KATERNI

town and capital of the noms (department) of Piera, Macedonia, northern Greece. It is an agricultural and tobacco centre on the plain of Piera. Its port on the Gulf of Thrmai, Parala, is one of the few landing places along a shore of dunes and salt pans, the latter the largest in Greece. The town, which has flour mills and processes railway ties, expanded in population with the influx of Greek refugees from Turkey in the 1920s. It is linked by railway to Lrisa and Thessalonki. Pop. (1981) 38,404; (1991) 43,613.