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Municipal Nursery of Athens

Photo: Voula Papaioannou © Benaki Museum & Roots NGO

Municipal Nursery of Athens

Public Institution

The Municipal Nursery of Athens was founded in September 1859 with the aim of hosting and caring for abandoned babies and infants, providing for their rehabilitation, as well as for the protection of mothers (both married and unmarried). It was a basic provider of pediatric care in Greece, as well as the first pediatrics training centre for students and doctors. Its role included the protection, the upbringing of infants and their social rehabilitation through adoptions and foster families. It is estimated that a total of about fifty thousand children in total were hosted in the Nursery during its operation. In 1964, the first nursery school was created within the building complex of the Municipal Nursery of Athens. In the early 1980s, the Municipal Nursery’s network of nursery schools was expanded. Today, it oversees 77 nursery schools, which operate within the boundaries of the Municipality of Athens and were either founded by the municipality or the State.