Asyrmatos ( el, Ασύρματος ) or Attaliotika ( el, Ατταλιώτικα ) is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

. It is located in the west slopes of Philopappos Hill, next to Ano Petralona district. It is technically part of

Petralona Petralona ( el, Πετράλωνα, ) is a neighborhood of Athens, Greece. Athenians further subdivide the area into Ano (upper) Petralona or Kato (Lower) Petralona, where Ano Petralona is the area between the Philopappos Hill and the railway an ...

. Asyrmatos was named after a transmitting antenna of

Greek Navy The Hellenic Navy (HN; el, Πολεμικό Ναυτικό, Polemikó Naftikó, War Navy, abbreviated ΠΝ) is the naval force of Greece, part of the Hellenic Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy historically hails from the naval forces of vari ...

(''asyrmatos'' being the Greek word for 'wireless'). This area was an old quarry where refugees from

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

were settled, after the

Asia Minor Disaster Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. Most of the refugees came from

Attaleia Antalya () is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish city on the Mediterranean coast outside the Ae ...

, so the other name for this district is Attaliotika. The new settlement was built with rough and makeshift materials, giving it a characteristic slum-like appearance. During the

Dekemvriana The ''Dekemvriana'' ( el, Δεκεμβριανά, "December events") refers to a series of clashes fought during World War II in Athens from 3 December 1944 to 11 January 1945. The conflict was the culmination of months of tension between the c ...

in 1944, the navy school and transmitting antenna were burnt down, leading the government to decide to accommodate the refugees in the old navy school facilities, with the building of stone houses and a block of flats. Asyrmatos was used as natural scenery for the notable Greek neorealistic film ''

Synoikia To Oneiro The Synoikia ( el, συνοικία) was an ancient Greek festival held in Athens commemorating the political unification of Attica. It was also called the Thesean Synoikismos and the Feast of Union, and celebrated Theseus as founder of Athens and ...

''. The film was censored by the Greek authorities of the 1960s for depicting images of poverty and misery within Athens.

References

Neighbourhoods in Athens {{Athens-geo-stub