The mythical port of the Piraeus |
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Collection title
Mythical ports of the Mediterranean
First broadcast date
2009
Abstract
Main port of Athens, industrial center of Greece and starting point for travelers to the islands of the Aegean, we owe to Themistocles the choice of the Piraeus site to install the port of Athens in the fifth century BC, making of the Greek capital a maritime power.
Popularized by Melina Mercouri' s song, "The children of Piraeus", composed by Manos Hadjidakis for the film "Never on Sunday" (1960), the port of Piraeus was the birthplace of the popular rhythms of Rebetiko, in the 1920s.
Production companies
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COPEAM - Coproduction
- ERT Radio - Coproduction
Primary theme
Main harbours
Credits / Cast
- Petraki Marianna - Journalist
- Chikhanis Gilbert - Journalist
Map locations
- Greece - Centre - Piraeus
Context
"Piraeus"
Gilbert Buti
Long before it was the back-drop for a famous film (Jules Dassin's Never on Sunday, 1960) or was the birth-place of a particular kind of music (rebetico), Piraeus had been and remains the port of Athens, the premier port of present day Greece.
In the 6th century AD the Athenians left the nearby hardour of Phalerus and established themselves in Piraeus. The rocky peninsula offered them three moorings sheltered by dikes: the biggest, Kantheros, was above all for merchant activity, while the two others, Munichia, fortified by Hippias, and Zea, sheltering the triremes (galleys with three rows of oarsmen). Both the latter had shipyards and served the warships. The fortifications built at the time of Themistocles (5th century) were destroyed by the Persians during the First Median war. In the middle of the 5th century BC they were rebuilt, and further fortifications included the Long Walls linking Piraeus with Athens. At the same time Piraeus was completely rebuilt and improved by Hippodamus of Miletus' now famous grid plan. The town became a warehouse for Attica and the whole of Greece, except for cereals which were not allowed to leave Athens. But the Peloponnesian war, epidemics, civil war and the loss of merchant ships weakened the port's activities and from the 3rd century BC maritime trade moved away to neighbouring ports such as Delos. When the town was destroyed by Sylla in 86 BC Piraeus was really only a town, even though the port was still functioning. Successive waves of occupying armies (Wisigoths, Vikings, Ottomans) swamped the town and it lost its commercial dynamism.
Piraeus only regained importance after Greek independence (1830). In 1834 it once more became the port for Athens and consequently its population grew rapidly: from less than 500 in 1840 it grew to 50,000 by 1895 and nearly 100,000 when the Greeks from Asia Minor arrived in 1923 – mainly from the area around Smyrna (Izmir) – following the "Great Catastrophe" as the Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey is called. It is possible the influx of these refugees sparked off rebetico music, which then spread right across the world.
Aerial bombing during the Second World War caused enormous damage, both to the fleet and the port installations. Rebuilding was an opportunity to re-think and improve the port space. Today, totally integrated with the vast urban agglomeration that is Athens, the town, with a slightly declining population (196,000 in 1981 and 175,000 in 2001) is nevertheless the third biggest city in Greece. Twinned with Marseille since 1984, Piraeus developed remarkably during the second half of the 20th century. Today it is the base for all the shipping companies which serve continental Greece and the Greek islands, making it Europe's busiest passenger port (more than 20 million people used it in 2005).
Since the Olympic Games in 2004, the port, modernised again, has only been used for passenger ships. Commercial freight and containers – Piraeus has become the leading container port in the eastern Mediterranean – need more space, and that was available Keratsini and Ikonion; the oil infrastructures moving even further away to Aspropyrgos and Eleusine.
In 2008, the port's No. 2 pier was bought by a Chinese company (Cosco); Beijing apparently wanting to make Piraeus the Chinese bridgehead into Europe, it is now often called "the Mediterranean's Chinese port".
Bibliography :
R. Garland, The Piraeus, Londres, 1987.
P. Schmitt-Pantel et C. Orrieux, Histoire grecque, Paris, 2004.
C. Mossé et A. Schnapp-Gourbeillon, Précis d’histoire grecque, Paris, 2009.
