Keratea – Old Railway Station
There use to run a train from Athens to Lavrio, at the end of Attika region. One of the stops along the railroad to Lavrio was indeed Keratea. It was a 1000 mm metre gauge railwayline. Today, this railway line does not function anymore and only a few tracks are reminding its existence. It is worth mentioning that the created several small railway stations buildings were typical examples of industrial archeology, influenced by the Industrial Lavrion city and specifically the one in Keratea is one of them. Unfortunately, this station building clearly shows signs that it has collapsed defenseless overtime, even if we understand that it (together with all the other railway stations, along this old railroad) has been declared preservable. Close-by the railway station building there are a few old railway wagons, that also look in quite bad conditions.
The contract for the construction of this line was signed in 1882, between the Greek government and the Hellenic Company of Lavrion Metallurgies. After a series of events/changes along the years, eventually in 1957, the line was closed to the passenger traffic, due to political lobbying by private bus owners.
This railroad was primarily used for mine workers, because Lavrio is a mining area that once, during Roman times (and even before), was the biggest silver mining area in the world, producing up to a million tons of silver annually. It kept producing right up until the 1960's, when it was eventually shut down, because of environmental concerns. 3000 years of mining resulted in considerable soil and water pollution around Lavrio. The area is like a “Swiss cheese”, riddled with caves and mining tunnels and currently it is under archaeological controls.
The cache is a small cylindrical box, only containing the logbook, therefore carry with you your own pen. After logging, please return the cache exactly to the same place where you found it. Thanks