Kalamaria

History

The area was first settled by humans in prehistoric times, and remains from that settlement have been found around the Mikro Emvolo cape.

The name Kalamaria was first used in 1083 to denote the area southeast of Thessaloniki, including but not limited to the area of the present-day municipality. During the Byzantine and the Ottoman periods, the area was mostly uninhabited, except for a few fishing lodges.

During the XIX century the area was inhabited mostly by Bulgarians from the Debar region. In the early 1920s Asia Minor refugees from the Greek diaspora in Georgia and Asia Minor settled because they either fled or were forcibly sent to Greece as a result of the Greco-Turkish War. As many as 100,000 refugees relocated to Thessaloniki, primarily to the city's suburbs. Refugees from Asia Minor and East Thrace mainly settled in Kalamaria.

In 1931, an antisemitic riot, led by National Union of Greece, took place in Camp Campbell, located in nowadays Kalamaria, where a Jewish neighborhood was completely burned, leaving 500 families homeless and one Jewish resident dead.

Kalamaria has seen substantial recent growth as part of a population shift from rural and urban areas to suburban areas, particularly to those east of Thessaloniki. Between the 1981 and 2001 censuses, the population of Kalamaria grew by about 36,000 (or 69%). Up until 1943 Kalamaria was part of the Municipality of Thessaloniki. On 1 January 1943 it became an independent administrative unit.

Kalamaria had a population of 14,000 residents as recorded by an inventory in 1947, but this has considerably increased, as shown by the Greek census of 2001 where Kalamaria had a total of 87,255 residents. Kalamaria has the second highest population in the Council of the Town Planning Group of Thessaloniki but also of Northern Greece and ninth in all of Greece.

Though it was originally separated from the main City of Thessaloniki, the municipality has grown so much in the post-war period that the older physical boundaries are virtually non-existent. Nowadays, the border between the two municipalities exists purely for administrative purposes.

Traditionally the areas of Krini and Aretsou had been used as beaches and places for summer baths for the citizens of Thessaloniki, after WWII until the 1980s. The pollution of the Thermaic Gulf made this practice impossible since then.

The total area of the Municipality of Kalamaria covers 6.401 km2. About two thirds of the perimeter are 6.5 km of coastline. The municipality is separated into 10 geographical districts, which have been given names reminiscent of the refugees' former homelands.

• Nea Krini (Νέα Κρήνη)
• Karabournaki (Καραμπουρνάκι)
• Nea Touzla (Νέα Τούζλα)
• Kouri (Κουρί)
• Katirli (Κατιρλί)
• Aretsou (Αρετσού)
• Agios Ioannis (Άγιος Ιωάννης)
• Vyzantio (Βυζάντιο)
• Agios Panteleimonas (Άγιος Παντελεήμoνας)
• Navarchos Votsis (Ναύαρχος Βότσης, "Admiral Votsis")
• Finikas (Fenekas in local language) (Φοίνικας)

Historical population

Sporting teams

Kalamaria has in total 14 sporting teams including Apollon Kalamarias.[[File:Apollon Kalamarias' Stadium, Hilis str. - panoramio.jpg|thumb|[[Apollon Kalamarias]] Stadium|209x209px]]

Climate

Kalamaria, like much of Thessaloniki metropolitan area lies in a transitional climate zone between semi-arid and temperate climates, classifying as cold semi-arid climate (BSk) according to Köppen climate classification. Kalamaria records 408 mm annual precipitation, evenly spread throughout the year with a slight decrease during the summer months, while the average annual temperature is 17.1 °C. Temperatures in the warmest months rarely (if ever) exceed 40 °C while frost may occur several days per year during the winter months. Thunderstorms are more common during the warmer half of the year. Snowfall is not very common though it occurs almost annually, but it usually does not cause heavy disruption to daily life.{{Weather box

Transportation

Streets

• Chilis Street
• Plastira Street
• Passalidi Street
• Sofouli Street
• Ethnikis Antistaseos Street
• Kerasountos Street
• Mitropolitou Kallidou Street
• Komninon Street
• Karamanli Street
• Venizelou Street
• Korai Street
• Vrioulon Street
• Sarafi Street
• Smirnis Street
• Papagou Street
• Fleming Street
• Taki Ikonomidi Street
• Panormou Street
• Andrea Papandreou Street
• Propontidos Street
• Kountourioti Street

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Kalamaria is twinned with:

• ALB Saranda, Albania
• BUL Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria
• CYP Paphos, Cyprus
• [[File:British military cemetery, Mikra.jpg|thumb|[[Mikra British Cemetery]]]]USA Clearwater, Florida, United States
• SVK Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia

;Partnerships In addition to this, Kalamaria is partnered with:

• SWE Solna, Sweden
• HUN Fonyód, Hungary

References

References

1. [https://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/d/home/en/municipalities/9032/ Municipality of Kalamaria, Municipal elections – October 2023], Ministry of Interior
2. "Ιστορία". Municipality of Kalamaria.
3. [https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/kalamaria-population Kalamaria Population 2021, worldpopulationreview.com]
4. Iωάννου Γιώργος, Η πρωτεύουσα των προσφύγων, Κέδρος, Αθήνα 1984
5. See [https://web.archive.org/web/20080315022321/http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_doc/photos/11087?hr=null legend] of the picture as published by the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]
6. [[Aristotle Kallis. Aristotle A. Kallis]], ''The Jewish Community of Salonica Under Siege: The Antisemitic Violence of the Summer of 1931'', Oxford University Press, 2006
7. [https://parallaximag.gr/thessaloniki/kapote-sto-karampournaki Κάποτε στο Καραμπουρνάκι]
8. "Population & housing census 2001 (incl. area and average elevation)". National Statistical Service of Greece.
9. (7 March 2023). "Climate". [[National Observatory of Athens]].
10. "Networks, town twinning and partnerships". City of Solna.