The Polychroniadis park or ‘Pefkakia’

The Polychroniadis park, also known as Pefkakia, was the first organised park of Nea Chora and the first playground established in Chania in the postwar period. The idea of creating an open space for recreation in the area of Nea Chora had already been proposed by residents before the war, with Leonidas Markoulakis and Nikolaos Kyriakakis the most prominent among them.

They were the ones who brought the issue to the public’s attention, mobilised the Municipality and launched an initiative which ran on their own personal work, but also managed to attract others. Their efforts culminated in finally selecting Loukareos Square as the most appropriate site for this green space.  

After many postponements and delays, the space was finally acquired from the original Muslim owner. By the time the Municipality got involved in designing the park, the tree planting process had already begun under the supervision of Nikolaos Kyriakakis. The playground equipment was donated by Georgios Stefanakis, who was not a resident of Chania, but was eager to contribute to a public undertaking that would serve the city’s children. In a way, even though the park was inaugurated in 1961 by the Municipality of Chania, the project was mainly implemented through the residents’ volunteer work.  

Today, Pefkakia is still officially a playground, but also functions as a public space which hosts a variety of activities, highlighting the neighbourhood’s multicultural character. There are meetings organised by the informal Nea Chora parent group, which is made up of migrant parents, activities associated with the local anti-racist festival, fairytale readings from different parts of the world, and other citizen initiatives which keep the space open, lively and welcoming. In the video, you can see a fairytale reading in Pefkakia in June 2022. It was organised to celebrate the 18th anniversary of the Rosa Nera housing squat and the stories were read in four languages by a parent group.  

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