman nobles,
who were charmed by this fertile place with its healthy climate and
rich waters. Most of the Marousites worked on the lords' estates,
while many migrated to other regions of Greece, such as Corinth,
Argos, Arcadia, Evia, the Cyclades.
The participation of the Marousians in the Greek Revolution of 1821
was characteristically expressed by their contribution to various
critical phases of the Struggle in Attica, such as e.g. during the Siege
of the Acropolis by the Turks in 1826.
Marousiotes in the Race
The entire village of Marousios at that time took up arms in the fight
for independence and freedom. Names of families that took part include:
Adami, Alepou, Vasi, Vilioti, Gardeli, Deggleri, Dousi, Kalatzi,
Kapnoriza, Karvela, Kerasioti, Korovesi, Koropioti, Kountoumadi,
Kousouri, Kotzia, Kotou, Lekka, Litsa, Logothetis, Loui, Bayrahtari,
Margeti, Markou, Masouri, Moscow, Mostrou, Xenaki, Palli, Panatagi,
Papagianni, Papadimitriou, Peppa, Petroutsou, Poulimenou, Pressa,
Serafimi, Sougra, Trakada, Triantafylli, Tounda, Haimanda, Hassioti. It
is worth making a special mention of a female figure of Marousi during
the years of the Revolution, Orsa Petroutsou. She was imprisoned by the
Turks in the Acropolis, until the Greeks captured her in 1822. She then
fought with such bravery that she was later honored, although a woman,
with the rank of First Class Petty Officer.
Recruitment and
leaders
The Municipality of Antoniou was designated by the proposal
of Meletis Vassiliou and with the consent of the Metropolitan of Athens
Dionysios as general leader. He went down to Athens and assembled a body
of 1,200 men, consisting of Marousiotes, Hasiotes, Menidiates,
Salaminians, and Chalandriotes. The leader of the Marousian fighters was
Giorgakis Peppas, who had 50 men under his command and with whom he
fought in all the battles in Attica, as well as Spyros Lekkas as a
buluxis (=leader of 50 men) and his brother Giorgakis Lekkas. So the
villagers of Amarousi participated in the revolutionary struggle with
three small bodies, which included soldiers from other places.
First Siege of the Acropolis (Phase II)
After their previous victory,
the Greeks entered Athens undisturbed and began the siege of the Castle
on November 3, 1821. Among them were Marousian fighters, whose leaders
were the brothers Giorgakis and Mitros Lekkas. The battle ended on June
9, 1822 with the treaty of surrender, which was signed by the
Metropolitan of Athens Dionysios and the Marousian nobles Thomas
Logothetis-Chomatianos and Neophytos Penteliotis (Deggleris), as well as
the commander-in-chief Giorgakis Lekkas. The treaty forced the Turks to
hand over their weapons and half their property to the Greeks and to
leave with only the necessary clothing.
In the Battle of Chaidario (1826), the body of the Marousian fighters
had been integrated into the forces of General Evmorfopoulos. By order
of the commander-in-chief G. Karaiskakis, Evmorfopoulos and Giorgakis
Lekkas hastened to reinforce the Acropolis garrison. The rest of the
division with Mitro Lekkas and the Pallides, following orders from
Karaiskakis, working all night, built fortifications between Haidari and
Eleonas, in order to block the forces of Kioutachis who were heading
towards Eleusis. The next morning Kioutachis came out of Eleonas and
began the attack against the fortified Greeks. Thanks to Karaiskakis'
strategy of having the Greeks start firing only when he gave the order,
he not only panicked the Turks. Kioutachis was forced to change his plan
and thus a deadly conflict ensued. Among the Greeks who fell in the
bloody battle of Chaidario were the Marousio fighters Giannis and
Sotiris Pallis.
Second siege of the Acropolis
Immediately
after the battle of Haidari, on August 3, 1826, Kioutachis tightened the
cordon around Athens day by day, with the result that all the women and
children took refuge in the castle. The situation inside him was
becoming more and more suffocating. For this reason, there were many
Maroussians who rushed to offer their services in the defense of the
Acropolis from the siege of Kioutachi (1826). After they managed to
break through the enemy lines led by Mitro Litza, they offered clothing
and food to the besieged. This siege resulted in many Marousian fighters
being killed or seriously injured. The siege ended with the defeat of
the Greeks on May 25, 1827 and they themselves fled to the islands of
Aegina, Salamis and Poros.
In the memoirs of General
Makrigiannis, the Marousiotes are praised for the dynamic "present" they
gave for the liberation of Athens from the Turkish yoke, but also for
their struggle to save the Acropolis from the siege of Kioutachi.
After the liberation of the Greek nation and the emergence of Athens
as the new capital, the Municipality of Amarysia Attica was established
for the first time with the settlements of Amarousiou with 360
inhabitants, Chalandri with 127 inhabitants, Kalogreza with 8
inhabitants, Penteli with 6 inhabitants, Gerakas with 2 inhabitants,
Karytos with 21 inhabitants, Brahami with 7 inhabitants and Kifissia
with 181 inhabitants. Dimitrios Moskas was elected the first mayor in
1836. The area could now develop smoothly and the residents could lead a
peaceful and creative life. Flower-filled courtyards, rich vineyards,
olive groves and beautiful mansions complete the paradisiacal landscape
of Amarousi. The inhabitants are engaged in agricultural and livestock
work, while soon many potters from Sifnos settle in the area, who teach
their art to the locals and sell jugs in Athens and Piraeus. Many
Carpathians also settled there, working mainly in the marble quarries
(damaria) of Penteli. In 1860, the first primary school of Amarousi was
built, as well as a girls' school. In 1874, the metropolitan Church of
the Dormition of the Virgin was built, which attracts thousands of
pilgrims from all over Greece on the fifteenth of August. In 1885, the
infamous "The Beast", a steam train that started from Piraeus, passed
through Athens and passed through Maroussi to the grove of Kifissia,
arrived in the area.
The city was enlivened by the Athenians who
now easily came to the area for excursions and vacations, even though
they did not have their own carriages. In 1896, Amarousio, although a
village, was considered the educational center of northern Attica, since
children from Kifissia, Chalandri, Heraklion, Kapandriti, Oropos and
Menidi attended its primary school and school. Those who suffered from
tuberculosis at that time also came to the area because of its healthy
climate. In that year, the first modern Olympic Games were organized,
with Spyros Louis coming first in the marathon course. The victory of
the popular kanata made Marousi an important seat of Greek sports, while
a gymnastics club and a gymnasium immediately operate, which highlight
many athletes with firsts in pan-Hellenic and Balkan competitions. At
the beginning of the 20th century, after many administrative changes,
Amarousio was permanently detached from the Municipality of Athens in
1925 and became an independent community with Konstantinos Gardelis as
president. The Amarousi High School was immediately built, the only one
in the area of the northern suburbs of Athens. It now emerges as a
popular area and the population increases until 1943 when it reaches
10,000 inhabitants and is promoted to a municipality. In 1950, the
neighboring area of Magoufana was detached and the community of Pefki
was established. In 1957, the electric station was made above ground
(bridge type) in order to keep traffic in the historic center
undisturbed, unaffected by the passage of trains. The large overhead
bridge that was built remains the same to this day, with some decorative
additions in 2004.
In 1961, the settlement of Melissia was
detached, which was converted from a holiday and spa center into a place
of residence. In the coming years, the population of Amarousi shows an
explosion and the small municipality turns into an important metropolis
of the northern suburbs. Thousands of businesses, Greek and
multinational, are moving their headquarters, making modern Maroussi one
of the largest financial centers of the country. The Athens Olympic
Sports Center is built in the historic seat of the Athmonean fans, where
thousands of years ago they competed in front of the Sanctuary of
Amarissia Artemis and was inaugurated in 1982. The pinnacle of glory
comes in 2004, when the 2004 Olympic Games are organized.
The city of Amarousi was formerly accessible exclusively from the
path that connected Athens to Marathon, the Marathon Road as it was
called, a road originally crossed by carriages. When the settlements of
Amarousi and Kifissia began to be inhabited, the Athens-Kifisias Road
was laid out on this street. Today, Kifissias Avenue is a nodal
expressway that serves the B complex of Athens with the greatest load,
bisecting Marousi vertically in two. Kifisias is intersected
horizontally by the passing highway of the Attica Road to Paradise,
dividing the city into four. Other roads that connect Marousi with the
neighboring municipalities are the Pentelis-Leoforos Demokratias road to
Melissia in the east, the Agios Konstantinou road to Pefki and Neo
Heraklion in the west and the Chalandriou-Amarousiou road in the south
to Chalandri.
The entrance to the city center is possible through
Vasilissis Sofias Street which passes in front of the town hall, while
Perikleous Street leads to Irini Avenue towards the center of Pefki and
Lykovrysi. The historic Neratziotissis Street connects the historic seat
of the ancient Athmons in Neratziotissa with the modern city center to
the north, tangent to the railway line.
For more than a century,
Marousi has been served by Metro Line 1 at ISAP's Marousi Station, which
originally operated as a steam train on the Piraeus-Athens-Kifisia
route. In 1982, the Peace Station was inaugurated, which was renovated
in 2004 and is located in front of the sports and educational facilities
of the city, southwest of the center. In 2004, Neratziotissa Station was
opened further south, along with the renovation of the other stations.
In addition, the Suburban Kifissias Avenue Station was inaugurated, at
the 'ring' where Attiki Odos intersects the passing Kifissias Avenue, at
the height of Paradise Amarousiou.
The area is going to become an
important transport hub, according to the expansions planned for the
Attica Metro, with the new Line 4 connecting the city and the Electric
Railway with the Athens Metro at Marousi Station, as well as the
Suburban Railway with Metro at the future Paradisos Station. According
to the studies, the city will be connected to all kinds of means of
transport and will be accessible from every direction of the capital. In
addition, it will benefit from the northern extensions of the Electric
to the northern suburbs and the Suburban to the northeast and eastern
Attica, making an important step in decongesting the district from heavy
traffic, and in upgrading the lives of the residents.
The municipality is divided into four quadrants by Kifisias Avenue,
which essentially serves the entire wider complex and Attiki Odos, which
is a passage from Eastern Attica. The center of the municipality is on
the northwest side, where the Electric Railway has a station. In
addition, the electric train stops at two other stations, Irini and
Neratziotissa, where it connects with the suburban train station of the
same name. Some zones are residential in nature, some others commercial
(such as in the premises of the Mall). There are zones with offices and
businesses (Soros), old marble factories as well as many off-plan zones.
The privileged districts include Agia Filothei and Polydroso bordering
Vrilissia and Ano Chalandri, Anavryta and Nea Lesvos bordering the
mountainous Melissia, as well as the elegant neighborhoods on the border
with Pefki.
The municipality is one of the first to be served by
the passage of the electric railway, which gave an impetus to the local
development of the area and made the municipality a pole of attraction
for the inhabitants of the basin. It was also the reason for it to
quickly lose its holiday character, and to create many traffic problems
afterwards. It has numerous focal points and an active nightlife. The
best known are the extensive Square of the Electric Station which
monopolizes the entertainment in relation to the rest of the areas of
the center, the Mall shopping center in Nerantziotissa, Paradisos
Amarousiou with Kosmopolis. The Village Center and its wider area was
for many years one of the most popular entertainment centers in the
whole of Athens, but since 2006 it has been in a steep decline
apparently due to the Mall. The Village Center, apparently for that
reason, recently closed and now the building is going to house offices.
Large hospitals (Health, Mother, Medical Center), as well as
telephone companies and the majority of technical companies operate in
Marousi, reasons that make it one of the largest work centers in the
Attica basin. In 2007, the Ministry of Education was established in
Marousi.
The Municipality of Amarousi is located in the Regional Unit of the
Northern Sector of Athens of the Region of Attica.
Marousi was
traditionally one of the first settlements that began to develop in the
wider region of northeastern Attica, with the metropolitan Municipality
of Amarysia incorporating, among others, the settlements of Oropos,
Kifissia, Marathonos, Penteli, Chalandrio and Psychikos. With the
subsequent detachments, with the last ones of Pefki, Melissia and part
of Vrilissia, today it extends to the center of the Northern Sector,
forming the heart of the complex.
With the implementation of the
new administrative division of the country according to the Kallikratis
Program in 2011, no change occurred in the Municipality, according to
article 1, § 5.1.B .
Economic - intellectual activity
The
Municipality of Amarousiou traditionally gathered many units in its
productive zone, such as marble factories and pottery centers. Today, a
significant percentage of business activity is concentrated in its
business zone, mainly in the service sector, such as health
(Iatropolis), the financial sector (DIAS interbank transaction system),
telecommunications and retail trade (Golden Hall, Mall, Avenue). The
zone is developed around the ring of Kifissia, at the transport
headquarters of the metropolitan complex.
Amarousio is also home
to the Ministry of Education and Religion, the Higher School of
Pedagogical and Technological Education (ASPAI.TE), the Northern
Library, the Municipal Art Gallery, the Spathareio Museum, the Yannis
Tsarouchi Foundation and the Amarisia newspaper. In addition, Maroussi
is home to one of the oldest Amusement Parks in Athens, "Aidonakia",
founded in 1952, a breath of fresh air from the ring of Kifissia as well
as the suburb, entertaining dozens of generations of children for 58
years.
Distinguished and Honorary Citizens
The following
distinguished, honorary or well-known citizens, among others, come from
Maroussi:
KOTSIRAS Giannis
Spyros Louis January 12, 1873 - March
26, 1940: Gold Medalist at the Athens Olympic Games in 1896 and
contribution to philhellenism and the identification of Greece with
sports worldwide
Aliki Vougiouklakis July 20, 1934 - July 23, 1996,
actress: Best Actress Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival 1960 for
the film "Madalena" and wider contribution to Greek cinema and theater.
Emilia Tsoulfa 15 May 1973: Gold Medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.