Goudi (, since 2006; formerly Γουδί ) is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

on the eastern part of

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and on the foothills of Mount Hymettus.

History

The area's name derives from the 19th-century Goudis (Γουδής) family, who owned an estate there. Currently, there are three university hospitals (Laiko and two children's hospitals) and the main campuses for the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Dentistry of the

Athens University The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; , ''Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens (UoA), is a public university in Athens, Greece, with various campuses alo ...

School of Health Sciences. The area's main square is St. Thomas' Square, with the church of St. Thomas in its middle. A army barracks of the same name existed in Goudi, and the following events occurred there. The military movement of 1909 started by military officers in the barracks and later became known as the Goudi coup. A few years later, this is also where the '' Trial of the Six'' defendants were executed in 1922). The Goudi army barracks was decommissioned and turned into parkland and sports facilities, hosting the

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

and

modern pentathlon The modern pentathlon is an Summer Olympics, Olympic multisport that consists of five events: fencing (one-touch épée followed by direct elimination), freestyle swimming, obstacle course racing, Laser pistol (sport), laser pistol shooting, and ...

venues for the 2004 Olympic Games. During 2012, 'Goudi' became a catchcry during some political extremist rallies in Greece, with protesters chanting it to express their hostility to mainstream politicians who they perceived as traitors to the country during the

Euro area crisis The euro area crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis, European debt crisis, or European sovereign debt crisis, was a multi-year debt crisis and financial crisis in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until, in Greece, 2018. The ...

, alleging that they deserved a similar fate as the Trial of the Six defendants.

Name dispute

The use of the name ''Γουδί'', treated as if it were a neuter noun (rather than as a

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

of the surname ''Γουδή'' from which it derives) was widespread until translator Vasiliki Karagianni led a campaign to change to the correct use. Even during the years when the Goudi family were alive, popular opinion still led to its treating as a neuter noun, similar to other towns and cities whose name derived from surname such as Kapandriti, Tatoi and

Galatsi Galatsi (, ''Galátsi'' ), called in Katharevousa Galatsion (, ''Galátsion''), is a town, a northern suburb of Athens agglomeration, Greece, and a municipality of the Attica (region), Attica region. The municipality has an area of 4.026 km ...

. Karagianni's campaign was ultimately successful and the city council of Athens approved the form change without objection in 2006. This led to a change in certain road signs and bus line names.

References

External links

* Neighbourhoods in Athens {{Athens-geo-stub