The Department is housed in facilities of the School of Education Sciences in Nea Chili. Nea Chili is a Municipal District of Alexandroupolis. It was founded after the Asia Minor Catastrophe by Greek refugees from the Black Sea city of Chili (Şile in Turkish).
Alexandroupolis is the capital of Evros, the Regional Unit of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. It was founded in the middle of the 19th century due to the construction of the railway line connecting Constantinople with the cities in Macedonia and Thrace. It has been a milestone of this particular railroad. The railway station and the establishment of the port have contributed significantly to the development of the city. During the 19th century, the urban design of the city was designed based on parallel road sections of satisfactory width.
Today’s city has a modern urban plan. It is a transport hub as it has a railway station, a port, an airport and a connection via Egnatia Odos and the other roads of the Region. The most famous attraction of the city is its lighthouse. The city has some neoclassical buildings such as the Zarifis Pedagogical Academy building, various monuments and a number of museums such as the Alexandroupolis Archaeological Museum, the Ethnological Museum of Thrace, the Historical Museum of Alexandroupolis, the Natural History Museum to name a few.
The wider Municipality of Alexandroupolis includes, among others, Feres and Traianoupolis. Important sights in the Municipality of Alexandroupolis are:
- The archaeological site of Mesimvria-Zone
- The Delta of the Evros river, an important wetland at an international level
- The ancient ruins of Traianoupolis
- The medieval castles of Avantas and Potamos
- The Byzantine monastery of Panagia Kosmosoteira in Feres
- The cave of Cyclops in the Municipal District of Makris that has been used since prehistoric times
- The representation of a seasonal Sarakatsan settlement near the Municipal District of Aisymi along with the newly founded museum for the Sarakatsan people.
A milestone in the education sector in Alexandroupolis was the foundation of the Zarifios Pedagogical Academy in 1934 with the first Director Evangelos Papanoutsos. Until 1968, the Academy was housed in a neoclassical building in the that was completed with donations by benefactor Georgios Zarifis. Prior to the founding of the Zarifis Pedagogical Academy, the building had housed the Alexandroupolis Teachering School, which operated until 1934. The first Director of the Teaching School of Alexandroupolis was Theodore Kastanos, whose bust is on the premises of the School of Education Sciences.
In addition to the Department of Education Sciences in Early Childhood, three other Departments of the Democritus University of Thrace are based in Alexandroupolis:
- Department of Primary Education,
- Department of Medicine and
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.
Useful hyperlinks about Alexandroupolis