Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Patras
Summary
Patras (Pátra ˈpatra; Katharevousa and Πάτραι; Patrae) is Greece's third-largest city and the regional capital of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foot of Mount Panachaikon, overlooking the Gulf of Patras.
As of the 2021 census, the city of Patras has a population of 173,600; the municipality has 215,922 inhabitants. The core settlement has a history spanning four millennia. In the Roman period, it had become a cosmopolitan center of the eastern Mediterranean whilst, according to the Christian tradition, it was also the place of Saint Andrew's martyrdom.
Dubbed as Greece's 'Gate to the West, Patras is a commercial hub, while its busy port is a nodal point for trade and communication with Italy and the rest of Western Europe. The city has three public universities, hosting a large student population and rendering Patras an important scientific centre with a field of excellence in technological education. The Rio-Antirio Bridge connects Patras' easternmost suburb of Rio to the town of Antirrio, connecting the Peloponnese peninsula with mainland Greece.
Every year, in February, the city hosts one of Europe's largest carnivals. Notable features of the Patras Carnival include its mammoth satirical floats and balls and parades, enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of visitors in a Mediterranean climate. Patras is also famous for supporting an indigenous cultural scene active mainly in the performing arts and modern urban literature. It was European Capital of Culture in 2006.
History of Patras
The first traces of settlement in Patras date to as early as the third millennium BC, in the area of modern Aroi. Patras flourished for the first time in the Post-Helladic or Mycenean period (1580–1100 BC). Ancient Patras was formed by the unification of three Mycenaean villages in modern Aroi, namely ancient Aroe, Antheia (from mythological Antheia) and Mesatis. Mythology has it that after the Dorian invasion, a group of Achaeans from Laconia led by the eponymous Patreus established a colony.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.