Greece

Thirteen years after the practice of cremation was legalized in Greece, the country’s first such facility has recently opened in Ritsona north of Athens, and has already carried out 15 cremations. Built by a private company at a cost of...

The Greek Parliament has approved a bill which paves the way for the construction of a crematorium in Eleonas, near Athens. The bill gives the green light to the Municipality of Athens to construct the crematorium at a plot of...

Last February Greece made cremation of the dead legal as the Parliament passed a law allowing individuals to make their own choice of burial rites. The bill came with much opposition from the Orthodox Church and the Holy Synod of...

The City of Athens has made a crucial step in opening the way for the establishment of crematoria in Greece by issuing an invitation for bids for a building to house the first crematorium. The building must be no smaller...

The first crematorium in Greece is planned for the city of Volos, Central Greece. The legal framework allowing the creation of crematoria has already been unanimously passed by the Greek parliament, while the required joint ministerial decision and presidential decree have...

The refusal of the Greek Orthodox Church to allow cremation has sparked a debate in the country. With urban cemeteries filling so fast that bodies are dug up after three years and put in ossuaries so plots can be reused,...

The Greater Athens Crematorium scheduled to be built in Markopoulos region, Athens, was finally abandoned after persistent negative reactions from citizens and environmentalists opposing the municipality plan. The plenary decision of the city council on Wednesday evening against the building...

According to the newspaper “Aggelioforos”, the first Greek crematorium will open in Thermi of Thessaloniki at the Renaissance of Christ cemetery. Until now, those wanting to cremate their dead relatives had to travel abroad.  The majority went to Bulgaria...

A Greek-Jewish Holocaust survivor's letter buried in Auschwitz and revealing an astonishing story of human perseverance and courage was restored as a testament to the crimes committed by the Nazi regime. In 1944, Marcel Nadjari, a Greek Jew who was...

Esther Cohen, the oldest Greek survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, who became known as a "living testimony" of the Holocaust, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 96. The Ioannina-born Jewish woman, who had had her official camp...

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, attending the commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, toured the camp today along with his wife Mareva Grabowski Mitsotakis. "I come to this place with great emotion; a place that has been...

The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece issued a leaflet on Wednesday, in which it expresses its strong opposition to the practice of cremation as "contrary to the Church's principles, traditions and customs." The leaflet addressed ''To The People''...

The Orthodox Metropolis of Thiva and Livadia in central Greece earlier this week denounced  cremation and threatened to refuse burial services for those opting for the practice. According to press release by the Metropolis, "it is unthinkable for conscious Orthodox...

On this day in 1944 during WWII a group of Jewish Greeks held prisoner at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp organized a revolt -- the only one of its kind documented until this day -- against their Nazi captors. By...

Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens avoided making any comments regarding the extremist opinions that were expressed by certain people of the Greek Orthodox Church on the issue of the cohabitation agreement for same-sex couples. However, he clearly spoke against the...