Basileiades is one of the most historic Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 machine building companies and the largest in its field in the country (as well as one of the most important Greek companies) during the second half of the 19th century. It was founded in Piraeus

Piraeus

Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....

 in 1859, and along with similar companies like Ifaistos and Kouppas

Kouppas (machinery)

Kouppas, also spelled in English as Couppas or Coupas , has historically been the most famous Greek industrial machinery and equipment manufacturer, founded in Piraeus in 1882.Kouppas is mostly known for equipping factories throughout Greece as well as ventures in the Middle East,...

in the same city, Neorion

Neorion

Neorion is one of the oldest Greek heavy industries, located in Ermoupolis, on the Greek island of Syros. Today, it is one of the few remaining major industrial corporations in that picturesque and nostalgic island town that used to be the industrial and commercial heart of Greece, before being...

in Syros

Syros

Syros , or Siros or Syra is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is located south-east of Athens. The area of the island is . The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano Syros, and Vari. Ermoupoli is the capital of the island and the Cyclades...

, Vlahanis-Petropoulos in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, Glavanis-Kazazis in Volos

Volos

Volos is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about 326 km north of Athens and 215 km south of Thessaloniki...

 and others founded in the 19th century, mark the contribution of the machine building sector in the Greek Industrial Revolution. The company has also been one of the largest shipyards in Greece, especially during the first half of the 20th century.

History

The evolution of Basileiades machine works was connected with the rapid development of Piraeus as an industrial and commercial center in Greece, replacing Ermoupolis in Syros. Except for shipbuilding (with its first all-metal steamship built in 1892), Basileiades produced an extensive range of metal and mechanical products, including steam engines, boilers, pumps, cranes, farm equipment, hydraulic devices, metal bridges, railroad material etc., while it was undertaking installation of entire factories and customized machinery building. It was also exporting some of its products, while in its advertisements it called itself "the most significant machine builder in Greece and the East". Although railway wagons had been built in Greece during the 19th century, most relevant constructions were being undertaken by the Railway companies themselves (see also Piraeus Railway Works

Piraeus Railway Works

Early development of railway transport in Greece involved a number of different companies, which had created their own workshops for maintenance and constructions...

). Basileiades was an exception: already engaged in railway equipment construction, it undertook in 1899 an order for a Steam Locomotive for Attica Railways. Construction was done based on an original French design. The historic locomotive, called "Hellenis" (Greek lady), was delivered in 1900 and offered its services for nearly 50 years before it was scrapped (only its badge was saved, exhibited today in the Railway Museum in Athens). Although the Basileiades company had already proudly announced (among other things) its "Locomotive producer" status in contemporary advertisements, it soon determined that further production of such steam locomotives would be unprofitable.

Progressively Basileiades focused more on shipbuilding and (increasingly) ship repairs, in new facilities it had created in 1896 in the Drapetsona

Drapetsona

Drapetsona is a suburb and a former municipality in the western part of Piraeus, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Keratsini-Drapetsona, of which it is a municipal unit.-Geography:...

 area, and before WWII it operated the largest Greek shipyard. Its facilities were damaged during the war by German bombing, this being the first step to a gradual decline of the company which was finally acquired in 1953 by the Hellenic Chemical Products and Fertilizers Company, AEEHPL (member of the giant Bodosakis

Pyrkal

Founded in 1874, Pyrkal is one of the oldest Defence Industries in Greece and the main producer of ammunition and explosives in the country. Throughout its history it has been one of the largest Greek companies, in fact a reflection of the history of Greek Industry itself...

industrial group) during the latter's expansion of activities. AEEHPL itself went out of business in 1999 following the earlier collapse of Bodosakis's "empire", having already sold the building and docks to Piraeus Port Authority in 1963.

The area where the facilities of this historic company used to be, are still called "Basileiades (or Vasiliadis) coast" (Ακτή Βασιλειάδη). The two dry docks (37.944070°N 23.6320050°W) are still in use, owned by Piraeus Port Authority S.A. and leased to ship maintenance contractors, and are still sometimes referred as "Vassiliadis Docks".