Pireos Street
Pireos Street is an 8 km long road that connects Piraeus with the centre of Athens.
Modern and Contemporary era (1821 - )
1836 Lining was completed.
1845 It was already in a bad state, due to insufficient maintenance. With the first ceramic factories came the gradual transformation of the street into an industrial zone and the picture began to change.
1902 The bridge of the Kifissos River was built with the use of reinforced concrete, which for the time was a pioneering technique. It significantly reduced the cost of the bridge, and since then the use of reinforced concrete has gained momentum in Greek architecture.
Ottoman era (1453- 1821)
Byzantine era (331 AC- 1453)
Roman era (30 BC- 330 AC)
Hellenistic era (322- 31 BC)
Classical era (478-323 BC)
Archaic era (800-479 BC)
Geometric era (-1100- 800 BC)
Prehistory (-1100 BC)
What I can see
This 8 km long road connects Piraeus with the centre of Athens. It was necessary for the road to be constructed in order for Athens to be directly connected to the port. A satellite view or full length view of the road reveals it is “broken in two”. From Piraeus to Tavros, it is oriented towards the Acropolis, while from Tavros northwards, it is oriented towards Omonia Square. This is because of a disagreement over the alignment of the road when it was built in the 19th century. Apart from the abundant and fascinating graffiti near Omonia Square, at Gazi and ELAIS, there are also historical buildings on this street like the former municipal nursery, the church of Agios Georgios, Technopolis, the Pavlidis and Ion chocolate factories, the Cacoyannis and Hellenic World Foundations, the School of Fine Arts, the Benakis Museum and the ELAIS olive oil production plant.
What I can't see
The road’s alignment traces the Long Walls, which united ancient Athens with Piraeus. In the first city plans (by Kleanthes and Schaubert), this road was intended to unite the palace that was going to be built on Omonia Square with the summer one on the coast of Piraeus. The street would then be lined with important buildings. The palaces eventually were not constructed there and Pireos Street became an industrial zone with brick works, lime kilns, tanneries and other highly polluting plants and factories. The street did have a number of neoclassical buildings near Omonia Square however, because of the original idea to build the palace on the square or in nearby Keramikos. Connecting Athens with Piraeus was crucial for commercial reasons and in spite of the fact that the street was flooded regularly during the winter months and was inundated with dust clouds in the summer, it was a busy central artery. Pireos Street never managed to end straight at the port. Along the entire length of the road, the only residential areas are Kaminia and Tavros, which were built as emergency housing for refugees. They are the only districts that “break” the continuity of the industrial physiognomy of Pireos Street.
Bibliography
Mpelavilas N., (2002), Ο δρόμος με τις φάμπρικες, [The street with the mills], in Epta Imeres, Kathimerini, p.p. 3-9
