The Athens Municipal Nursery (D.B.A.) was founded in September 1859, aiming to provide shelter and care for abandoned infants and toddlers, their rehabilitation, as well as the protection of mothers (both married and unmarried). For seven years following its establishment, it was the only institution of its kind in Greece. Its founding and operation had a profound impact on Athenian society at the time, with many citizens contributing financially to support its mission.
The institution served as the original core of pediatric care in Greece and the first training center for students and doctors specializing in pediatrics. Its primary focus has always been the protection, healthy psychophysical development, and social rehabilitation of children—achieved mainly through adoption or, when not possible, through foster care. It is estimated that approximately 50,000 children were cared for by the Nursery during this period of its history.
In 1964, the first Daycare Center was established within the D.B.A. complex at 51 Piraeus Street. By the early 1980s, responding to the urgent need for childcare services, the Nursery expanded its mission by establishing Infant and Childcare Centers to support working mothers.
Today, the City of Athens possesses the largest network of Daycare Centers in our country and the Balkans, and one of the most significant in Europe, hosting approximately 4,500 children daily.
The Infant and Daycare Centers of the Athens Municipal Nursery are educational spaces, with the primary purpose of providing unified preschool education to the young children of Athens. Our pedagogical philosophy is based on modern pedagogical views, dictated by the sciences of education.
We aim to create a pedagogical framework that helps all children develop holistically—physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially—by providing equal opportunities and implementing innovative pedagogical programs.
Pedagogical planning includes interventions aimed both at the smooth integration of children into the Daycare Center and the interaction of the facility with the family and the wider social environment.
The basic goals of the D.B.A. Centers include efforts aimed at supporting parents in their parental role, by raising their awareness on issues of modern pedagogy and psychology.
Enrollment applications for children wishing to be hosted at the stations of the Athens Municipal Nursery, as well as the required supporting documents, are submitted only electronically through the website of the Athens Municipal Nursery.
After the final submission of your application, you will receive a message at the email address you have declared as “contact email for the progress of the application,” which will confirm its registration.
At the same email address, you will receive a notification regarding the evaluation of your application, i.e., whether it is complete or not regarding the required supporting documents. In case of incomplete or incorrect documents, a time limit of three (3) working days will be provided for correction and resubmission. At this point, we would like to clarify that the evaluation of your application is completed either with its rejection – in case any required corrections were not made – or with its approval, which means completeness of the application regarding the supporting documents and not the enrollment of the child in a daycare center.
You can always see your application and its progress every time you log in to the platform paidikoi.dbda.gr with your TAXIS codes.
If the application is successful, you will be notified via email about your child’s enrollment in the host daycare center.
For any clarification, you can contact the Department of Application Selection & Enrollment Monitoring at the email address: applications@dbda.gr