Kypseli, Athens

Coordinates: 38°0′9.44″N 23°44′29.54″E / 38.0026222°N 23.7415389°E / 38.0026222; 23.7415389

Kypseli from Elikonos hill

The historic Fokionos Negri Street, now pedestrianised with numerous cafés and a park along its length, runs through the middle of the district.

Kypseli (Greek: Κυψέλη) is a neighbourhood which forms much of the 6th municipal department in the centre of Athens, the capital of Greece. The population of the area is around 50,000.

Boundaries

The boundaries of Kypseli are set by Patission Street at the west, by Tourkovounia hill at the east, by Galatsi Municipality at the north and by Pedion Areos park at the south. Extensions of Kypseli are Nea Kypseli which ends at Gyzi neighbourhood and Ano Kypseli ("Upper Kypseli") which borders with Attiko Park, Papandreou neighbourhood and Galatsi.

History

Six floor condominium (1960)

One of the many bourgeois apartment buildings that can be found in Kypseli, built in 1960s. These buildings tend to be made up of large apartment units and very rarely surpass six storeys in height.

Kypseli was bounded differently than today in 1908 after a study by the county engineer Athanasios Georgiadis.

The clearly urban development of Kypseli began in the 30s with the construction of family houses and of the first modern apartment buildings in Athens. The development was contemporary with Kolonaki and other central areas with influences of the era such as Bauhaus and Art Deco. Near large green areas such as Pedion Areos and Fokionos Negri Street pushed Kypseli to become an upmarket district with many apartment buildings built during the 30s, 50s and 60s that addressed to the middle and upper-middle class. Moreover, the shops by the streets helped Kypseli become a major shopping centre. Shopping districts were Kypselis Square, Patission Street, Kypselis Street, Fokionos Negri Street and Amerikis Square.

However, Kypseli started to degrade in the 80s because of the movement of residents to the northern suburbs, and was even aggravated by the coming of immigrants who used the basements and the small apartments of the buildings as cheap residences. Consequently, the value of real estate decreased even if high apartments on Fokionos Negri Street can be sold much more expensively in comparison to the rest of the district. Several areas have remained commercial such as Patission and Fokionos Negri Streets.

Trivia

The popular chillwave duo Keep Shelly In Athens is named after a pun on suburban Kypseli.^[1]

Gallery

References

1. ↑ Roebuck, Ian (16 March 2011). "Keep Shelly In Athens". Loud And Quiet. Music Is A Potion 3 (26): 19. Retrieved 21 April 2012. 

• Great Greek Encyclopedia, Vol. XV, page 65, 1930
• The urban landscape of multinational Kypseli (Greek)

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