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Administrative Region : Attica
Regional unit : Central Athens

Kaisariani (Greek: Καισαριανή), also Kessariani, is a suburb in the eastern part of Athens, Greece. Kaisariani is located about 7 km from downtown Athens, about 4 km SW of Katechaki Avenue 4 km from the Hymettus Ring (number 65), which forms part of the Attiki Odos private superhighway network, and 6 km S of Kifissias Avenue. The city is accessed through Olof Palme Avenue.

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Subdivisions

Ano Kaisariani

The area was once used for farmland and forests dominated its reach. The area was of mixed farming including pastures, vegetables, and groves. In the mid-20th century, suburban housing development from Athens spread across and eliminated farmland, leaving empty space to the southeast. The forests are situated in the east, making up Mount Hymettus' largest forest, and the forested area also contains a valley with a road linking Athens' nearby communication tower. The University of Athens is to the northeast, mainly in Zografou, while the rest of the area is made up of residential buildings. Kaisariani has a hill in the centre, and much of the land in the east is rocky terrain and forests of Hymettus; the municipality is about 85 square kilometres, of which 75 square kilometres are mountainous and also forested. The Kaisariani Monastery can be found to the southeast in the Hymettus mountain, while the eastern bypass of Athens lies in the east. The town also has its own Greek A2 League basketball team, named Near East Kaisariani, which was founded in 1927. The team plays in the Kaisariani Stadium.

History

The town was founded in 1922 as a refugee camp for refugees driven from Asia Minor. Most of whom coming from Smyrna. The municipality was created in 1934, out of a former subdivision of the city of Athens.

A dark part of the modern history of Greece was written at the Kaisariani rifle range. There, on 1 May 1944, 200 Greek political activists were executed by the Nazi occupiers as a revenge for the death of he German general Franz Krech, who had been killed in a guerrilla ambush near Molaoi a few days before.

The early hours of June 17, 1944, 10 men of the United Panhellenic Organization of Youth and guerillas of the National Liberation Front were killed, when trapped by the Nazi forces at the Monastery of Kessariani, where they had been hiding.

Other

Kaisariani has schools, lyceums, gymnasia, banks, post offices and squares (plateies).

Historical population
Year Population
1981 28,972
1991 26,803
2001 26,419

Notable people

Themis Adamantidis, singer
Christos Dantis, singer and songwriter
Anna Fonsou, actress
Stelios Giannakopoulos, footballer
Antonis Kalogiannis, singer
Evangelos Kouloumbis, politician
Thanassis Papageorgiou, actor