THE PORT of PIRAEUS from 1835 to 2004 Dr Nikos Belavilas Urban Environment Laboratory National Technical University of Athens
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE PORT OF PIRAEUS FROM 1835 TO 2004 Dr Nikos Belavilas Urban Environment Laboratory National Technical University of Athens Published in Patrimoine de l' industrie/ Industrial patrimony, TICCIH-ICOMOS-Ecomusee de la Communaute Urban Le Creusot Montceau Les Mines, no7/2002, pp 75-82 INTRODUCTION The best view of the port of Piraeus is to be obtained from the deck of a vessel belonging to the Aegean shipping lines. When the ship passes the outer Krakaris pier of the Outer Harbour, the whole of the coastline of the port unfolds before the eyes of the traveller, against the background of the the traces of almost all the phases of building development during the last two centuries. Greece's largest port owes its existence to its deep natural bay, in an inlet of the Saronic Gulf. The ancient anchorage of the fifth century BC was chosen in 1834-1835 to be the port of the modern Athenian city at the same time as the establishment of the capital of the Greek State in Athens was decided upon. Thus, in the middle of Attica, the two cities, the capital and its port, formed a bipolar urban complex. From 1850 onwards, the fishing village of earlier years was transformed into an industrial town with a few thousand residents. The events of 1922 and the arrival of the refugees from Asia Minor gave rise to the genesis of a parallel city, behind the industrial areas. From the 1960s, the port spread westwards. This expansion was completed around 1995. At the same time, behind the industrial zone, districts of Piraeus and the most distant settlements were amalgamated. The city expanded as far as the natural boundaries of the mountains and the outer walls of the new harbour. This spread continued until 1985. At the same period, the industrial units either moved elsewhere or ceased to function. Today, in the historical industrial zone of Piraeus, very few factories still operate. Commercial establishments have been removed from the central harbour. At present, Athens is preparing for the Olympic Games of 2004. The modernisation of the port in the direction of its exploitation for tourism and of the speeding up of passenger traffic, and the utilisation of the abandoned 2 industrial sites are the predominant trends in urban planning. The planning for the Games has included areas, a long way from the port, on the 'expensive' seafront of Phaliro. The harbour-industrial zone has been left to private enterprise. There, without any planning framework, investments are being made and uses are being introduced which are leading to the destruction of the historic premises. THE GENESIS OF THE PORT AND THE CITY However, let us start from the beginning. During the first period of its operation, in the first half of the nineteenth century, the port covered a small area on the innermost point of the bay. In the middle of the century, it had two quays and a short waterfront. In spite of the small magnitudes of the built harbour installations, the great size of the bay permitted the mooring of 300 vessels of 150 tons. In its next phase, the port began to spread along the length of the coast, chiefly by means of scattered warehouse facilities and shipbuilding units. The coming of the railway and the construction of three stations between 1869 and 1904 reinforced the development of industry and trade, which was largely orientated towards the stations. The land uses on the city's coastline were divided into two zones: the urban and the industrial. The urban areas of the city developed in the centre of the port. Two districts colonised at the time of the War of Independence from Hydra and Chios were built after 1835. An ambitious urban plan, drawn up by the architects S. Kleanthis and E. Schaubert, laid down the terms of development. The separation of the zones had been provided for by the planning, but for much smaller magnitudes than those which Piraeus eventually took on. Along the harbour's central quay, a row of public and private buildings was constructed, forming a neo-Classical front of considerable monumentality. The basic landmarks were the three large churches,1 the Customs House complex, the Stock Exchange2 and the Food Market.3 The front was completed with large buildings (megara) and hotels in the period 1880-1910. The terminus of the Athens-Piraeus railway line was added in 1926-1928, to plans of the architects M. and I. Axelos, together with what is today the Megaron of the Bank of Greece, which was built after 1927. The hills of the mainland of Piraeus and the southern shore were not built on for many decades. On the entrance of the harbour it was planned, in 1889, to build the summer palace, but this idea never came to fruition. In its place, in 1904-1905, the Naval Cadets' School was established, to plans of the architect E. Ziller. That side of the harbour later became the site of other service units of the Navy.4 On the summit of the peninsula which dominates the harbour, on a large estate, the Hadjikyriakos Girls' Orphanage was built in 1889-1898. The Navy's buildings and the orphanage have survived to the present day. THE WESTERN INDUSTRIAL ZONE 1 These were built between 1840 and 1882. They are Holy Trinity (bombed in 1944), St Spyridon (on the site of an old ruined monastery), and St Nicholas. 2 The Stock Exchange, subsequently the Town Hall, was contructed in 1869-1872. It was designed by the engineer G. Metaxas. It was demolished in 1986. 3 The Market was built in 1862-1863 and demolished in 1968. 4 The Aegean Naval Command and the Lighthouse Service. 3 The landscape on the NW coast began to look different towards the end of the 19th century. A machine works / shipyard - 'G. Vassiliadis' - was moved from the hinterland to the coast at Drapetsona. The construction of two permanent state-owned dry-docks, as a continuation of the shipyard, altered the shape of the NW coastline within a short space of time.5 The 'G. Vassiliadis' works established their shipyard there around 1893. In November 1906, the machine-shop was also transferred, from the Karavas area, where it had operated since 1859.6 In the years 1902-1906, a metal sliding grid7 was constructed for the building and repair of vessels8. This continued to be used in the same form until the mid 1950s. The construction of the state-owned masonry dry-docks, designed by the engineer E. Angelopoulos, began in 1898 and was completed in 1912. The stone-built complex included the 'King George I' dry-dock, of a capacity of 12,000 tons, and the 'Queen Olga', of a capacity of 9,000 tons. Both dry- docks were bombed in 1944, but were brought back into operation and are still in use today. In parallel with the dry-docks, the harbour was deepened and an approach channel was created. In 1909, to the west, an industrial complex producing fertilisers, glass and acids was set up. 'Chemical Products and Fertlizers, SA', the life and soul of which was the chemist N. Canellopoulos, was laid out on a 34-hectare site. The factory was the largest chemicals plant in Greece until the 1960s.9 After the CPFSA, a series of other industrial units was built on the coast. The 'Heracles SA' cement works was established in 1910 by A. Hadjikyriakos, a tannery was set up in the same year, a small plaster factory in 1920 - and premises for the storage of petroleum oil products - the only ones which still operate today. THE HARBOUR UNTIL 1937 In the inner harbour, between 1893 and 1904, a short length of quays, and two jetties were built at Troumba and Ietioneia. The development of the harbour industrial zone on the western coast coincided with the major expansion of the port. The area occupied by the harbour doubled, taking up the wide entrance to the bay by the construction of the outer Krakaris and Themistokleous moles, to the plans of the harbour engineer E. Quellennec.10 By means of the new moles and the removal of rocks from the seabed in 1908, the 'Prolimenas', or outer harbour, was created. By these projects the 5 The coast at Drapetsona was until 1900 the location of the city's 'dirty' sites: the Cemetery (it was moved westwards, outside the city, in 1897), the Municipal Slaughterhouse, built around 1883, and the quarantine premises, which operated from 1863 until the end of the century (they were then transferred to the islet of Aghios Georgios). 6 The seaside site, of an area of four hectares, was purchased in 1898. The site of the shipyard came into the possession of the OLP in 1963. See Kotea, M., The industrial zone of Piraeus, 1860-1890, Panteio University, Athens 1997, pp. 99-104 (in greek). 7 The 'Patent Slip Vassiliades' had a length of 356 feet, a width of 54 feet at the base and of 68 feet at the upper lip, and an average depth of 23 feet. See Agriantoni, Christina, Belavilas, N., 'Piraeus - Drapetsona, the western industrial zone', 10th International Conference TICCIH, Guided Tours, Athens 1997. 8 It was capable of taking ships of a displacement of 3,500 tons. 9 Apart from the basic production units, housing for the workers and office employees was built on the factory site in 1910-1918, followed by the 'Nikolaos Canellopoulos' Institute of Agriculture and Chemistry, in 1938. The factory ceased operations in summer 2000. See Kokkinos, B., Kouthouri, E., Historical Industrial Equipment in Greece (ed.