Saint Stefanos: The history of our little town
- Saint Stephanos is a suburb in northeast Attica, 25 km from the historical centre of Athens.
- When on January 30, 1923 the Greek-Turkish agreement for the exchange of populations was signed, a Greek commission went to towns and villages of Constantinople and Asia Minor recorded the Greek populace.
This is how the history of St. Stephanos begins (86 years ago) when on May 1, 1924 seventy (70) families from the region of Constantinople – Litres, Nymphes – and 36 families from Asia Minor, Ikonion, Prokopi, Makri, etc., reached, after much hardship, this place as exchange populace.
They settled in Dekeleiko (a name we find in Homer and it means forest area) or Bogiati. The only thing that existed there then was the railway station named “Oeon”. The refugees founded the New Bogiati or Saint Stephanos. In tents given by the government, they started dynamically to build their households
- Men of Letters and Arts from good families with large estates in their lost motherlands, they arrived here and started, having been given a plot of land in place of what they had lost, paying 50,000 drachmas for the settling.
They had to work hard and even to build themselves their own houses. By the time, little by little, things became better…..
- TODAY
- The population of St. Stephanos is approximately 10.000 inhabitants, continuously growing by people from the centre of Athens, who are seeking better living conditions.
It is very special how this exchange of inhabitants took place. Were people asked if they wanted to settle in Greece or in Turkey or were they forced to? You speak about refugees a little further. I can imagine they met with many hardships, living in tents first, without a minimum of comfort, building themselves a new life, on an unknown land, people who were probably used to an easier life!
Thank you Vicky for this post! It’s great to learn about eachother’s lands.
Thank you very much, Isabelle, for your welcome comment.
No, people were forced to leave their ancestors’ land and heritage and become refugees in Greece. One million and a half of refugees came then in our , extremely poor, country….And they have been used to live in a very wealthy way. But life is so unpredictable! We have to teach our children that nothing lasts for ever and for sure. Elder Greeks know it very well.
Hello my dearest friend!
Here you go for another year of info on your “sacred” piece of land! Glad to be introduced to St Stephanos which has stayed a very secretive place up to now
Looking at your photos I notice that people were smiling despite the hard work to start anew in a country that wasn’t home! In deep crisis, solidarity seems to be the key word: solidarity in grief but also the sharing of happy moments.
Agios Stefanos is the place where our family keeps its nest since 1986. We love the place, much more because Personally I have a second house here: it is our unique High-school. Twenty four years of teaching in the same college. I cannot imagine how it will be when I retire!
20 years in the same junior highschool! We can shake hands. I have been teaching the same length of time in Kerhallet Middle school. One more thing in common! I have the same doubts about retirement! But our nest, as you say, is in Brest a sea port on the Atlantic Ocean:
http://www.brest-metropole-tourisme.fr/
But my heart is still strongly beating for Commana a village inland where I was born :
http://images.google.fr/imgres?imgurl=http://www.infobretagne.com/images/enclos-commana_3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.infobretagne.com/enclos-commana.htm&usg=__0vGsSJimZb6LVPtskfDManiM8fI=&h=410&w=547&sz=20&hl=fr&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=v_F-hG6ryQRn2M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcommana%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dfr%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:fr:official%26channel%3Ds%26tbs%3Disch:1
See the church at the bottom of the website!
I am glad that I will visit Brest. I loved the video on your link. I also liked the colorful interior of the churches of Comana. Every link flies me to the world!