This paper focused on the development of offshore settlements in the area around Thessaloniki, which hosted facilities of entertainment and summer houses. It tried to locate these areas that are located, in a different place each time, to the northeast of the city according to the time and the transportation. In the end of the 19th century it was an area close to the Walls called “Area of Pirgoi or Exochon”, in the ‘30s was a place to the north east called “Area of the Aretsou ‘s Villas” and the last area consisted of three villages on northeast coast of the gulf of Thessaloniki, Peraia, New Epivates and Agia Triada , which started to become popular before the War and afterwards they reached the height of popularity of. In the 1970s everything changed and people started to prefer Chalkidiki for their summer vacations.

Today these areas are part of the city. Peraia, New Epivates and Agia Triada, in other words the municipality of Thermaikos, during the last 10 years have been developing as a suburb of Thessaloniki. The goal of this research was to spot the moving coastal-summer-settlements and to point out that former coastal-summer-settlements can easily transform into a suburb of a city.

The creation of the Thessalonician coastal suburbs that are being examined here, was just one stage in the successive changes that took place in the residential development of the region of Thessaloniki.

In Thessaloniki, as in any big city, there was the need for spaces that receive leisure. By the end of 19th century public gardens, such as Bech Tsinar in west and the Garden of White Tower in east, with trees planted closely together, settlements for swimming, restaurants and cafes attracted people that wanted to relax. In the west part of the city, where the industrial area was usually located, no other point of attraction existed. In the East coast, many taverns and beaches attracted the citizens. The transportation was easy (tram) and the sea was crystal clear. The villas that were built in the place were former Pirgoi existed in order to keep watching over the land. They were in the middle of beautiful gardens and they represented the contemporary architecture. Some of those places, in the beginning, were used for periodical use and afterwards the houses were used as the main habitat. The fire of 1889 and the more constant transportation through the land and the sea (boats, taxi boats, bus boats) contributed to the change of that condition. After that many wealthy citizens, despite their religion, inhabited the “Area of Pirgoi or Exochon”.

In the 1930s the refugees from Asia Minor established new settlements in Kalamaria, a location to the east of Thessaloniki. In a certain part of Kalamaria, in Aretsou, which was close the sea, a few Salonikians bought land from the Association of the Rehabilitation of the Refugees in order to erect their country houses, in close distance to the city. This area is still called “Area of the Aretsou ‘s Villas”, although today the area is mainly residential and the villas (Art Deco architecture of Villas) are replaced by high-rise apartment buildings. This part of Kalamaria was also known for the entertainment centers that were by the sea or on hill over the sea. The beach of Aretsou was used by the fishermen and by the swimmers of the gulf. Transportation to the city from Aretsou was by the sea or by bus. Later in Aretsou, in 1967 the National Organization of Tourism built a “ plage” and a marina for the yachts. Today many restaurants and cafes that face the seashore exist in the ground floor of the buildings.

Also in the 30s, refugees and some tourists traveled through the sea to the east coast of Thermaikos gulf and established three new villages, in former Ottoman fields. The names of those villages were Peraia, New Epivates and Agia Triada. After the war, due to the pollution and the improvement of transportation through the sea and coast, many people built, bought or rented summer houses in the villages, especially in Peraia. These buildings have been categorized in the summer house as a villa, the apartment building as summer house (horizontal ownership), summer-complex that is owned by an idividual or an organization.

Organized Spaces for summertime have existed in Agia Triada since the ‘30s, when P.I.K.P.A. built a summer camp on the seafront. On Peaia’s seafront in 1962 A. Lampakis designed the resort for the Air Force of Greece. In 1960 the National Organization of Tourism created a camping and a beach that included different facilities that had to do with swimming and leisure activities. These facilities attracted many people from Thessaloniki, Greece and all over the world, especially during the EXPO.

The press helped a lot, through the advertisements and ads for summer houses. In the decade 1964-1974 the newspaper “Thessaloniki” organized beach parties in the “plage” of Agia Triada, in which many people were gathered and had fun with music bands, contests and swimming.

In the 1970s a number of facts lead to the reduction of tourists in the villages. Firstly the boats that were used as transportation stopped their itinerary. Secondly the pollution of the gulf forbade swimming in the sea and lastly the road to Chalkidiki improved. So tourists started moving to Chalkidiki were they could find unpolluted beaches and sea. The houses in Peraia, New Epivates and Agia Triada were abandoned by their summer dweller, and only the refuges supported the life of the villages.

In the 1990s the city of Thessaloniki could not accommodate new dwellings. The road that led to Peraia N. Epivates and Agia Triada, improved, reducing the demanding time to reach them. So, people started to inhabit the old summer houses as their permanent homes[1], and also built new houses. This procedure continues until today, transforming these villages into a suburb of Thessaloniki, in the same way as happened to the “Area of Exoches” and the area of Aretsou’s villas.