Patras

The first traces of settlement at Patras date to the 3rd millennium BC, at Aroe, and the ancient city grew from the union of three Mycenaean villages. It became one of the twelve Achaean cities and a founder of the second Achaean League after 280 BC, until Rome defeated the League in 146 BC. After the Battle of Actium in 31 BC Augustus founded a colony of veterans here, and Roman Patras became a cosmopolitan city of the eastern Mediterranean; Christian tradition holds that Saint Andrew was martyred here. Justinian built the castle after the earthquake of 551, and its defenders beat off a Slav siege in the early 9th century, a victory credited to the saint.

Frankish crusaders took the city in 1205, making it a barony and the seat of the Latin archbishop of Achaea. Venice held it from 1408, the Byzantine despot Constantine Palaiologos recovered it in 1430, and in 1458 it fell to Mehmed II. Under the Ottomans it was known as Baliabadra, from the Greek for "Old Patras"; apart from Venetian rule in 1687–1715, it stayed Ottoman until the revolution.

Patras was one of the first cities to rise in 1821, though the Ottoman garrison held the castle until 1828, and the town was almost entirely destroyed. Rebuilt on the plan of 1858, it grew into the second-largest city in late 19th-century Greece as the main export port for the agricultural produce of the Peloponnese, and was the first Greek city with public street lighting and electric trams. Italian air raids hit it hard in the Second World War. Since then it has been overshadowed by Athens, but the Rio–Antirrio Bridge of 2004, a new south port opened in 2011 and its year as European Capital of Culture in 2006 have renewed its role as the gateway to western Greece.

The carnival defines Patras. It began as masked balls introduced in 1835 by the Moretti merchant family, of Italian origin, and today runs from 17 January to Clean Monday with balls, a treasure hunt game and a children's carnival. It climaxes on the last weekend with the Saturday night parade, the Sunday parade of satirical floats built in the city's carnival workshop, and the burning of the carnival king at the harbour. Tens of thousands take part in costumed groups.

The city also has a strong scene in the performing arts and urban literature. The Apollon Theatre is home to the Municipal and Regional Theatre, founded in 1988; the Patras International Festival brings drama and music every summer, and a long-running Poetry Symposium meets each year. Patras was European Capital of Culture in 2006, a year that left it a new archaeological museum and other venues. The poet Kostis Palamas was born in a house on Corinthou Street that is preserved today.

Saint Andrew, the patron saint, is at the centre of the city's religious life, and his cathedral is a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox and other Christians. Sport is followed closely: Panachaiki, Apollon Patras, EA Patras and NO Patras are the historic clubs, in football, basketball, volleyball and water polo.

At the 2021 census the municipality of Patras had about 216,000 residents and the urban area about 174,000. It is the capital of the region of Western Greece and of the Achaea regional unit, and the 2011 reform merged the former municipalities of Rio, Paralia, Messatida and Vrachnaiika into the city. Three public universities give it a large student population and make it one of the country's main centres of science and technology.

The economy rests largely on services, but Patras keeps a bigger manufacturing base than most Greek cities: cement, paper, packaging, bicycles, soft drinks, a yogurt factory, fish farming and fish feed, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals. The once dominant textile industry has almost disappeared. The port still handles more than half of Greece's international sea passengers, with ferries to Italy and the Ionian islands.

Around squares such as Psila Alonia, most neoclassical buildings were replaced by eight-storey blocks in the 1960s and 1970s, while the upper town keeps a lower, older skyline. The squares, the coffee shops of Agiou Nikolaou Street and the seafront at Rio are where the city meets, and the students set much of its pace.

Patras is wine country. Mavrodaphne, a black grape native to Achaea, gives the city's best-known wine, a sweet fortified red often compared with port, first made by Gustav Clauss around 1850; his Achaia Clauss winery, founded in 1861, still ages it in its cellars. Tentura is the city's own liqueur, made here since the 15th century by sweetening and spicing a distilled spirit, usually local brandy; it is served chilled after a large meal or added to espresso.

The city's own specialities include tilichtária, a pork dish, and tiganites, a kind of pancake. Aigio, in Achaea, has shipped currants since the 19th century, and hilopites, a pasta of flour, eggs and milk, and trahanas soup belong to the wider Greek kitchen.

Everyday eating follows the Greek pattern: meze, small dishes shared around the table and often taken with ouzo or tsipouro; souvlaki, small pieces of meat grilled on a skewer and eaten straight off it or in pita; and horiatiki, the Greek salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, feta and olives dressed with oregano, lemon juice and olive oil.