Byzantine times The
Kaisariani Monastery was established on
Mount Hymettus during the
Byzantine times, in the late 11th or early 12th century.
Asia Minor refugees The town was founded in 1922 after the
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey, as a refugee camp for
refugees driven from
Asia Minor, most of whom were coming from
Smyrna. Formerly part of the municipality of
Athens, Kaisariani was created as a separate municipality in 1933. The name was derived from
Caesarea, the historical capital city of
Cappadocia in Asia Minor (now
Kayseri, Turkey).
WWII and the 200 of Kaisariani The Kaisariani rifle range is notable as the site of the
execution of 200 communist Greek patriots on 1 May 1944 by the
Nazi occupiers as a revenge for the death of German general
Franz Krech, who had been killed by
ELAS in a guerrilla ambush near
Molaoi,
Laconia a few days before. In the early hours of June 17, 1944, 10 men of the
EPON and guerillas of the
EAM were killed, when trapped by the Nazi forces at the Monastery of Kaisariani, where they had been hiding. ==Historical population==