Kalamaria, Thessaloniki Regional Unit, Central Macedonia, Greece

🇬🇷 Kalamaria is among the most densely populated suburbs in Greece, located about 7 km (4 miles) south-east of downtown Thessaloniki.

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 south-east 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.

The first settlement was created in the early 1920s to house Asia Minor 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 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 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 square km (2.47 square miles). About two thirds of the perimeter are 6.5 km (4.0 miles) 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).

Sporting teams Kalamaria has in total 14 sporting teams including Apollon Kalamarias.

Transportation The main roads that feed into the municipality are those of Konstantinos Karamanlis Avenue (formerly Nea Egnatia) to the east (which links with the A25 (the Thessaloniki-Chalkidiki motorway)), Taki Ekonomidi Avenue (which links the popular district of Nea Krini with Thessaloniki's city center), Megalou Alexandrou Avenue - the biggest avenue in Thessaloniki and the EO16 which provides the main access from Kalamaria to the airport and the outer south-eastern suburbs of Thessaloniki. Other main road links exist with Thermi, while the south-east end of the Thessaloniki ring road (which bypasses the Thessaloniki Urban Area) lies to the south-east of Kalamaria.