One must-see, but often overlooked site close the greater Athens-Piraeus area is the vast Eleusis archaeological site, located due west of the Greek capital in what over the past six decades turned into the east Mediterranean country’s biggest industrial zone.
Ancient Eleusis, the home of the religious and secretive Eleusinian Mysteries of antiquity, today lies within the small, working-class city of Elefsina, which hosts a freight port, a steel mill, a shipyard, refinery works and scores of lesser factories and warehouses.
The ancient name is nevertheless employed for this year’s European Capitals of Culture for 2023 series of cultural events and exhibitions, as Eleusis (modern Elefsina) joins Timișoara in Romania and Veszprém in Hungary.
One of this month’s main events in the port city, roughly a half hour’s drive from Athens if taking a tollway, is the debut of a new outdoor artwork by Kostas Bassanos. The work, entitled “Epiphany”, is located on a main pier along the city promenade.
