OTTOMAN RULE AND THE INDEPENDENT GREEK STATE

During the period of Ottoman rule the whole of Attica belonged to the Sultan, while religious authority was held by the mufti, the senior Muslim cleric. The mufti Ibrahim Hamza Bey owned a large part of Alimos and other neighbouring areas, which is why the nearby district of Brahami took its name from him, as did the area of Elliniko, which was called Hasani because it was the property of Hasan Bey.

After the establishment of the new Greek state, the Ottomans sold their properties before leaving. The vast areas of Alimos passed into the ownership of Andreas Louriotis (1789–1854), an associate of Mavrokordatos.

Large tracts of land were also bought by Tzanetos, by the Constantinopolitan merchant Alexandros Kontostavlos, by island shipowners and by the fighter of the 1821 revolution Ioannis Makrygiannis, who bought the areas of Kalamakiou, Themistokleous, Kanari, Filellinon, Kondyli, Megistis and Thoukydidou streets for 2,750 drachmas. Hasan Bey also ceded part of the area to the Karagianopoulou sisters when he left.

After liberation, the Arvanite farmers of the former Ottoman estates invited more Arvanites from Methana, although the area remained extremely sparsely populated and isolated because of the poor road network and the presence of bandits.

Population of Trachones, Hasani and Kontopigado in 1879
Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3390833547653866&set=g.758784610805144&type=1&theater&ifg=1

Under King Otto, Alimos came under the Municipality of Athens, while in 1890 the oldest surviving building in the area was built by the Anagnostopoulou family at 4 Lykourgou Street.

The development of Alimos, which was initially called the Syngrou district, began in the 20^th century. In 1905 the first church was built on the rise where the Church of the Transfiguration stands today.

Church of the Transfiguration
Source: https://sites.google.com/site/sotiras/home/history

Church of the Transfiguration
Source: https://sites.google.com/site/sotiras/home/history

Under Venizelos, large estates were expropriated, creating an opportunity for development. In 1912 the German Groman built the first villa in the area after his marriage to the daughter of the Kalamaki landowner Zannos. From the oleanders (pikrodafnes) in his garden the whole area was named “Pikrodafni”.

Groman villa
Source: https://www.alimosonline.gr/

At about the same time the Kefalonian doctor Marinos Geroulanos bought land at Kato Trachones and created a model farming unit.

The estate came to support some 40 families and more than 70 workers. The wealthy Athenian contractor Nikolaos Maltezos, who later became the first president of the community of Kalamaki, built his house on Ermou Street in 1916, along with three other stone houses. In one of them the film-maker Finos later settled (1938), turning the place into a studio. At 4 Metamorfoseos Street there was a beautiful villa with arches, the house of the well-known fashion designer Tsouchlos, which housed the Tsamtsouri–Anestopoulou schools before they moved to 14 Kanari Street, to the Andreadis villa.

Tsouchlos villa
Source: https://www.alimosonline.gr

Dimitrios Tsouchlos, who at the time ran the largest fashion house in Athens, built another tower-like house that was initially used as a card club and later rented out to various personalities, such as Angelos Sikelianos and his wife Eva. In 1933, when the couple separated, they gave up the lease. During the Occupation the Germans requisitioned it and used it as a bar, and in that period the house suffered serious damage. Live ammunition was later found in the garden. In 1948 it was bought by Georgios Stamopoulos, who had to carry out many repairs before it could be lived in again in the early 1950s. The tower still stands and is an ornament of Alimos.

Tsouchlos villa
Source: https://www.alimosonline.gr/

The royal tailor Tsochas, Tsolakis, Tsoros, the Pikros family, the Dutch brothers Van Wijk and the Andriotis family, who built the private chapel of the Taxiarches, found their retreat in Alimos and built their luxurious villas.

In 1926 the 1st^th Primary School of Kalamaki opened, and in 1927 the settlement of Kalamaki was administratively separated from Brahami and recognised as an autonomous community, with the land association “Alimousios” playing an important role in that recognition.

1^th Primary School of Kalamaki

Despite problems with electricity and water supply and the lack of a road network, the first doctors arrived — Logothetopoulos, Spiliotopoulos, Pikros — the pharmacies of Ioannidis and Tzivanidis opened, along with Skiadas’ grocery and Loukeas’ bakery, and the beer halls and fish tavernas of the seafront such as Kritikos and Aigli , bringing economic and residential growth to the area.

Logothetopoulos villa
Source: https://www.alimosonline.gr/

Logothetopoulos villa
Source: https://www.alimosonline.gr/

In 1928 the first “town plan” of Kalamaki was drawn up, covering the seafront from Pikrodafni to the airport and Lysikratous Street. Twenty months after the recognition of the community of Kalamaki, the settlement of Komninoi was detached from it, and a little later the area of Komninoi was expropriated for the construction of Elliniko airport. In 1930 the settlement of Elliniko, today’s Dikigorika, was also detached from Kalamaki. In 1936 the government approved a street plan for the settlement of “Alimos” as well as for the newly formed settlement of “Trachones”. Right up to the eve of the Second World War, the area experienced a rapid increase in population.

The coastal avenue in Alimos (1930–1960)
Source: https://www.notia.gr/