Municipality of Patras

Patras is the third biggest city in Greece, the metropolitan centre of the Region of Western Greece regarded as the gate of the country to the West. With a population of over two hundred thousand inhabitants, it extends over an area of 333,14km2 that perfectly matches a long coastal line in front and mountainous areas in the back. Since roman times, Patras has been an important port and cosmopolitan centre of the Eastern Mediterranean basin, the place of Saint Andrews martyrdom, a crossroad of civilizations that has become a bridge of cultures through the years, believing in building an inclusive equal society for all. The economy of the city mostly depends on a thriving service sector, whose main activities include retailing, logistics, financial and public sector services. Patras had suffered a severe problem of deindustrialization during the decades of 1980s and 1990s; where a number of major productive units closed down in successive order. As a result, the city underwent a gr...