“Lipasmata” Multispace of Drapetsona

What I can see

Drapetsona is a peninsula that rises steeply from the sea. Today, most of the former industrial park is a hyper-local leisure park and multi-space, with concert venues, promenade areas and an open theatre, and is officially called the “Drapetsona Lipasmata (Fertilizer in Greek) Multi-space – Worker’s Park”. Various festivals are also held here, such as the Sea Festival. Eight of the old industrial buildings are preserved: a) the Krakaris conveyor belt building, which is 200m long, b) the 11m high central power station, with a concrete dome and a 600Hp diesel engine from 1927, c) the glass factory, originally for the manufacture of containers for factory use that stored or transported acids and then for other commercial uses, which became famous worldwide and operated until 1990, d) the Institute of Chemistry and Agriculture, a research space that provided solutions to problems related to the country’s soils and weather conditions, e) the house of scientific staff, within the then workers settlement, f) the 400 cubic metres water tower, g) the slaughterhouses, which were converted into warehouses after the acquisition by the fertilizer company, h) the silo, which was mainly used by the glass factory and consists of 8 twin silos with a capacity of 500 tons and a 120m chimney. In particular, the fertilizer warehouses and the power station are very important buildings of industrial architecture.

What I can't see

The area was initially home to slaughterhouses and quarantine camps for the victims of the 1854 cholera. Small houses were later built for workers of the French company Ersin, which had undertaken port works that were eventually destroyed by the bombings of World War II. Warehouses and small industrial units continued to be built, until three large factories were built: the Vassiliadis engineering-shipyard, the Iraklis cement factory and the chemical fertilizer factory. At the same time, shipbuilding tanks, military areas, the king’s ship-sheds, later, the glass factory and, after the war, mining enterprises were developed. The fertilizer factory was founded by a group of industrialists, bankers and a chemist and gradually occupied an area of 250,000 square metres and 109 buildings, among which were the water tower, the power station, the Institute of Chemistry and the building with the conveyor belt. It was a state-of-the-art small industrial town, which started with 200 workers and reached 3,500 after the war. The area attracted workers from all over Greece, but the largest group came with the refugees of 1922. These large industrial units, like others throughout the country, were not the backbone of the economy. In fact, they followed the model of quick turnover of staff with cheap labour in order to be competitive internationally, however this led to their bad reputation, the reduction of their productivity and finally, some of them declined. The environmental degradation and air pollution they caused was very big. After the end of the military dictatorship, the local community collectively canceled the units’ plans to develop and succeeded in phasing them out or even shut them down, a “struggle” that lasted for decades.

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