INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE AND MODERN INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

The development and progress of industry leaves behind a large number of objects — machines, buildings and materials — which, despite being abandoned, are of great value, and many of which can be re-used. By industrial heritage we mean all the sources from the industrial past that greatly enrich our knowledge of the history of the productive activities of a country or a population.

Industrial heritage is part of the cultural heritage of a place, but it has not been studied as much as the other branches of human history, although it is equally important, since it refers to a period of history (mainly in Europe) during which world-changing social, economic and everyday changes took place.

Industrial heritage includes the surviving elements of industrial culture that have historical, technological, architectural and scientific value. These may be buildings and machinery, workshops, factories, forges, places of exchange and trade, warehouses and shops, production sites, workers’ housing, watermills, windmills and so on.

In Alimos human activity has almost never stopped over the centuries, so that besides the ancient pottery workshops of antiquity the city also has industrial remains as well as modern industries operating in the area.

Well on Archaiou Theatrou Street: A large hydraulic wheel, which forms the drum of the animal-powered mechanism, turns this system and lowers the vessels empty and upside down; when they enter the water they fill, and when they reach the top of the drum they tip over again and empty the water into a metal trough.

From there the water goes into a shaft and the tank, then into the concrete channel that carries it to the orchard. With its eyes covered so that it does not get dizzy, the animal performs a slow dance around the well while something metal, like a broad key, falls in turn onto each tooth of the wheel.

The well on Archaiou Theatrou Street rests on an ancient structure.

Source: https://nikosgeorgopoulos.wordpress.com/2016/04/16/μαγγανοπήγαδο/

Roman well in part of a ruined house in Alimos
Source: Municipality of Alimos

Roman well in part of a ruined house in Alimos
Source: Municipality of Alimos

Windmills of the Geroulanos estate and of Eptanisou Street: These windmills turned all day long and brought up cool water from the wells for households and gardens.

Windmill on the Geroulanos estate
Source: www.alimosonline.gr

Windmill on Eptanisou Street
Source: www.alimosonline.gr

Klinostrom mattress manufacturing workshop: Almost 70 years have passed since Klinostrom first opened its doors in 1947 as the first Greek manufacturer of orthopaedic mattresses. At the time, grandfather Konstantinos Katsabas had the idea — pioneering for the period — of opening a factory making Greek mattresses to serve the new reality. To realise this idea, he bought several acres in what was then the deserted and uninhabited Alimos, in order to begin his ambitious venture.

The father, the grandmother and grandfather Katsabas in an old photograph
Source: www.nou-pou.gr/market/h-pio-palia-biotexnia-strwmatwn-ths-elladas-brisketai-ston-alimo/

Kontopoulos Chr. SA: The pharmaceutical, cosmetics and detergents plant of Christos Kontopoulos is at 7 Kyvelis Street in Alimos. According to the oral testimony of long-standing residents of the area, the plant was abandoned when the owner retired. Research into this building and its history continues.

Kontopoulos Chr. factory
Source: Tatiana Karka

Grigoris Mikrogevmata SA: In 1972 Grigoris Georgatos opened the first Grigoris Mikrogevmata shop in Dafni. In 1991 the company Grigoris Mikrogevmata SA was founded, the second generation of the Georgatos family took over and the network of Grigoris Mikrogevmata shops expanded; in 1999 the company’s headquarters (facilities and offices) moved to Alimos, to a site of 11,000 sq m on Archaiou Theatrou Street.

Source: Google Maps (Nick Doris)

FAMAR SA: FAMAR was founded in 1949 as a manufacturer of pharmaceutical preparations. It was originally created with purely Greek aims and therefore did not cooperate with foreign pharmaceutical companies. However, as it wanted to increase its production volume, it decided to cooperate with pharmaceutical companies abroad, taking on the production of their pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.

The factory of the pharmaceutical company FAMAR is at 63 Agiou Dimitriou Street in Alimos and covers an area of 2,500 sq m. It is a factory producing injectable medicines, manufacturing sterilised glass vials, plastic vials and glass ampoules for pharmaceutical or cosmetic use.

Source: https://www.famar-group.com/our-presence/our-sites/locations/?prsid=3

Biopharmaceutical industry MSD: In 1974 Schering Plough began operating in Greece. In 1983 MSD was represented by VIANEX and during 2009-2010 Schering Plough merged with MSD. In that period MSD also began to operate officially in Greece, with its head offices in Alimos, Attica (within the FAMAR site).

The company is engaged in the research and production of medicines for diseases such as diabetes and infectious diseases, as well as vaccines, and also aims to cooperate with social bodies.