About The Territory

Geographic Location

Serres is both a district (Regional Unit - formerly Prefecture) and the Capital town.

Serres Regional Unit (map) is a part of the Region of Central Macedonia. (map)

Serres Regional Unit is on the border with Bulgaria and all the way south to the Aegean Sea, run by the Strymon river.

The town of Serres (photo album) is in the centre of the Regional Unit. The population of the Regional Unit is about 200.000, out of which 100.000 live in the town of Serres.

It is a very old town, unfortunately ruined many times during its history. The first known name was SIRIS, after the star sirius, lost in the historic abysses. In the antiquity the town was a part of Thrace (and the inhabitants were Thracians), accessing the Aegean sea through the port of Amphipolis (later a glorious colony  of Athens). During the first historic geography, the Eastern part of the district was Thrace and the western part Macedonia, having as border the river Strymon, which is dividing the Regional Unit.

There are no registered minorities, although it is known that some inhabitants claim to have racial diversity (Roma) or tribal (Sarakatsani, Vlahi, Natives [dopii], Darnakes) and descendents from refugee populations from the Ottoman Empire, Russia and recently from former USSR and other Eastern European Countries ( Pontii, East Thracians, Minor Asian Greeks, Political Refugees).

Formal and communication "official" language is Greek, while many people speak also other languages, like German (ex immigrants), Italian - English or French (who studied in these countries), Turkish - Russian - Bulgarian - Romanian etc (learned languages - repatriates).