Kalamaria

Kalamariá (Καλαμαριά) is a suburb of Thessaloniki, Greece. It is a municipality (similar to a Borough) of the Thessaloniki Urban Area, located about 5 km southeast of downtown Thessaloniki. The municipal population of 87,255 (as of 2001) is the second-largest in Macedonia and the ninth-largest in Greece, and has increased 8% since the 1991 census.

History


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

The present settlement was created in the early 1920s to house refugees from the Greek diaspora in Georgia and Asia Minor, who 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 of Pontic descent mainly relocated in Kalamaria, and the city population is predominantly of Pontic descent to this day.

Kalamaria has seen substantial recent growth as part of a population shift from rural and urban areas to suburban areas. 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 1st of January 1943 it became an independent administrative unity. The total area of the Council of Kalamaria covers 7,200 acres. Two thirds of Kalamaria is surrounded by sea with 6.5 km of beautiful coastline.

Kalamaria had a population of 14,000 residents as recorded by an inventory in 1947, 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. The Council is separated into 10 geographical districts, which have been given names of the homelands of the refugees who were the first residents of Kalamaria.


 * Nea Krini
 * Nea Trapezounta
 * Karabournaki
 * Kouri Katirli
 * Aretsou
 * Ag. Ioannis
 * Vyzantio
 * Ag. Pantelimonas
 * Navarchos Votsis (in honour of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis)
 * Finikas (Fenekas in local language)

Sporting teams
Kalamaria has 14 sporting teams including the famous Apollon Kalamarias.

Sister cities

 * 🇦🇱 Saranda, Albania
 * 🇧🇬 Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria
 * 🇨🇾 Paphos, Cyprus
 * 🇺🇸 Clearwater, Florida, United States
 * 🇸🇰 Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia

Notable residents

 * The notable music composer, Stavros Koujioumtzis(1932-2005), was a resident of Kalamaria during the last years of his life. He was buried at Kalamaria's municipal cemetery.
 * One of the most famous natives of Kalamaria is the popular actor and comedian Harry Klynn (originally Vassilis Triantafylides) (born 1940). Klynn was candidate for Mayor of Kalamaria at the local elections of 2006.

Transportation
The main roads to the city are Konstantinos Karamanlis Avenue(formerly Nea Egnatia) to the east, which links with the GR-16 superhighway to Chalkidiki, Taki Ekonomidi Avenue which links the popular suburb Nea Krini with the Thessaloniki's center and Megalou Alexandrou Avenue - the biggest street in Thessaloniki - which links the old centre of the city with Kalamaria's Karabournaki exclusive area. Another main road links with Thermi. The Thessaloniki Ring, which bypasses most of the urban cluster of Thessaloniki, lies to the southeast and east of Kalamaria.

The first Mobility Centre in Greece started functioning in Kalamaria (June 2008).