Acharnes is a suburb of Athens, Attica, Greece. With 106,943 inhabitants (2011 census), it is the most populous municipality in East Attica. It is part of the Athens Urban area.
History
Acharnes was named after the deme Acharnae (Ancient Greek: Ἁχαρναί), a subdivision of Athens in classical antiquity. The Athenian playwright Aristophanes characterised the inhabitants of Acharnae as peasants in his play The Acharnians. Acharnes suffered significant damage from the 1999 Athens earthquake, being very close to the epicenter.
Municipality
The municipality Acharnes was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 2 former municipalities, that became municipal units:
- Acharnes
- Thrakomakedones
The municipality has an area of 149.956 km2, the municipal unit 146.406 km2.
Museums
The Folk Art Museum of Acharnes is a museum in Acharnes, a northern suburb of Athens, Greece. It was founded in 1977 by the local Greek Mountaineering Society, which also formed the Historical and Folklore Association in 1981, to which it bequeathed the museum in 1982. The archaeological part of the collection was then separated from the historical and folklore material and was given to the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. Former Minister Melina Mercouri founded for it the Archaeological Museum of Acharnes in a neoclassical building in the central square of Acharnes, which had formerly housed the local Town Hall. The same building houses the Historical and Folklore Society and its Folk Art Museum to the present time.
Economy
The Acharnians chiefly grew cereals, grapes, and olives. Acharnae was the centre of the Athenian charcoal-burning industry, and the chorus of Aristophanes’ comedy The Acharnians is made up of charcoal-burners. Pindar characterizes them as notably brave. A tholos tomb at Menidi suggests Acharnae was once an independent entity; a temple to Ares was later moved to the Athenian Agora.
Donkeys from Acharnae were noted for their large size, perhaps in humor. Peisander the oligarch (fl. 429-411 BCE), a native of the deme, was nicknamed ὔνος κανθήλιος (“donkey”) for at least that reason.
