Sean Fitzgerald Avenue

Sean Fitzgerald Avenue

View of Fitzgerald Avenue near the A1 junction.
Namesake	Sean Fitzgerald, former Secretary-General of the CN
Type	Highway
Location	Alikianos, Piraea

The Sean Fitzgerald Avenue (Piraean: Λεωφόρος Σεαν Φιτζέραλντ) is a major avenue in Alikianos, Piraea. It is considered one of the main axis of the city, a thoroughfare and a high velocity highway, connecting Alikianos Kentro with the A1 ring-road. The avenue is named after Séan Fitzgerald, a Caldian diplomat and Secretary-General of the CN, who died in a plane crash near Etruria. The avenue was part of the city's main restructuring plan carried out during the Piraean Second Republic.

History

The avenue was projected by the architect and urbanist Andronikos Demiades-Zeneas, responsible of the enlargement of Alikianos during the Kingdom of Piraea, as one of the main axis of the city, together with the Ioannis Apostolou Boulevard. The new avenue would connect Alikianos Kentro, the city's centre, with the neighbourhoods of Porta Syderenia and Agios Sebastianos. However, the slow urban expansion to the limits of the city delayed the avenue's current condition as a thoroughfare. In 1949, the avenue was named "Alfonso Clemente" in memory of the Paretian Functionalist leader. That same year, the Piraean Army constructed its headquarters and hospital.

During the 1960s, the avenue was completely paved as it started to receive a larger influx of traffic. The construction of the A1 ring road around Alikianos started to change the avenue's purpose, as cars ownership was encouraged by the government to foster national industry and more distant neighbourhoods became annexed to Alikianos urban expansion. Following the democratisation of Piraea, the avenue's name was changed to "Sean Fitzgerald", in memory of the former Community of Nations Secretary-General who died in a plane crash near Etruria.

1960 Alikianos Restructuring Plan

In 1960, the expansion of Alikianos and the inaugural of the A1 forced the construction of the a bridge and interchange above the avenue. That same year, the city authorities created the Alikianos Restructuring Plan, aimed to modernise the capital. With the change in heights that dramatically modify the city's skyline along the Apostolu Boulevard, the avenue was part of a number of changes in its urban protagonism that were given by the Restructuring Plan, setting special heights and uses to the sides of the avenue and along the A1, which were going to be completed during the 1970s and 1980s with Piraea's construction boom.

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  Bridge of the avenue over the A1 ringorad; the avenue is renamed "Mikel Hankssun" after the bridge on its way across Alikianos.

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  View of the extreme north of the avenue with Agios Sebastianos and Porta Siderenia on the distance.

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  Financial zone along the avenue.

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  Park and buildings of the A1 on the proximity with the Sean Fitzgerald Avenue.

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  Buildings along the Sean Fitzgerald Avenue in the Agios Sebastianos neighbourhood.

Name

In 2023, the Alikianos Council member from the People's Party, Antonios Stamatelis, proposed a change in the name of the avenue to "Konstantinos Athanopoulos Avenue", in reference to the dictator and leader of the Second Piraean Republic. The proposal was conceived due to the prominent position of the avenue in the city and the location of the Headquarter of the Piraean Army and Military College; however, it was dismissed by the coalition partners of LK and was soon renounced by the council member and other LK politicians.