Rafina () is a suburban port town located on the eastern coast of

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 ...

. It has a population of 14,620 inhabitants (2021 census). Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rafina-Pikermi, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 18.979 km². It is part of

Athens metropolitan area The Athens metropolitan area () spans within the Attica region and consists of 58 municipalities plus parts of East Attica and West Attica, having reached a population of 3,638,281 according to the 2021 census. The municipalities of Athens an ...

Geography

Rafina lies on the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

coast, east of the Penteli mountains and northeast of the Mesogaia plain. It is north of Artemida, south of Nea Makri and east 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 ...

city centre. The municipal unit of Rafina contains, besides the city itself, a large portion of the surrounding area, which is mostly woodland and farmland. The only other town is Kallitechnoupoli. Rafina is a port town serving ferries to the southern part of

Euboea Euboea ( ; , ), also known by its modern spelling Evia ( ; , ), is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete, and the sixth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by ...

as well as most of the

Cyclades The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate i ...

. Its port acts as the second port of

, after the Athens's port of

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

History

Rafina suffered damage from a forest fire in July 2005 and again in 2018.

Historical population

Culture

Sports

Rafina is the seat of two football clubs with presence in third national division (

Gamma Ethniki The Gamma Ethniki (, C National Division) is the Greek football league system, third highest football league in Greece. History The Gamma Ethniki began in 1965 as an amateur championship, while in 1983 it was changed to professional. Although no ...

), Triglia Rafina, club founded in 1932 by refugees, and Thyella Rafina, club founded in 1957.

Notable residents

Robert Pires Robert Emmanuel Pires (born 29 October 1973) is a French former professional footballer. He is widely regarded as one of Arsenal's greatest ever players and considered by some to be one of the best wingers in the history of the sport. Pires play ...

(French footballer) *

Kostas Karamanlis Konstantinos A. Karamanlis (; born 14 September 1956), commonly known as Kostas Karamanlis (, ), is a Greek retired politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece, prime minister of Greece from 2004 to 2009. He was also president of the Centr ...

, former Greek prime minister * Simon Rrumbullaku Albanian-Greek football player.

International relations

Rafina is twinned with: *

Pano Lefkara Pano Lefkara () is a village on the island of Cyprus famous for its lace, known as lefkaritika in (Greek: λευκαρίτικα) and silver handicrafts. The village takes its name from the white of its silica and limestone: Lefkara is derived fro ...

, Cyprus * Tirilye, TurkeyZeytinbağı (Trilye) Rum Misafirlerini Ağırladı
* Triglia,

Chalkidiki Chalkidiki (; , alternatively Halkidiki), also known as Chalcidice, is a peninsula and regional unit of Greece, part of the region of Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia in Northern Greece. The autonomous Mount Athos reg ...

References

External links

Official website

triglianoi.gre-rafina.gr
{{Rafina-Pikermi div Populated places in East Attica Rafina-Pikermi Mediterranean port cities and towns in Greece Port cities of the Aegean Sea