Municipality of Alistrati

Alistrati built amphitheatrically on a captivating group of hills at the edge of mountain Menikion, at the attitude of 325m washed in the sun ,receives the effect of sea-winds from the side of Thassos and Strymonikon bay and overlooks panoramically the whole plain of Drama and the mountains opposite.
Alisrati with 3000 inhabitats in a small town of Serres and is on the borders of the prefectures of Serres Drama. The climate is dry and healthy and it was always attracted holiday-makers.
Remarkable traditional community one of the biggest of the area Zichni-Fillida. It’s been up-graded to municipality of Alistrati with the “Kapodistrias” law and included the villages :Agioxori, Skopia, Mandili, Lefkothea and R.S of Aggista.
The small neighborhoods with the narrow streets and the typical up-hill alleys, the hospitable inhabitat’s, the nice old Square, the beautiful belfry and the elaborate old reredos of the church of Agios Athanasios are tokens of the inhabitant’s taste

Historical evidence

Alistrati was built by the inhabitants of an ancient town called Alektrioupolis. That town lived until the mids of the 20th century as a small settling near the big number of roosters which crew and made their presence audible in the area around. When the town was struck by an epidemic at the beginning of the Turkish occupation, most of the inhabitants moved to the today’s Alistrati place.
There are many views about the etimology of the word “Alistrati”. It is said that it comes from the Archistratigos (Michael-Gabriel).From the word Agios Eustratios – the name is considered to be latin from the word ALISTRATE which means among streets.

Some people give her the meaning of the street towards the sea, through Fillipi.
In the area of the town a plundered Macedonian tomb has been found, which is undamaged even today.Alistrati is mentioned in 1460 in a manuscript of the holy Convent of Ikosifissa Pageo as a small town. A traveler from Turkey mentions it with the name Al-Strati in about 1650.

During the Turkish occupation and especially in the 19th century Alistrati had been the most important centre for Greek people in Gaster Macedonia and Trace.After the revolution of 1821 it was a transport, trade station between the area Serres-Drama and that was now a remarkable business and trade activity had developed

It had also developed into an intellectual and religious center especially after it had been the seat of the See of Fillipi-Drama and Zichni (one can see the graves of three plelates in the yard of the Ag.Athanasios church) and after the establishing of the famous for that time Central School of Alistrati where pupils from the area around came to study.

In 1860 the School for boys was established in 1870 the school for girls. In 1904 a boarding school was set up with the financial support of the “Conservative Society of Amphipolis”