Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a floweringvine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter (fresh and fully mature), dark red, and contains a stone which encloses a single pepper seed. Peppercorns and the ground pepper derived from them may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper (cooked and dried unripe fruit), green pepper (dried unripe fruit), or white pepper (ripe fruit seeds).[2]
Black pepper is native to the Malabar Coast of India,[3][4] and the Malabar pepper is extensively cultivated there and in other tropical regions. Ground, dried, and cooked peppercorns have been used since antiquity, both for flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is the world’s most traded spice,[5] and is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world. Its spiciness is due to the chemical compound piperine, which is a different kind of spiciness from that of capsaicin characteristic of chili peppers. It is ubiquitous in the Western world as a seasoning, and is often paired with salt and available on dining tables in shakers or mills.
The word pepper derives from Old Englishpipor, Latinpiper, and Greek: πέπερι.[6] The Greek likely derives from Dravidianpippali, meaning “long pepper”.[7]Sanskritpippali shares the same meaning.[6]
In the 16th century, people began using pepper to also mean the New Worldchili pepper (genus Capsicum), which is not closely related.[6]: 2b
Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupe of the pepper plant.[2] The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying.[9] The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, accelerating enzymes that cause browning during drying.[9]
The pepper drupes can also be dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper skin around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer containing melanoidin.[9] Once dry, the spice is called black peppercorn. After the peppercorns are dried, pepper powder for culinary uses is obtained by crushing the berries, which may also yield an essential oil by extraction.[9]
White pepper consists solely of the seed of the ripe fruit of the pepper plant, with the thin darker-coloured skin (flesh) of the fruit removed. This is usually accomplished by a process known as retting, where fully ripe red pepper berries are soaked in water for about a week so the flesh of the peppercorn softens and decomposes; rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is dried. Sometimes the outer layer is removed from the seed through other mechanical, chemical, or biological methods.[10]
Ground white pepper is commonly used in Chinese, Thai, and Portuguese cuisines. It finds occasional use in other cuisines in salads, light-coloured sauces, and mashed potatoes as a substitute for black pepper, because black pepper would visibly stand out. However, white pepper lacks certain compounds present in the outer layer of the drupe, resulting in a different overall flavour.[citation needed]
Green pepper, like black pepper, is made from unripe drupes. Dried green peppercorns are treated in a way that retains the green colour, such as with sulfur dioxide, canning, or freeze-drying. Pickled peppercorns, also green, are unripe drupes preserved in brine or vinegar.[citation needed]
Fresh, unpreserved green pepper drupes are used in some cuisines like Thai cuisine and Tamil cuisine. Their flavour has been described as “spicy and fresh”, with a “bright aroma.”[11] They decay quickly if not dried or preserved, making them unsuitable for international shipping.[citation needed]
Red peppercorns usually consist of ripe peppercorn drupes preserved in brine and vinegar. Ripe red peppercorns can also be dried using the same colour-preserving techniques used to produce green pepper.[12]
Black pepper vine climbing on Jackfruit tree (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
The pepper plant is a perennialwoodyvine growing up to 4 m (13 ft) in height on supporting trees, poles, or trellises. It is a spreading vine, rooting readily where trailing stems touch the ground. The leaves are alternate, entire, 5 to 10 cm (2.0 to 3.9 in) long and 3 to 6 cm (1.2 to 2.4 in) across. The flowers are small, produced on pendulous spikes 4 to 8 cm (1.6 to 3.1 in) long at the leaf nodes, the spikes lengthening up to 7 to 15 cm (2.8 to 5.9 in) as the fruit matures.[13]
Pepper can be grown in soil that is neither too dry nor susceptible to flooding, moist, well-drained, and rich in organic matter. The vines do not do well over an altitude of 900 m (3,000 ft) above sea level. The plants are propagated by cuttings about 40 to 50 cm (16 to 20 in) long, tied up to neighbouring trees or climbing frames at distances of about 2 m (6 ft 7 in) apart; trees with rough bark are favoured over those with smooth bark, as the pepper plants climb rough bark more readily. Competing plants are cleared away, leaving only sufficient trees to provide shade and permit free ventilation. The roots are covered in leaf mulch and manure, and the shoots are trimmed twice a year. On dry soils, the young plants require watering every other day during the dry season for the first three years. The plants bear fruit from the fourth or fifth year, and then typically for seven years. The cuttings are usually cultivars, selected both for yield and quality of fruit.[citation needed]
Single stem with flowers.
A single stem bears 20 to 30 fruiting spikes. The harvest begins as soon as one or two fruits at the base of the spikes begin to turn red, and before the fruit is fully mature, and still hard; if allowed to ripen completely, the fruits lose pungency, and ultimately fall off and are lost. The spikes are collected and spread out to dry in the sun, then the peppercorns are stripped off the spikes.[13]
Black pepper is native either to Southeast Asia[14] or South Asia.[15] Within the genus Piper, it is most closely related to other Asian species such as P. caninum.[15]
Wild pepper grows in the Western Ghats region of India. Into the 19th century, the forests contained expansive wild pepper vines, as recorded by the Scottish physician Francis Buchanan (also a botanist and geographer) in his book A journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar (Volume III).[16] However, deforestation resulted in wild pepper growing in more limited forest patches from Goa to Kerala, with the wild source gradually decreasing as the quality and yield of the cultivated variety improved. No successful grafting of commercial pepper on wild pepper has been achieved to date.[16]
In 2020, Vietnam was the world’s largest producer and exporter of black peppercorns, producing 270,192 tonnes or 36% of the world total (table).[17] Other major producers were Brazil, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, China, and Malaysia. Global pepper production varies annually according to crop management, disease, and weather.[18] Peppercorns are among the most widely traded spice in the world, accounting for 20% of all spice imports.[19]
Black pepper is native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been known to Indian cooking since at least 2000 BCE.[20][how?] J. Innes Miller notes that while pepper was grown in southern Thailand and in Malaysia,[when?] its most important source was India, particularly the Malabar Coast, in what is now the state of Kerala.[21] The lost ancient port city of Muziris of the Chera Dynasty, famous for exporting black pepper and various other spices, is mentioned in a number of classical historical sources for its trade with the Roman Empire, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Levant, and Yemen.[22][23][24][25] Peppercorns were a much-prized trade good, often referred to as “black gold” and used as a form of commodity money. The legacy of this trade remains in some Western legal systems that recognize the term “peppercorn rent” as a token payment for something that is, essentially, a gift.[26]
The ancient history of black pepper is often interlinked with (and confused with) that of long pepper, the dried fruit of closely related Piper longum. The Romans knew of both and often referred to either as just piper. In fact, the popularity of long pepper did not entirely decline until the discovery of the New World and of chili peppers. Chili peppers—some of which, when dried, are similar in shape and taste to long pepper—were easier to grow in a variety of locations more convenient to Europe. Before the 16th century, pepper was being grown in Java, Sunda, Sumatra, Madagascar, Malaysia, and everywhere in Southeast Asia. These areas traded mainly with China, or used the pepper locally.[27] Ports in the Malabar area also served as a stop-off point for much of the trade in other spices from farther east in the Indian Ocean. The Maluku Islands, historically known as the “Spice Islands,” are a region in Indonesia known for producing nutmeg, mace, cloves, and pepper, and were a major source of these spices in the world. The presence of these spices in the Maluku Islands sparked European interest to buy them directly in the 16th century.[28]
Black peppercorns were found stuffed in the nostrils of Ramesses II, placed there as part of the mummification rituals shortly after his death in 1213 BCE.[29] Little else is known about the use of pepper in ancient Egypt and how it reached the Nile from the Malabar Coast of India.[citation needed]
Pepper (both long and black) was known in Greece at least as early as the fourth century BCE, though it was probably an uncommon and expensive item that only the very rich could afford.[citation needed]
A Roman-era trade route from India to Italy
By the time of the early Roman Empire, especially after Rome’s conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE, open-ocean crossing of the Arabian Sea direct to Chera dynasty southern India‘s Malabar Coast was near routine. Details of this trading across the Indian Ocean have been passed down in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. According to the Greek geographer Strabo, the early empire sent a fleet of around 120 ships on an annual trip to India and back.[30] The fleet timed its travel across the Arabian Sea to take advantage of the predictable monsoon winds. Returning from India, the ships travelled up the Red Sea, from where the cargo was carried overland or via the Nile-Red Sea canal to the Nile River, barged to Alexandria, and shipped from there to Italy and Rome. The rough geographical outlines of this same trade route would dominate the pepper trade into Europe for a millennium and a half to come.[citation needed]
With ships sailing directly to the Malabar coast, Malabar black pepper was now travelling a shorter trade route than long pepper, and the prices reflected it. Pliny the Elder‘s Natural History tells us the prices in Rome around 77 CE: “Long pepper … is 15 denarii per pound, while that of white pepper is seven, and of black, four.” Pliny also complains, “There is no year in which India does not drain the Roman Empire of 50 million sesterces“, and further moralizes on pepper:
It is quite surprising that the use of pepper has come so much into fashion, seeing that in other substances which we use, it is sometimes their sweetness, and sometimes their appearance that has attracted our notice; whereas, pepper has nothing in it that can plead as a recommendation to either fruit or berry, its only desirable quality being a certain pungency; and yet it is for this that we import it all the way from India! Who was the first to make trial of it as an article of food? and who, I wonder, was the man that was not content to prepare himself by hunger only for the satisfying of a greedy appetite?
He does not state whether the 50 million was the actual amount of money which found its way to India or the total retail cost of the items in Rome, and, elsewhere, he cites a figure of 100 million sesterces.[30]
Black pepper was a well-known and widespread, if expensive, seasoning in the Roman Empire. Apicius‘ De re coquinaria, a third-century cookbook probably based at least partly on one from the first century CE, includes pepper in a majority of its recipes. Edward Gibbon wrote, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, that pepper was “a favorite ingredient of the most expensive Roman cookery”.[32]
Pepper was so valuable that it was often used as collateral or even currency. The taste for pepper (or the appreciation of its monetary value) was passed on to those who would see Rome fall. Alaric, king of the Visigoths, included 3,000 pounds of pepper as part of the ransom he demanded from Rome when he besieged the city in the fifth century.[33] After the fall of Rome, others took over the middle legs of the spice trade, first the Persians and then the Arabs; Innes Miller cites the account of Cosmas Indicopleustes, who travelled east to India, as proof that “pepper was still being exported from India in the sixth century”.[34] By the end of the Early Middle Ages, the central portions of the spice trade were firmly under Islamic control. Once into the Mediterranean, the trade was largely monopolized by Italian powers, especially Venice and Genoa. The rise of these city-states was funded in large part by the spice trade.[citation needed]
I am black on the outside, clad in a wrinkled cover, Yet within I bear a burning marrow. I season delicacies, the banquets of kings, and the luxuries of the table, Both the sauces and the tenderized meats of the kitchen. But you will find in me no quality of any worth, Unless your bowels have been rattled by my gleaming marrow.[35]
It is commonly believed that during the Middle Ages, pepper was often used to conceal the taste of partially rotten meat. No evidence supports this claim, and historians view it as highly unlikely; in the Middle Ages, pepper was a luxury item, affordable only to the wealthy, who certainly had unspoiled meat available, as well.[36] In addition, people of the time certainly knew that eating spoiled food would make them sick. Similarly, the belief that pepper was widely used as a preservative is questionable; it is true that piperine, the compound that gives pepper its spiciness, has some antimicrobial properties, but at the concentrations present when pepper is used as a spice, the effect is small.[37] Salt is a much more effective preservative, and salt-cured meats were common fare, especially in winter. However, pepper and other spices certainly played a role in improving the taste of long-preserved meats.[citation needed]
Archaeological evidence of pepper consumption in late medieval Northern Europe comes from excavations on the Danish-Norwegian flagship, Gribshunden, which sank in the summer of 1495. In 2021, archaeologists recovered more than 2000 peppercorns from the wreck, along with a variety of other spices and exotic foodstuffs including clove, ginger, saffron, and almond. The ship was carrying King Hans to a political summit at the time of its loss. The spices were likely intended for feasts at the summit, which would have included the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Councils of State.[38][39]
A depiction of Calicut, Kerala, India published in 1572 during Portugal’s control of the pepper trade
Its exorbitant price during the Middle Ages – and the monopoly on the trade held by Venice – was one of the inducements that led the Portuguese to seek a sea route to India. In 1498, Vasco da Gama became the first person to reach India by sailing around Africa (see Age of Discovery); asked by Arabs in Calicut (who spoke Spanish and Italian) why they had come, his representative replied, “we seek Christians and spices”.[40] Though this first trip to India by way of the southern tip of Africa was only a modest success, the Portuguese quickly returned in greater numbers and eventually gained much greater control of trade on the Arabian Sea. The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas granted Portugal exclusive rights to the half of the world where black pepper originated.
However, the Portuguese monopolized the spice trade for 150 years. Portuguese even became the lingua franca of the then known world. The spice trade made Portugal rich. However, in the 17th century, the Portuguese lost most of their valuable Indian Ocean trade to the Dutch and the English, who, taking advantage of the Spanish rule over Portugal during the Iberian Union (1580–1640), occupied by force almost all Portuguese interests in the area. The pepper ports of Malabar began to trade increasingly with the Dutch in the period 1661–1663.7
Pepper harvested for the European trade, from a manuscript Livre des merveilles de Marco Polo (The book of the marvels of Marco Polo)
As pepper supplies into Europe increased, the price of pepper declined (though the total value of the import trade generally did not). Pepper, which in the early Middle Ages had been an item exclusively for the rich, started to become more of an everyday seasoning among those of more average means. Today, pepper accounts for one-fifth of the world’s spice trade.[41]
It is possible that black pepper was known in China in the second century BCE, if poetic reports regarding an explorer named Tang Meng (唐蒙) are correct. Sent by Emperor Wu to what is now south-west China, Tang Meng is said to have come across something called jujiang or “sauce-betel”. He was told it came from the markets of Shu, an area in what is now the Sichuan province. The traditional view among historians is that “sauce-betel” is a sauce made from betel leaves, but arguments have been made that it actually refers to pepper, either long or black.[42]
In the third century CE, black pepper made its first definite appearance in Chinese texts, as hujiao or “foreign pepper”. It does not appear to have been widely known at the time, failing to appear in a fourth-century work describing a wide variety of spices from beyond China’s southern border, including long pepper.[43] By the 12th century, however, black pepper had become a popular ingredient in the cuisine of the wealthy and powerful, sometimes taking the place of China’s native Sichuan pepper (the tongue-numbing dried fruit of an unrelated plant).[citation needed]
Marco Polo testifies to pepper’s popularity in 13th-century China, when he relates what he is told of its consumption in the city of Kinsay (Hangzhou): “… Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great Kaan’s officers of customs that the quantity of pepper introduced daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay amounted to 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 lbs.”[44]
During the course of the Ming treasure voyages in the early 15th century, Admiral Zheng He and his expeditionary fleets returned with such a large amount of black pepper that the once-costly luxury became a common commodity.[45]
Traditional medicine, phytochemicals, and research
“There’s certainly too much pepper in that soup!”. Alice said to herself, as well as she could for sneezing — Alice in Wonderland (1865). Chapter VI: Pig and Pepper. Note the cook’s pepper mill.
Like many eastern spices, pepper was historically both a seasoning and a traditional medicine. Pepper appears in the Buddhist Samaññaphala Sutta, chapter five, as one of the few medicines a monk is allowed to carry.[46] Long pepper, being stronger, was often the preferred medication, but both were used. Black pepper (or perhaps long pepper) was believed to cure several illnesses, such as constipation, insomnia, oral abscesses, sunburn, and toothaches, among others.[47]
Pepper is known to cause sneezing. Some sources say that piperine, a substance present in black pepper, irritates the nostrils, causing the sneezing.[50] Few, if any, controlled studies have been carried out to answer the question.
Handheld pepper mills with black (left) and mixed (right) peppercorns
Pepper gets its spicy heat mostly from piperine derived from both the outer fruit and the seed. Black pepper contains between 4.6 and 9.7% piperine by mass, and white pepper slightly more than that.[52] Refined piperine, by weight, is about one percent as hot as the capsaicin found in chili peppers.[53] The outer fruit layer, left on black pepper, also contains aroma-contributing terpenes, including germacrene (11%), limonene (10%), pinene (10%), alpha-phellandrene (9%), and beta-caryophyllene (7%),[54] which give citrusy, woody, and floral notes. These scents are mostly missing in white pepper, as the fermentation and other processing removes the fruit layer (which also contains some of the spicy piperine). Other flavours also commonly develop in this process, some of which are described as off-flavours when in excess: Primarily 3-methylindole (pig manure-like), 4-methylphenol (horse manure), 3-methylphenol (phenolic), and butyric acid (cheese).[55] The aroma of pepper is attributed to rotundone (3,4,5,6,7,8-Hexahydro-3α,8α-dimethyl-5α-(1-methylethenyl)azulene-1(2H)-one), a sesquiterpene originally discovered in the tubers of Cyperus rotundus, which can be detected in concentrations of 0.4 nanograms/l in water and in wine: rotundone is also present in marjoram, oregano, rosemary, basil, thyme, and geranium, as well as in some Shiraz wines.[56]
Pepper loses flavour and aroma through evaporation, so airtight storage helps preserve its spiciness longer. Pepper can also lose flavour when exposed to light, which can transform piperine into nearly tasteless isochavicine.[57] Once ground, pepper’s aromatics can evaporate quickly; most culinary sources recommend grinding whole peppercorns immediately before use for this reason. Handheld pepper mills or grinders, which mechanically grind or crush whole peppercorns, are used for this as an alternative to pepper shakers that dispense ground pepper. Spice mills such as pepper mills were found in European kitchens as early as the 14th century, but the mortar and pestle used earlier for crushing pepper have remained a popular method for centuries, as well.[58]
Enhancing the flavour profile of peppercorns (including piperine and essential oils), prior to processing, has been attempted through the postharvest application of ultraviolet-C light (UV-C
The native name of the country in Modern Greek is Ελλάδα (Elládaⓘ, pronounced [eˈlaða]ⓘ). The corresponding form in Ancient Greek and conservative formal Modern Greek (Katharevousa) is Ἑλλάς (Hellas, classical: [hel.lás], modern: [eˈlas]). This is the source of the English alternative name Hellas, which is mostly found in archaic or poetic contexts today. The Greek adjectival form ελληνικός (ellinikos, [eliniˈkos]) is sometimes also translated as Hellenic and is often rendered in this way in the formal names of Greek institutions, as in the official name of the Greek state, the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, [eliniˈci ðimokraˈti.a]).[12]
The Apidima Cave in Mani, in southern Greece, has been suggested to contain the oldest remains of early modern humans outside of Africa, dated to 200,000 years ago.[13] However others suggest the remains represent archaic humans.[14] All three stages of the Stone Age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave.[15]Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC,[16] are the oldest in Europe, as Greece lies on the route by which farming spread from the Near East to Europe.[17]
By 500 BC, the Persian Empire controlled the Greek city states in Asia Minor and Macedonia.[36] Attempts by Greek city-states of Asia Minor to overthrow Persian rule failed, and Persia invaded the states of mainland Greece in 492 BC, but was forced to withdraw after defeat at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. In response, the Greek city-states formed the Hellenic League in 481 BC, led by Sparta, which was the first recorded union of Greek states since the mythical union of the Trojan War.[37][38] The second Persian invasion of Greece was decisively defeated in 480–479 BC, at Salamis and Plataea, marking the eventual withdrawal of the Persians from all their European territories. The Greek victories in the Greco-Persian Wars are a pivotal moment in history,[39] as the 50 years of peace afterwards are known as the Golden Age of Athens, a seminal period that laid many foundations of Western civilisation. Lack of political unity resulted in frequent conflict between Greek states. The most devastating intra-Greek war was the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), which marked the demise of the Athenian Empire and the emergence of Spartan and later Theban hegemony.[40] Weakened by constant wars among them during the 4th century BC, the Greek poleis were subjugated to the rising power of the kingdom of Macedon under king Philip II into an alliance known as the Hellenic League.[41]
After Philip’s assassination in 336 BC, his son and king of Macedon, Alexander, set himself leader of a Panhelleniccampaign against the Persian Empire and abolished it. Undefeated in battle, he marched, until his untimely death in 323 BC, to the banks of the Indus.[42] Alexander’s empire fragmented, inaugurating the Hellenistic period. After fierce conflict amongst themselves, the generals that succeeded Alexander and their successors founded large personal kingdoms in the areas he had conquered, such as that of the Ptolemies in Egypt and of the Seleucids in Syria, Mesopotamia and Iran.[43] The newly founded poleis of these kingdoms, such as Alexandria and Antioch, were settled by Greeks as members of a ruling minority. As a result, during the centuries that followed a vernacular form of Greek, known as koine, and Greek culture was spread, while the Greeks adopted Eastern deities and cults.[44] Greek science, technology, and mathematics reached their peak during the Hellenistic period.[45] Aspiring to maintain their autonomy and independence from the Antigonid kings of the Macedonians, many poleis of Greece united in koina or sympoliteiai i.e. federations, while after the establishment of economic relations with the East, a stratum of wealthy euergetai dominated their internal life.[46]
From about 200 BC the Roman Republic became increasingly involved in Greek affairs and engaged in a series of wars with Macedon.[47] Macedon’s defeat at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC signalled the end of Antigonid power.[48] In 146 BC, Macedonia was annexed as a province by Rome, and the rest of Greece became a Roman protectorate.[47][49] The process was completed in 27 BC, when emperor Augustus annexed the rest of Greece and constituted it as the senatorial province of Achaea.[49] Despite their military superiority, the Romans admired and became heavily influenced by Greek culture.[50]
Greek-speaking communities of the Hellenised East were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,[51] and Christianity’s early leaders and writers were mostly Greek-speaking, though not from Greece itself.[52] The New Testament was written in Greek, and some sections attest to the importance of churches in Greece in early Christianity. Nevertheless, much of Greece clung to paganism, and ancient Greek religious practices were still in vogue in the late 4th century AD,[53] when they were outlawed by the Roman emperor Theodosius I in 391–392.[54] The last recorded Olympic games were held in 393,[55] and many temples were destroyed or damaged in the century that followed.[56][57] The closure of the Neoplatonic Academy of Athens by Emperor Justinian in 529 is considered the end of antiquity, although there is evidence that the academy continued.[56][58]
The Empire’s Balkan territories, including Greece, suffered from the dislocation of barbarian invasions;[60] raids by Goths and Huns in the 4th and 5th centuries and the Slavic invasion in the 7th century resulted in a collapse in imperial authority in the Greek peninsula.[61] The imperial government retained control of only the islands and coastal areas, particularly the populated walled cities such as Athens, Corinth and Thessalonica.[61][62][63] However, the view that Greece underwent decline, fragmentation and depopulation is considered outdated, as cities show institutional continuity and prosperity between the 4th and 6th centuries. In the early 6th century, Greece had approximately 80 cities according to the Synekdemos chronicle, and the 4th to the 7th century is considered one of high prosperity.[64]
The Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire after the death of Basil II in 1025
Until the 8th century almost all of modern Greece was under the jurisdiction of the Holy See of Rome. Byzantine Emperor Leo III moved the border of the Patriarchate of Constantinople westward and northward in the 8th century.[65] The Byzantine recovery of lost provinces during the Arab–Byzantine wars began in the 8th century and most of the Greek peninsula came under imperial control again.[66][67] This process was facilitated by a large influx of Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor to the Greek peninsula, while many Slavs were captured and re-settled in Asia Minor.[62] During the 11th and 12th centuries the return of stability resulted in the Greek peninsula benefiting from economic growth.[66] The Greek Orthodox Church was instrumental in the spread of Greek ideas to the wider Orthodox world.[68][full citation needed]
Following the Fourth Crusade and fall of Constantinople to the “Latins” in 1204, mainland Greece was split between the Greek Despotate of Epirus and French rule[69] (the Frankokratia).[70] The re-establishment of the imperial capital in Constantinople in 1261 was accompanied by the empire’s recovery of much of the Greek peninsula, while the islands remained under Genoese and Venetian control.[69] During the Paleologi dynasty (1261–1453) a new era of Greek patriotism emerged accompanied by a turning back to ancient Greece.[71][72][73][74][75]
In the 14th century much of the Greek peninsula was lost by the Byzantine Empire to the Serbs and then the Ottomans.[76] Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453 and by 1460, Ottoman conquest of mainland Greece was complete.[77]
Venetian possessions and Ottoman rule (15th century – 1821)
While most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands was under Ottoman control by the end of the 15th century, Cyprus and Crete remained Venetian and did not fall to the Ottomans until 1571 and 1669 respectively and Venice maintained control of the Ionian Islands until 1797, after which they fell under first French, then British control.[78] While some Greeks in the Ionian islands and Constantinople lived in prosperity, and Greeks of Constantinople (Phanariots) achieved power within the Ottoman administration,[79] much of Greece suffered the economic consequences of Ottoman conquest. Heavy taxes were enforced, and in later years the Ottoman Empire enacted a policy of creation of hereditary estates, effectively turning the rural Greek populations into serfs,[80] while the Ottoman conquest had cut Greece off from European historical developments.[81]
The Greek Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople were considered by the Ottoman governments as the ruling authorities of the entire Orthodox Christian population of the Ottoman Empire, whether ethnically Greek or not. Although the Ottoman state did not force non-Muslims to convert to Islam, Christians faced discrimination. Discrimination, particularly when combined with harsh treatment by local Ottoman authorities, led to conversions to Islam, if only superficially. In the 19th century, many “crypto-Christians” returned to their old religious allegiance.[82]
The nature of Ottoman administration of Greece varied, though it was invariably arbitrary and often harsh.[82] Some cities had governors appointed by the Sultan, while others, like Athens, were self-governed municipalities. Mountainous regions in the interior and many islands remained effectively autonomous from the central Ottoman state for centuries.[83][page needed] The 16th and 17th centuries are regarded as a “dark age” in Greek history,[84] with the prospect of overthrowing Ottoman rule appearing remote.[citation needed] However, prior to the Greek Revolution of 1821, there had been wars which saw Greeks fight against the Ottomans, such as the Greek participation in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571,[84] the Morean War of 1684–1699, and the Russian-instigated Orlov Revolt in 1770.[citation needed] These uprisings were put down by the Ottomans with great bloodshed.[85][86] Many Greeks were conscripted as Ottoman subjects to serve in the Ottoman army and especially the navy, while the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, responsible for the Orthodox, remained in general loyal to the Empire.
In the 18th century, Greek merchants came to dominate trade within the Ottoman Empire, established communities throughout the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and Europe,[87] and used their wealth to fund educational activities that brought younger generations into contact with Western ideas.[88] In the 18th century, an increase in learning during the Modern Greek Enlightenment led to the emergence among Westernised Greek-speaking elites of the notion of a Greek nation. A secret organisation formed in this milieu was the Filiki Eteria, in 1814.[89] They engaged traditional strata of the Greek Orthodox world in their liberal nationalist cause.[90]
Despite the absolutism of Otto’s reign, it proved instrumental in developing institutions which are still the bedrock of Greek administration and education.[101] Reforms were taken in education, maritime and postal communications, effective civil administration and the legal code.[102]Historical revisionism took the form of de-Byzantinification and de-Ottomanisation, in favour of promoting Ancient Greek heritage.[103] The capital was moved from Nafplio, where it had been since 1829, to Athens, then a smaller town.[104] The Church of Greece was established as Greece’s national church and 25 March, the day of Annunciation, was chosen as the anniversary of the Greek War of Independence to reinforce the link between Greek identity and Orthodoxy.[103]
Otto was deposed in 1862 because of the Bavarian-dominated government, heavy taxation, and a failed attempt to annex Crete from the Ottomans.[99][101] He was replaced by Prince Wilhelm of Denmark, who took the name George I and brought with him the Ionian Islands as a coronation gift from Britain. A new Constitution in 1864 changed Greece’s form of government from constitutional monarchy to the more democratic crowned republic.[105][106][107] In 1875 parliamentary majority as a requirement for government was introduced,[108] curbing the power of the monarchy to appoint minority governments. Corruption, coupled with increased spending to fund infrastructure like the Corinth Canal,[109] overtaxed the weak economy and forced the declaration of public insolvency in 1893.
The territorial evolution of the Kingdom of Greece from 1832 to 1947
Amidst dissatisfaction with the seeming inertia and unattainability of national aspirations, military officers organised a coup in 1909 and called on Cretan politician Eleftherios Venizelos, who conveyed a vision of national regeneration. After winning twoelections and becoming prime minister in 1910,[113] Venizelos initiated fiscal, social, and constitutional reforms, reorganised the military, made Greece a member of the Balkan League, and led it through the Balkan Wars. By 1913, Greece’s territory and population had doubled, annexing Crete, Epirus, and Macedonia. The struggle between King Constantine I and charismatic Venizelos over foreign policy on the eve of First World War dominated politics and divided the country into two opposing groups. During parts of the war, Greece had two governments: A royalist pro-German one in Athens and a Venizelist pro-Entente one in Thessaloniki. They united in 1917, when Greece entered the war on the side of the Entente.
After the war, Greece attempted expansion into Asia Minor, a region with a large native Greek population, but was defeated in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), contributing to a flight of Asia Minor Greeks.[114][115] These events overlapped, happening during the Greek genocide (1914–22),[116][117][118][119][120] when Ottoman and Turkish officials contributed to the death of several hundred thousand Asia Minor Greeks, along with similar numbers of Assyrians and a larger number of Armenians. The resultant Greek exodus from Asia Minor was made permanent, and expanded, in an official population exchange between Greece and Turkey, as part of the Treaty of Lausanne which ended the war.[121] The following era was marked by instability, as over 1.5 million propertyless Greek refugees from Turkey (some of whom could not speak Greek) had to be integrated into Greek society. The refugees made a dramatic population boost, as they were more than a quarter of Greece’s prior population.[122]
An agreement between Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas and George II followed in 1936, which installed Metaxas as head of a dictatorship known as the 4th of August Regime, inaugurating authoritarian rule that would last until 1974.[124] Greece remained on good terms with Britain and was not allied with the Axis.
People in Athens celebrate the liberation from the Axis powers, October 1944. Postwar Greece would soon experience a civil war and political polarisation
In October 1940, Fascist Italy demanded the surrender of Greece, but it refused, and, in the Greco-Italian War, Greece repelled Italian forces into Albania.[125] French general Charles de Gaulle praised the fierceness of the Greek resistance, but the country fell to urgently dispatched German forces during the Battle of Greece. The Nazis proceeded to administer Athens and Thessaloniki, while other regions were given to Fascist Italy and Bulgaria. Over 100,000 civilians died of starvation during the winter of 1941–42, tens of thousands more died because of reprisals by Nazis and collaborators, the economy was ruined, and most Greek Jews (tens of thousands) were deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps.[126][127] The Greek Resistance, one of the most effective resistance movements, fought against the Nazis. The German occupiers committed atrocities, mass executions, and wholesale slaughter of civilians and destruction of towns and villages in reprisals. Hundreds of villages were systematically torched and almost 1 million Greeks left homeless.[127] The Germans executed around 21,000 Greeks, the Bulgarians 40,000, and the Italians 9,000.[128]
Following liberation, Greece annexed the Dodecanese Islands from Italy and regained Western Thrace from Bulgaria. The country descended into a civil war between communist forces and the anti-communist Greek government, which lasted until 1949, with the latter’s victory. The conflict, one of the earliest struggles of the Cold War,[129] resulted in further economic devastation, population displacement and political polarisation for the next thirty years.[130]
Although post-war was characterised by social strife and marginalisation of the left, Greece experienced rapid economic growth and recovery, propelled in part by the U.S. Marshall Plan.[131] In 1952, Greece joined NATO, reinforcing its membership in the Western Bloc of the Cold War.[132]
King Constantine II‘s dismissal of George Papandreou‘s centrist government in 1965 prompted political turbulence, which culminated in a coup in 1967 by the Greek junta, led by Georgios Papadopoulos. Civil rights were suspended, political repression intensified, and human rights abuses, including torture, were rampant. Economic growth remained rapid before plateauing in 1972. The brutal suppression of the Athens Polytechnic uprising in 1973 set in motion the fall of the regime, resulting in a counter-coup that established brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis as the new junta strongman. On 20 July 1974, Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus in response to a Greek-backed Cypriot coup, triggering a crisis in Greece that led to the regime’s collapse and restoration of democracy through Metapolitefsi.[133]
The former prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis was invited back from self-exile and the first multiparty elections since 1964 were held on the first anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising. A democratic and republican constitution was promulgated in 1975 following a referendum which chose not to restore the monarchy.
Meanwhile, Andreas Papandreou, George Papandreou’s son, founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) in response to Karamanlis’s conservative New Democracy party, with the two political formations dominating government over the next four decades. Greece rejoined NATO in 1980.[c][134] Greece became the tenth member of the European Communities in 1981, ushering in sustained growth. Investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure, as well as funds from the European Union and growing revenue from tourism, shipping, and a fast-growing service sector raised the standard of living. In 1981, the election of Andreas Papandreou resulted in reforms over the 1980s. He recognised civil marriage, the dowry was abolished, while education and foreign policy doctrines changed. However, Papandreou’s tenure has been associated with corruption, high inflation, stagnation and budget deficits that later caused problems.[135]
The country adopted the euro in 2001 and successfully hosted the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens.[136] In 2010, Greece suffered from the Great Recession and related European sovereign debt crisis. Due to the adoption of the euro, Greece could no longer devalue its currency to regain competitiveness.[137] In the 2012 elections, there was major political change, with new parties emerging from the collapse of the two main parties, PASOK and New Democracy.[138] In 2015, Alexis Tsipras was elected as prime minister, the first outside the two main parties.[139] The Greek government-debt crisis, and subsequent austerity policies, resulted in social strife. The crisis ended around 2018, with the end of the bailout mechanisms and return of growth.[140] Simultaneously, Tsipras, and the leader of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, signed the Prespa Agreement, solving the naming dispute that had strained the relations and eased the latter’s way to become a member of the EU and NATO.[141]
In 2019, Kyriakos Mitsotakis became Greece’s new prime minister, after his centre-right New Democracy won the election.[142] In 2020, Greece’s parliament elected a non-partisan candidate, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, as the first female President of Greece.[143] In February 2024, Greece became the first Orthodox Christian country to recognise same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.[144]
Located in Southern[145] and Southeast Europe,[146] Greece consists of a mountainous, peninsular mainland jutting out into the sea at the southern end of the Balkans, ending at the Peloponnese peninsula (separated from the mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth) and strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa.[d] Its highly indented coastline and numerous islands give Greece the 11th longest national coastline in the world, with 13,676 km (8,498 mi);[152] its land boundary is 1,160 km (721 mi). The country lies approximately between latitudes 34° and 42° N, and longitudes 19° and 30° E, with the extreme points being:[153] the village Ormenio in the North and the islands Gavdos (South), Strongyli near Kastellorizo/Megisti (East), and Othonoi (West). The island Gavdos is considered the southernmost island of Europe.[154][155]
Approximately 80% of Greece consists of mountains or hills, making the country one of the most mountainous in Europe. Mount Olympus, the mythical abode of the Greek Gods, culminates at Mytikas peak 2,918 metres (9,573 ft),[156] the highest in the country. Western Greece contains a number of lakes and wetlands and is dominated by the Pindus mountain range. The Pindus, a continuation of the Dinaric Alps, reaches a maximum elevation of 2,637 m (8,652 ft) at Mt. Smolikas (the second-highest in Greece) and historically has been a significant barrier to east–west travel. Its extensions cross through the Peloponnese, ending in the island of Crete. The Vikos Gorge, part of the Vikos-Aoos National Park in the Pindus range, is listed by the Guinness book of World Records as the deepest gorge in the world.[157] Another notable formation are the Meteora rock pillars, atop which have been built medieval Greek Orthodox monasteries.[158]
Northeastern Greece features another high-altitude mountain range, the Rhodope range, spreading across the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace; this area is covered with vast, thick, ancient forests, including the famous Dadia Forest in the Evros regional unit, in the far northeast of the country.
Extensive plains are primarily located in the regions of Thessaly, Central Macedonia, and Thrace. They constitute key economic regions as they are among the few arable places in the country.
The Greek mainland and several small islands seen from Nydri, Lefkada
Greece features a vast number of islands—between 1,200 and 6,000, depending on the definition,[159] 227 of which are inhabited. Crete is the largest and most populous island; Euboea, separated from the mainland by the 60 m-wide Euripus Strait, is the second largest, followed by Lesbos and Rhodes.
The Greek islands are traditionally grouped into the following clusters: the Argo-Saronic Islands in the Saronic gulf near Athens; the Cyclades, a large but dense collection occupying the central part of the Aegean Sea; the North Aegean islands, a loose grouping off the west coast of Turkey; the Dodecanese, another loose collection in the southeast between Crete and Turkey; the Sporades, a small tight group off the coast of northeast Euboea; and the Ionian Islands, located to the west of the mainland in the Ionian Sea.
The climate of Greece is primarily Mediterranean (Köppen: Csa),[160] featuring mild to cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers.[161] This climate occurs at most of the coastal locations, including Athens, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, Crete, the Peloponnese, the Ionian Islands, and parts of mainland Greece. The Pindus mountain range strongly affects the climate of the country, as areas to the west of the range are considerably wetter on average (due to greater exposure to south-westerly systems bringing in moisture) than the areas lying to the east of the range (due to a rain shadow effect),[162] resulting to some coastal areas in the south falling to the hot semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSh) category, such as parts of the Athens Riviera and some of the Cyclades, as well as some areas in the north featuring a cold equivalent climate (Köppen: BSk), such as the cities of Thessaloniki and Larissa.
The mountainous areas and the higher elevations of northwestern Greece (parts of Epirus, Central Greece, Thessaly, Western Macedonia) as well as in the mountainous central parts of Peloponnese – including parts of the regional units of Achaea, Arcadia, and Laconia – feature an Alpine climate (Köppen: D, E) with heavy snowfalls during the winter. Most of the inland parts of northern Greece, in Central Macedonia, the lower elevations of Western Macedonia and Eastern Macedonia and Thrace feature a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa) with cold, damp winters and hot, moderately dry summers with occasional thunderstorms. Snowfalls occur every year in the mountains and northern areas, and brief periods of snowy weather are possible even in low-lying southern areas, such as Athens.[163]
Legislative powers are exercised by a 300-member unicameral Parliament.[167] According to the Constitution, executive power is exercised by the Government and the President of the Republic, who is the nominal head of state, is elected by the Parliament for a five-year term and promulgates statutes passed by Parliament.[167] However, the Constitutional amendment of 1986 rendered the President’s office largely ceremonial; the most powerful officeholder is thus the prime minister, Greece’s head of government.[170] The position is filled by the current leader of the political party that can obtain a vote of confidence by the Parliament. The president of the republic formally appoints the prime minister and, on their recommendation, appoints and dismisses the other members of the Cabinet.[167]
According to an OECD report, Greeks display a moderate level of civic participation compared to most other developed countries; voter turnout was 58% during recent elections, lower than the OECD average of 69%.[172]
Representation through:[181] embassy embassy in another country general consulate no representation Greece
Foreign policy is conducted through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its head, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, currently Nikos Dendias. The aims of the Ministry are to represent Greece before other states and international organisations; safeguard the interests of the state and its citizens abroad; promote Greek culture; foster closer relations with the Greek diaspora; and encourage international cooperation.[182] Greece is described as having a special relationship with Cyprus, Italy, France, Armenia, Australia, Israel, the US and the UK.[183][184][185][186][187][188]
Due to its geographical proximity to Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Greece is of geostrategic importance, which it has leveraged to develop a regional policy to promote peace and stability in the Balkans, Mediterranean and the Middle East.[191] This has accorded the country middle power status.[192]
Moreover, Greece maintains the Hellenic Coast Guard for law enforcement at sea, search and rescue, and port operations. Though it can support the navy during wartime, it resides under the authority of the Ministry of Shipping.
Greek military personnel total 364,050, of whom 142,700 are active and 221,350 are reserve. Greece ranks 28th in the world in the number of citizens serving in the armed forces. Mandatory military service is generally one year for 19 to 45 year olds.[145] Additionally, Greek males between the ages of 18 and 60 who live in strategically sensitive areas may be required to serve part-time in the National Guard.
As a member of NATO, the Greek military participates in exercises and deployments under the auspices of the alliance, although its involvement in NATO missions is minimal.[194] Greece spends over US$7 billion annually on its military, or 2.3% of GDP, the 24th-highest in the world in absolute terms, the seventh-highest on a per capita basis, and the second-highest in NATO after the United States. Moreover, Greece is one of only five NATO countries to meet or surpass the minimum defence spending target of 2% of GDP.
The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature and comprises three Supreme Courts: the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece, the Council of State and the Court of Audit. The judicial system is also composed of civil courts, which judge civil and penal cases and administrative courts, which judge disputes between citizens and the Greek administrative authorities.
Greece has the largest economy in the Balkans,[216][217][218] and an important regional investor.[216][217] It has been the number-two foreign investor of capital in Albania and most important trading partner and largest foreign investor of North Macedonia.[219][220] The Greek telecommunications company OTE has become a strong investor in other Balkan countries.[221]
Greece’s debt percentage since 1977, compared to the average of the eurozone
Greek economy had fared well (with high growth rates and low public debt) during most of the 20th century; high growth rates were maintained up to the 2007–2008 financial crisis, coupled, however, with high structural deficits.[223] In 2009, it was revealed deficits had been considerably higher than official figures.[224] Banks had supplied cash in exchange for future payments by Greece and other Eurozone countries; in turn the liabilities of the countries were “kept off the books”, hiding borrowing levels.[225][226][227] This was one of the techniques that enabled Greece to reduce its recorded budget deficit.[228]
The crisis was triggered by the Great Recession, which caused Greece’s GDP to contract 2.5% in 2009.[229] Simultaneously, deficits were revealed to have been allowed to reach 10% and 15% in 2008 and 2009. This caused Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio to increase to 127%.[230] As a eurozone member, Greece had no autonomous monetary policy flexibility. Greece’s borrowing rates increased, causing a crisis of confidence in Greece’s ability to pay back loans in early 2010.[231][232]
To avert a sovereign default, Greece, other eurozone members, and the International Monetary Fund agreed on a €110 billion rescue package in May 2010.[233][234] Greece was required to adopt harsh austerity measures to bring its deficit down.[235] A second bail-out of €130 billion was agreed in 2012, subject to financial reforms and further austerity.[236] A debt haircut was agreed.[236] Greece achieved a budget surplus in 2013 and returned to growth in 2014.[237][238]
Partly due to the imposed austerity,[224] Greece experienced a 25% drop in GDP between 2009 and 2015.[239] The debt ratio, jumped from 127% to about 170%, due to the shrinking economy.[240] In 2013, the IMF admitted it had underestimated the effects of tax hikes and budget cuts and issued an informal apology.[241][242][243] The policies have been blamed for worsening the crisis,[244][245] while others stressed the creditors’ share in responsibility.[246][247][240] The bailouts ended in 2018.[140]
In 2024, the Greek economy is forecast to grow nearly 3%, meaning it approaches its pre-crisis size of 2009 and far outpacing the eurozone average economic growth of 0.8%.[248]
Greece is the European Union’s largest producer of cotton[249] and pistachios (7,200 tons in 2021),[250][251] second in olives (3m tons in 2021), third in figs (8,400 tons in 2022) and watermelons (440,000 tons in 2022) and fourth in almonds (40,000 tons in 2022).[251] Agriculture contributes 3.8% of GDP and employs 12% of the labour force.
Greece is a major beneficiary of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. As a result of entry to the European Community, much of its agricultural infrastructure has been upgraded and output increased.
Electricity production is dominated by the state-owned Public Power Corporation (known by its acronym ΔΕΗ, transliterated as DEI), which supplied 75% of electricity in 2021.[252] Some of DEI’s output is generated using lignite.[253]Renewable energy in Greece accounted for 46% of Greece’s electricity in 2022,[254] a rise from the 11% in 2011.[255]Wind power accounts for 22%, solar power 14%, hydropower 9%, and natural gas 38%.[256] Independent companies’ energy production has increased. Greece does not have any nuclear power plants.
The shipping industry has been a key element of economic activity since ancient times.[257] Shipping remains one of the country’s most important industries, accounting for 5% of GDP and employing about 160,000 people (4% of the workforce).[258]
The Greek Merchant Navy is the largest in the world at 18% of global capacity.[214] The merchant fleet ranks first in tonnage (384 million dwt), 2nd in number of ships (at 4,870),[214] first in tankers and dry bulk carriers, fourth in the number of containers, and fifth in other ships.[259] The number of ships flying a Greek flag (includes non-Greek fleets) is 1,517, or 5% of the world’s tonnage (ranked fifth globally). Today’s fleet is smaller than an all-time high of 5,000 ships in the late 1970s.[257] During the 1960s, the Greek fleet nearly doubled, through the investment undertaken by the shipping magnates, Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos.[260] The modern Greek maritime industry was formed after World War II when Greek shipping businessmen were able to amass surplus ships sold by the U.S. government through the Ship Sales Act of the 1940s.[260]
Greece has a significant shipbuilding and ship maintenance industry. The six shipyards around the port of Piraeus are among the largest in Europe.[261] Greece has become a leader in the construction and maintenance of luxury yachts.[262]
Santorini, a popular tourist destination, is ranked as the world’s top island in many travel magazines and sites.[263][264]
Tourism has been a key element of the economy and one of the most important sectors, contributing 21% of gross domestic product in 2018.[265] Greece was the 9th most visited country in the world in 2022, hosting 28 million visitors,[266] an increase from 18 million tourists in 2007.[267]
Most visitors come from the European continent,[268] while the most from a single nationality are from the United Kingdom, followed by Germany. The most visited region of Greece is Central Macedonia.[269]
In 2011, Santorini was voted as “The World’s Best Island” in Travel + Leisure.[270] Its neighboring island Mykonos, came in fifth in the European category.[270] There are 19 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Greece,[271] and Greece is ranked 17th in the world in total sites. Thirteen further sites are on the tentative list, awaiting nomination.[271]
The Rio–Antirrio bridge connects mainland Greece to the PeloponneseMap of Greece’s motorway network as of 2022. Black=Completed routes, Blue=Under Construction, Grey=Planned routes
Since the 1980s, the road and rail network has been modernised. With a total length of about 2,320 km (1,440 mi) as of 2020, Greece’s motorway network is the most extensive in Southeastern Europe and one of the most advanced in Europe,[272] including the east–west A2 (Egnatia Odos) in northern Greece, the north–south A1 (Athens–Thessaloniki–Evzonoi, AThE) along the mainland’s eastern coastline and the A5 (Ionia Odos) along the western coastline, leading to the Rio–Antirrio bridge, the longest suspension cable bridge in Europe (2,250 m (7,382 ft) long), connecting Rio in the Peloponnese with Antirrio in western Greece. The Athens Metropolitan Area is served by the privately run Attiki Odos (A6/A62/A621/A64/A65) motorway network and the expanded Athens Metro system, while the Thessaloniki Metro is under construction.
Railway connections play a lesser role than in many other European countries, but have been expanded, with new suburban/commuter rail connections, serviced by Proastiakos around Athens, Thessaloniki, and Patras. A modern intercity rail connection between Athens and Thessaloniki has been established, while an upgrade to double lines in many parts of the 2,500 km (1,600 mi) network is underway; along with a new double track, standard gauge railway between Athens and Patras (replacing the old metre-gaugePiraeus–Patras railway) which is under construction and opening in stages.[273] International railway lines connect Greek cities with the rest of Europe, the Balkans and Turkey.
All major islands are served by ferries to the mainland. Piraeus, the port of Athens, was the third busiest passenger port in Europe as of 2021. 37 million passengers travelled by boat in Greece in 2019, the second-highest in Europe.[274] Greece has 39 active airports, 15 of which serve international destinations.[275]Athens International Airport served over 28 million passengers in 2023.[276] Most Greek islands and main cities are connected by air, by the two major airlines, Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines.
Modern digital information and communication networks reach all areas. There are over 35,000 km (21,748 mi) of fiber optics and an extensive open-wire network. Broadband internet availability is widespread in Greece: there were a total of 2,252,653 broadband connections as of early 2011, translating to 20% broadband penetration.[277] In 2017 around 82% of the population used the internet regularly.[278]
Internet cafés that provide net access, office applications and multiplayer gaming are a common sight, while mobile internet on 3G and 4G– LTE cellphone networks and Wi-Fi connections can be found almost everywhere.[279] As of July 2022, 5G service is accessible in most of major cities. The UN ranks Greece among the top 30 countries with a highly developed information and communications infrastructure.[280]
The General Secretariat for Research and Technology of the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness is responsible for designing, implementing and supervising national research and technological policy. In 2017, spending on research and development (R&D) reached an all-time high of €2 billion, equal to 1.1% of GDP.[281]
Greece has one of the highest rates of tertiary enrollment in the world,[285] while Greeks are well represented in academia worldwide; leading Western universities employ a disproportionately high number of Greek faculty.[286] Greek scientific publications have grown significantly in terms of research impact, surpassing both the EU and global average from 2012 to 2016.[287]
Eurostat estimated the population at 10.6 million in 2022.[288]
Greece population density, 2000
Greek society has changed over recent decades, coinciding with the wider European trend of declining fertility and aging. The birth rate in 2016 was 8.5 per 1,000, significantly lower than the rate of 14.5 in 1981. The mortality rate increased from 8.9 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1981 to 11.2 in 2016.[145]
The fertility rate of 1.4 children per woman is well below the replacement rate of 2.1, and one of the lowest in the world, considerably below the high of 5.5 children in 1900.[289] Greece’s median age is 44.2 years, the seventh-highest in the world.[145] In 2001, 17% of the population were 65 years old and older, 68% between the ages of 15 and 64 years old, and 15% were 14 years old and younger.[290] By 2016, the proportion of the population age 65 and older had risen to 21%, while the proportion of those aged 14 and younger declined to slightly below 14%. Marriage rates began declining from almost 71 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1981 to 51 in 2004.[290] Divorce rates have seen an increase from 191 per 1,000 marriages in 1991 to 240 per 1,000 marriages in 2004.[290]
As a result of these trends, the average household is smaller and older than in previous generations. The economic crisis exacerbated this development, with 350,000–450,000 Greeks, predominantly young adults, emigrating since 2010.[291]
Almost two-thirds of the Greek people live in urban areas. Greece’s largest and most influential metropolitan centres are Athens (population 3,744,059 according to 2021 census) and Thessaloniki (population 1,092,919 in 2021) that latter commonly referred to as the symprotévousa (συμπρωτεύουσα, lit. ’co-capital’).[292] Other prominent cities with populations above 100,000 inhabitants include Patras, Heraklion, Larissa, Volos, Rhodes, Ioannina, Agrinio, Chania, and Chalcis.[293]
The Greek Constitution recognises Eastern Orthodoxy as the ‘prevailing’ faith of the country, while guaranteeing freedom of religious belief for all.[167][299] The government does not keep statistics on religious groups and censuses do not ask for religious affiliation. According to the U.S. State Department, an estimated 97% of Greek citizens identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox, belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church,[300] which uses the Byzantine rite and the Greek language, the original language of the New Testament. The administration of the Greek territory is shared between the Church of Greece and the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In a 2010 Eurostat–Eurobarometer poll, 79% of Greek citizens responded that they “believe there is a God”.[301] According to other sources, 16% of Greeks describe themselves as “very religious”, which is the highest among all European countries. The survey found just 3.5% never attend a church, compared to 5% in Poland and 59% in the Czech Republic.[302] Estimates of the recognised Muslim minority of Greece, mostly located in Thrace, range around 100,000,[300][303] about 1% of the population. Some of the Albanian immigrants to Greece come from a nominally Muslim background, though most are secular.[304] Following the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, Greece and Turkey agreed to a population transfer based on cultural and religious identity. About 500,000 Muslims from Greece, predominantly those defined as Turks, but also Greek Muslims, were exchanged with approximately 1.5 million Greeks from Turkey. However, many refugees who settled in former Ottoman Muslim villages in Central Macedonia, and were defined as Christian Orthodox Caucasus Greeks, arrived from the former Russian Transcaucasus province of Kars Oblast, after it had been retroceded to Turkey prior to the population exchange.[305]
Since 2017, Hellenic Polytheism, or Hellenism has been legally recognised as an actively practised religion,[312] with estimates of 2,000 active practitioners and an additional 100,000 “sympathisers”.[313][314][315] Hellenism refers to religious movements that continue, revive, or reconstruct ancient Greek religious practices.
Regions with a traditional presence of languages other than Greek. Today, Greek is the dominant language throughout the country.[316][317][318][319][320][321]
Greece is relatively homogeneous in linguistic terms, with a large majority of the native population using Greek as their first or only language. Among the Greek-speaking population, speakers of the distinctive Pontic dialect came to Greece from Asia Minor after the Greek genocide and constitute a sizable group. The Cappadocian dialect came due to the genocide as well, but is endangered and barely spoken. Indigenous Greek dialects include the archaic Greek spoken by the Sarakatsani, traditionally transhumant mountain shepherds of Greek Macedonia and other parts of Northern Greece. The Tsakonian language, a distinct Greek language derived from Doric Greek instead of Koine Greek, is still spoken in villages in the southeastern Peloponnese.
The Muslim minority in Thrace, approximately 0.95% of the population, consists of speakers of Turkish, Bulgarian (Pomaks)[321] and Romani. Romani is spoken by Christian Roma in other parts of the country. The Council of Europe has estimated that there are approximately 265,000 Romani people are living in Greece (2.47% of the population).[322] Other minority languages have traditionally been spoken by regional population groups in various areas. Their use decreased radically in the course of the 20th century through assimilation with the Greek-speaking majority. They are only maintained by the older generations and almost extinct. The same is true for the Arvanites, an Albanian-speaking group mostly located in rural areas around Athens, and for the Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians whose language is closely related to Romanian and who used to live scattered across areas of mountainous central Greece. Members of these groups usually identify ethnically as Greek[323] and are bilingual in Greek.
Near the northern Greek borders there are some Slavic–speaking groups, most of whom identify ethnically as Greeks. It is estimated that after the population exchanges of 1923, Macedonia had 200,000 to 400,000 Slavic speakers.[324] The Jewish community traditionally spoke Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), today maintained by a few thousand speakers. Other notable minority languages include Armenian, Georgian, and the Greco-Turkic dialect spoken by the Urums, a community of Caucasus Greeks from the Tsalka region of central Georgia and ethnic Greeks from southeastern Ukraine who arrived in Northern Greece as economic migrants in the 1990s.
A study from the Mediterranean Migration Observatory maintains that the 2001 census recorded 762,191 persons residing in Greece without Greek citizenship, constituting around 7% of the population. Of the non-citizen residents, 48,560 were EU or European Free Trade Association nationals and 17,426 were Cypriots with privileged status. The majority come from Eastern European countries: Albania (56%), Bulgaria (5%), and Romania (3%), while migrants from the former Soviet Union (Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, etc.) comprise 10% of the total.[326] Some immigrants from Albania are from the Greek minority in Albania centred on the region of Northern Epirus. The total Albanian national population which includes temporary migrants and undocumented persons is around 600,000.[327]
The 2011 census recorded 9,903,268 Greek citizens (92%), 480,824 Albanian citizens (4.4%), 75,915 Bulgarian citizens (0.7%), 46,523 Romanian citizenship (0.4%), 34,177 Pakistani citizens (0.3%), 27,400 Georgian citizens (0.25%) and 247,090 people had other or unidentified citizenship (2%).[328] 189,000 people of the total population of Albanian citizens were reported in 2008 as ethnic Greeks from Southern Albania, in the historical region of Northern Epirus.[325]
The greatest cluster of non-EU immigrant population are in the larger urban centres, especially Athens, with 132,000 immigrants comprising 17% of the local population, and then Thessaloniki, with 27,000 immigrants reaching 7% of the local population. There is a considerable number of co-ethnics that came from the Greek communities of Albania and former Soviet Union.[325]
Greece, together with Italy and Spain, is a major entry point for illegal immigrants trying to enter the EU. Illegal immigrants entering mostly do so from the border with Turkey at the Evros River and the islands of the eastern Aegean across from Turkey. In 2012, most illegal immigrants came from Afghanistan, followed by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.[329] In 2015, arrivals of refugees by sea had increased dramatically due to the Syrian civil war. There were 856,723 arrivals by sea in Greece, an almost fivefold increase to the same period of 2014, of which the Syrians represented almost 45%.[330] Most refugees and migrants use Greece as a transit country to Northern Europe.[331][332]
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: The description of the secondary, post-secondary and tertiary education does not reflect the current situation. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (January 2024)
Greeks have a long tradition of valuing and investing in paideia (education), which was upheld as one of the highest societal values in the Greek and Hellenistic world. The first European institution described as a university was founded in fifth-century Constantinople and continued operating in various incarnations until the city’s fall to the Ottomans in 1453.[333] The University of Constantinople was Christian Europe’s first secular institution of higher learning,[334] and by some measures was the world’s first university.[333]
Compulsory education in Greece comprises primary schools (Δημοτικό Σχολείο, Dimotikó Scholeio) and gymnasium (Γυμνάσιο). Nursery schools (Παιδικός σταθμός, Paidikós Stathmós) are popular but not compulsory. Kindergartens (Νηπιαγωγείο, Nipiagogeío) are compulsory for any child above four. Children start primary school aged six and remain there for six years. Attendance at gymnasia starts aged 12 and lasts for three years.
Greece’s post-compulsory secondary education consists of two school types: unified upper secondary schools (Γενικό Λύκειο, Genikό Lykeiό) and technical–vocational educational schools (Τεχνικά και Επαγγελματικά Εκπαιδευτήρια, “TEE”). Post-compulsory secondary education also includes vocational training institutes (Ινστιτούτα Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης, “IEK”) which provide a formal but unclassified level of education. As they can accept both Gymnasio (lower secondary school) and Lykeio (upper secondary school) graduates, these institutes are not classified as offering a particular level of education.
According to the Framework Law (3549/2007), Public higher education “Highest Educational Institutions” (Ανώτατα Εκπαιδευτικά Ιδρύματα, Anótata Ekpaideytiká Idrýmata, “ΑΕΙ”) consists of two parallel sectors:the university sector (Universities, Polytechnics, Fine Arts Schools, the Open University) and the Technological sector (Technological Education Institutions (TEI) and the School of Pedagogic and Technological Education). There are State Non-University Tertiary Institutes offering vocationally oriented courses of shorter duration (2–3 years) which operate under the authority of other Ministries. Students are admitted to these Institutes according to their performance at national level examinations taking place after completion of the third grade of Lykeio. Students over 22 may be admitted to the Hellenic Open University through a lottery.
The education system provides special kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools for people with special needs or difficulties in learning. There are specialist gymnasia and high schools offering musical, theological, and physical education.
72% of adults aged 25–64 have completed upper secondary education, which is slightly less than the OECD average of 74%. The average Greek pupil scored 458 in reading literacy, maths and science in the OECD’s 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This is lower than the OECD average of 486. Girls outperformed boys by 15 points, much more than the average OECD gap of 2.[335]
Greece has universal health care. The system is mixed, combining a national health service with social health insurance (SHI). Per a 2000 World Health Organisation report, its health system ranked 14th in overall performance of 191 countries surveyed.[336] In a 2013 Save the Children report, Greece was ranked the 19th out of 176 countries for the state of mothers and newborn babies.[337] As of 2014, there were 124 public hospitals, of which 106 were general hospitals and 18 specialised hospitals, with a total capacity of about 30,000 beds.[338]
Greece’s health care expenditures was 9.6% of GDP in 2007. By 2015, it declined to 8.4%, compared with the EU average of 9.5%. Nevertheless, the country maintains the highest doctor-to-population ratio of any OECD country[339] and the highest doctor-to-patient ratio in the EU.[340]
Life expectancy is among the highest in the world; life expectancy in 2015 was 81.1 years, slightly above the EU average of 80.6.[340] The island of Icaria has the highest percentage of nonagenarians in the world; 33% of islanders are 90 or older.[341] Icaria is subsequently classified as a “Blue Zone“, a region where people allegedly live longer than average and have lower rates of cancer, heart disease, or other chronic illnesses.[342]
A 2011, OECD report showed Greece had the largest percentage of adult daily smokers of any of the 34 OECD members.[339] The obesity rate is 18%, above the OECD average of 15%.[339]
In 2008, infant mortality, with a rate of 3.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, was below the 2007 OECD average of 4.9.[339]
In ancient times, Greece was the birthplace of Western culture.[343][344] Modern democracies owe a debt to Greek beliefs in government by the people, trial by jury, and equality under the law. The ancient Greeks pioneered in many fields that rely on systematic thought, including logic, biology, geometry, government, geography, medicine, history,[345] philosophy,[346]physics, and mathematics.[347] They introduced important literary forms as epic and lyrical poetry, history, tragedy, comedy and drama. In their pursuit of order and proportion, the Greeks created an ideal of beauty that strongly influenced Western art.[348]
Close-up of the Charioteer of Delphi, a celebrated statue from the 5th century BC
Artistic production in Greece began in the prehistoric pre-Greek Cycladic and the Minoan civilisations, both of which were influenced by local traditions and the art of ancient Egypt.[349]
There were interconnected traditions of painting in ancient Greece. Due to technical differences, they underwent differentiated developments. Not all painting techniques are equally well represented in the archaeological record. The most respected form of art, according to Pliny or Pausanias, were individual, mobile paintings on wooden boards, described as panel paintings. Wall painting in Greece goes back at least to the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations, with the lavish fresco decoration of sites like Knossos, Tiryns, and Mycenae.
Ancient Greek sculpture was composed almost entirely of workable and durable materials, marble or bronze, bronze becoming the favoured medium for major works by the early 5th century, while chryselephantine sculptures, made largely of gold and ivory and used for temple cult images and luxury works, were much rarer. It has been established that ancient Greek sculptures were painted[350] with a variety of colours, a feature known as polychromy.[351]
Art production continued during the Byzantine era. The most salient feature of this new aesthetic was its “abstract”, or anti-naturalistic character. Classical art was marked by attempts to create representations that mimicked reality, Byzantine art favoured a more symbolic approach. Byzantine painting concentrated mainly on icons and hagiographies. The Macedonian art (Byzantine) was the artistic expression of Macedonian Renaissance, a label used to describe the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire (867–1056), which scholars have seen as a time of increased interest in classical scholarship and the assimilation of classical motifs into Christian artwork.
Harbour of Ermoupolis, on the island Syros, first capital of independent Greece.
The architecture of ancient Greece was produced by the ancient Greeks (Hellenes), whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Aegean Islands and their colonies, from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest remaining architectural works dating from around 600 BC. The formal vocabulary of ancient Greek architecture, in particular the division of architectural style into three defined orders: the Doric Order, the Ionic Order, and the Corinthian Order, was to have profound effect on Western architecture.
Byzantine architecture was dominant in the Greek speaking world and significantly influenced Medieval architecture throughout Europe and the Near East, becoming the primary progenitor of the Renaissance and Ottoman architectural traditions that followed the Byzantine Empire’s collapse.
After Greek Independence, modern Greek architects combined traditional Greek and Byzantine elements and motives with the western European movements and styles. Patras was the first city of the modern Greek state to develop a city plan applying the orthogonal rule by Stamatis Voulgaris, a Greek engineer of the French army, in 1829.[352]
There is an emerging need to secure the long-term preservation of the archaeological sites and monuments against the growing threats of climate change.[356]
Theatre in its western form was born in Greece.[357]Tragedy (late 6th century BC), comedy (486 BC), and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres that emerged in the city-state of Classical Athens and were institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus. Of the hundreds of tragedies written and performed during the classical age, only a limited number of plays by three authors have survived: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The surviving plays by Aristophanes are a treasure trove of comic presentation.
During the Byzantine period, theatrical art declined, the only form that survived was folk theatre (Mimos and Pantomimos), despite the hostility of the state.[358] During the Ottoman period, the main theatrical folk art was the Karagiozis. The renaissance which led to the modern Greek theatre, took place in the Venetian Crete. Significal dramatists of the era include Vitsentzos Kornaros and Georgios Chortatzis.
Modern Greek theatre was born after independence, in the early 19th century, and initially was influenced by Heptanesean theatre and melodrama, such as the Italian opera. The Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù was the first theatre and opera house of modern Greece and the place where the first Greek opera, Spyridon Xyndas‘ The Parliamentary Candidate was performed. During the late 19th and early 20th century, the Athenian theatre scene was dominated by revues, musical comedies, operettas and nocturnes and notable playwrights included Spyridon Samaras, Dionysios Lavrangas, Theophrastos Sakellaridis.
Greek literature can be divided into three main categories: Ancient, Byzantine and modern Greek.[360] Athens is considered the birthplace of Western literature.[361] At the beginning of Greek literature stand the monumental works of Homer: the Iliad and the Odyssey, composed around 800 BC or after. In the classical period many of the genres of western literature became more prominent. Lyrical poetry, odes, pastorals, elegies, epigrams; dramatic presentations of comedy and tragedy; historiography, rhetorical treatises, philosophical dialectics, and philosophical treatises all arose in this period. The two major lyrical poets were Sappho and Pindar. Herodotus and Thucydides are two of the most influential historians in this period.
Modern Greek literature refers to literature written in common Modern Greek, emerging from late Byzantine times in the 11th century. The Cretan Renaissance poem Erotokritos is considered the masterpiece of this period. It is a verse romance written around 1600 by Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553–1613). Later, during the period of Greek enlightenment (Diafotismos), writers such as Adamantios Korais and Rigas Feraios prepared with their works the Greek Revolution.
Greek vocal music extends back into ancient times where mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual reasons. Instruments included the double-reed aulos and the plucked string instrument, the lyre, especially the special kind called a kithara. Music played an important role in education. Boys were taught music from the age of six. Later influences from the Roman Empire, Middle East, and the Byzantine Empire affected Greek music.
While the new technique of polyphony was developing in the West, the Eastern Orthodox Church resisted change. Therefore, Byzantine music remained monophonic and without any form of instrumental accompaniment. As a result, and despite certain attempts by certain Greek chanters, Byzantine music was deprived of elements which, in the West, encouraged an unimpeded development of art. Byzantium presented the monophonic Byzantine chant, a melodic music, with rhythmical variety and expressive power.[366]
Along with Byzantine chant and music, the Greeks cultivated the Greek folk song (Demotiko) which is divided into two cycles, the akritic and klephtic. The akritic was created between the 9th and 10th centuries and expressed the life and struggles of the akrites (frontier guards) of the Byzantine empire, the most well known associated with Digenes Akritas. The klephtic cycle came into being between the late Byzantine period and start of the Greek War of Independence. The klephtic cycle, together with historical songs, paraloghes (narrative song or ballad), love songs, mantinades, wedding songs, songs of exile and dirges express the life of the Greeks.
Mikis Theodorakis was one of the most popular and significant Greek composers.
The Heptaneseankantádhes (καντάδες ‘serenades‘; sing.: καντάδα) became the forerunners of the Greek modern urban popular song, influencing its development. For the first part of the next century, Greek composers continued to borrow elements from the Heptanesean style. The most successful songs during 1870–1930 were the so-called Athenian serenades, and the songs performed on stage (‘theatrical revue songs’) in revues, operettas and nocturnes that dominated Athens’ theater scene.[367]
It was through the Ionian islands (which were under western rule) that major advances of the western European classical music were introduced to mainland Greeks. The region is notable for the birth of the first school of modern Greek classical music (Heptanesean or Ionian School), established in 1815. Prominent representatives of this genre include Nikolaos Mantzaros, Spyridon Xyndas, Spyridon Samaras and Pavlos Carrer. Manolis Kalomiris is considered the founder of the Greek National School of Music.[367]
During the Greek junta of 1967–74, the music of Mikis Theodorakis was banned, the composer jailed, internally exiled, and put in a concentration camp,[371] before finally being allowed to leave Greece due to international reaction. Released during the junta years, Make Love, Stop the Gunfire, by pop group Poll is considered the first anti-war protest song in Greek rock.[372]
Greek cuisine is characteristic of the Mediterranean diet, which is epitomised by dishes of Crete.[375] Greek cuisine incorporates fresh ingredients into local dishes such as moussaka, pastitsio, classic Greek salad, fasolada, spanakopita and souvlaki. Some dishes can be traced back to ancient Greece like skordalia (a thick purée of walnuts, almonds, crushed garlic and olive oil), lentilsoup, retsina (white or rosé wine sealed with pine resin) and pasteli (candy bar with sesame seeds baked with honey). People often enjoy eating from small dishes such as meze with dips such as tzatziki, grilled octopus and small fish, feta cheese, dolmades (rice, currants and pine kernels wrapped in vine leaves), various pulses, olives and cheese. Olive oil is a widespread addition.[376]
Sweet desserts include melomakarona, diples and galaktoboureko, and drinks such as ouzo, metaxa and wines including retsina. Greek cuisine differs from different parts of the mainland and island to island. It uses some flavorings more often than other Mediterranean cuisines: oregano, mint, garlic, onion, dill and bay laurel leaves. Other common herbs and spices include basil, thyme and fennel seed. Many recipes, especially in the northern parts of the country, use “sweet” spices in combination with meat, for example cinnamon and cloves in stews.[377][376]Koutoukia are an underground restaurant common in Greece.[378]
Cinema first appeared in Greece in 1896, but the first cine-theatre was opened in 1907 in Athens. In 1914, the Asty Films Company was founded and the production of long films began. Golfo, a well known traditional love story, is considered the first Greek feature film, although there were minor productions such as newscasts before. In 1931, Orestis Laskos directed Daphnis and Chloe, containing one of the first nude scene in European cinema;[379] it was the first Greek movie played abroad.[380] In 1944, Katina Paxinou was honoured with the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for For Whom the Bell Tolls.[381]
Cacoyannis directed Zorba the Greek with Anthony Quinn which received Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film nominations.[383]Finos Film contributed in this period with movies such as Λατέρνα, Φτώχεια και Φιλότιμο, Madalena, I theia ap’ to Chicago, Το ξύλο βγήκε από τον Παράδεισο and many more.
Greece is the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games, first recorded in 776 BC in Olympia, and hosted the modern Olympic Games twice, the inaugural 1896 Summer Olympics and the 2004 Summer Olympics. During the parade of nations, Greece is always called first, as the founding nation of the ancient precursor of modern Olympics. The nation has competed at every Summer Olympic Games, one of only four countries to have done so. Having won a total of 121 medals (35 gold, 45 silver and 41 bronze), Greece is ranked 33rd by gold medals in the all-time Summer Olympic medal count. Their best ever performance was in the 1896 Summer Olympics, when Greece finished second in the medal table with 10 gold medals.
Procession in honour of the Assumption of Virgin Mary (15 August), a major holiday
According to Greek law, every Sunday of the year is a public holiday. Since the late ’70s, Saturday also is a non-school and not working day. In addition, there are four mandatory official public holidays: 25 March (Greek Independence Day), Easter Monday, 15 August (Assumption or Dormition of the Holy Virgin), and 25 December (Christmas). 1 May (Labour Day) and 28 October (Ohi Day) are regulated by law as being optional but it is customary for employees to be given the day off. There are, however, more public holidays celebrated in Greece than announced by the Ministry of Labour each year as either obligatory or optional. The list of these non-fixed national holidays rarely changes and has not changed in recent decades, giving a total of eleven national holidays each year. In addition to the national holidays, there are public holidays that are not celebrated nationwide, but only by a specific professional group or a local community. For example, many municipalities have a “Patron Saint” parallel to “Name Days“, or a “Liberation Day”.[392] On such days it is customary for schools to take the day off.
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