Penteli () is a village and a municipality in the North Athens regional unit,

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

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 ...

. Belonging to the

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 ...

rural area, it takes its name from

Mount Pentelicus Mount Pentelicus or Pentelikon (, or ) is a mountain in Attica, Greece, situated northeast of Athens and southwest of Marathon. Its highest point is the peak ''Pyrgari'', with an elevation of 1,109 m. The mountain is covered in large part wi ...

Municipality

The municipality Penteli was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 3 former municipalities, that became municipal units: * Melissia * Nea Penteli *Penteli

Geography

Penteli is situated on the southern slopes of the limestone Penteli mountains. The municipality has an area of 36.064 km², the municipal unit Penteli 28.878 km². It is 14 km northeast of central Athens. Some of the neighbourhoods of Penteli are Agia Triada, Agios Dimitrios, Daou and Kallithea.

History

The bones of prehistoric animals - mastodons,

rhinoceros A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

antelope The term antelope refers to numerous extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae that are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Eastern Europe. Antelopes do ...

, and

giraffe The giraffe is a large Fauna of Africa, African even-toed ungulate, hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa.'' It is the Largest mammals#Even-toed Ungulates (Artiodactyla), tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on ...

, along with giant

turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...

hyena Hyenas or hyaenas ( ; from Ancient Greek , ) are feliform carnivoran mammals belonging to the family Hyaenidae (). With just four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the order Carnivora and one of the sma ...

s and other animals no longer extant in the area - have been found among the limestone crags of the mountain that looms over the present suburb of Athens. The Penteli mountains were renowned in

Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Mar ...

as well as in the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

as a source of "Pentelic"

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

, notably used to build the

Parthenon The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of c ...

and the

Tower of the Winds The Tower of the Winds, known as the in Greek, and by #Names, other names, is an octagonal Pentelic marble tower in the Roman Agora in Athens, named after the eight large reliefs of wind gods around its top. Its date is uncertain, but was compl ...

. The Romans constructed a 140-foot water tower and aqueduct to supply water to the city of Athens. Penteli is the site of the ancient town of Pentele. During the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...

, the French philhellene Sophie de Marbois-Lebrun, Duchess of Plaisance supported the revolutionary leaders. When she settled in Greece in 1834, she bought large plots of land in Athens and on the Penteli mountain. She had the Rododafni Castle built for her. In July 1995, Penteli was ravaged by a large forest fire. According to Turkish former prime minister, Mesut Yilmaz, many of the forest fires that raged the Greek countryside during that summer were actually started by Turkish secret service agents. The forests of Penteli suffered damage again from the August 2007 fires.

Transport

The area is serviced by Pentelis railway station on the Athens Airport–Patras line.

Historical population

Sights

* Monastery of Penteli *Rododafni Castle, also known as ''Pyrgos Doukissis Plakentias'', a mansion built for the Duchess of Plaisance. Construction was started in 1840, but it was not finished until 1961, when

Constantine II of Greece Constantine II (, ; 2 June 1940 – 10 January 2023) was the last King of Greece, reigning from 6 March 1964 until the abolition of the Greek monarchy on 1 June 1973. Constantine was born in Athens as the only son of Crown Prince Paul and ...

moved into it. *The Penteli Astronomical Station of the

National Observatory of Athens The National Observatory of Athens (NOA; ) is a research institute in Athens, Greece. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest List of research institutes in Greece, research foundation in Greece. The Observatory was the first scientific research insti ...

, completed in 1936

Byzantine monuments

The catholicon of the old Monastery of St.Nicholas (Kallesia-Penteli). A wall painting monument of George Markou the Argus, the great and prolific post-Byzantine ecclesiastic iconographer of the 18th century.(''"...Nel 1727, Marcou si trova di nuovo ad Atene, dove assume l’agiografia dei Templi di....e di San Nicola Callision a Pendeli. E evidente, che Marcou acquistò, di nuovo, la conoscenza con il Monastero Pendelis..."'') Evangelos Andreou

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Gallery

file:Κέντρο Πεντέλης.jpg, Center of Penteli file:Είσοδος Μονής Πεντέλης.jpg, Penteli Monastery entrance file:Ascetic life in Penteli Monastery, Greece - panoramio.jpg, Inside the monastery of Penteli file:Πεντελικά Λιβάδια.jpg, Penteli fields file:Tourelle (Πυργίσκος) Πεντέλη.jpg, Tourelle tower file:Μνημείο Πεσόντων Πεντελιωτών.jpg, Penteli fallen residents monument

References

External links

Official website
{{Penteli div Municipalities of Attica Populated places in North Athens (regional unit)