*The text and photographs on the blog are parts of
the published book on Athens (ISBN 978-86-7722-339-7),
protected by copyright and related rights: Official Gazette of the Republic of
Serbia, Nos. 104/2009 and 99/2011.
*Tekst i fotografije na blogu deo su publikovane knjige o Atini (ISBN 978-86-7722-339-7), zaštićeni Zakonom o autorskim i srodnim pravima: Službeni glasnik RS, br. 104/2009 i 99/2011.
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ATHENS
Cradle of the
European Civilization
At the edge of the
Attica Peninsula, lies a large metropolis
which bares a nickname - the Cradle of the European Civilization. Two to
three
days of your stay in Athens would usually be enough to visit the most
important places of interest, which makes this capital city ideal for a
„city-break“, an escape during an extended weekend.
Here is
the list of places you shouldn’t miss, while in Athens...
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| Panorama of Athens from the Lycabettus Hill / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| University of Athens / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Acropolis / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Church of Panagia Kapnikarea / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Monastiraki, flea market / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
1)
Acropolis of Athens / Filopappos Hill / Ancient Agora
In the centre of Athens, on a top of the historical
Acropolis Hill, lies Parthenon - the temple of goddess Athena the Virgin
(Athena Parthenos), the oldest example of the golden section in architecture
and the most outstanding of all ancient Greek temples. Built in the 5th c. BC,
with the outer colonnade which numbers 17 x 8, it has been rebuilt for years
now in order to put parts of columns in a proper place. Together with other
temples on Acropolis Hill, it is a part of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Except
for Parthenon, half centuries younger Erechteion is well renowned for its
columns in the shape of female figures - Caryatids. The story says that while
conquering Asia Minor, ancient Greeks where stunned by a beauty of local women
from Caryae whom they used to bring to Athens and marry, and later magnified their
beauty in this way.
In
the south-east, next to the Acropolis, there is a green Filopappos Hill. It is
named after a monument of an ancient Asian prince who lived in Athens and liked
it so much. Filopappos Hill is a place of the first assembly ever - Ecclesia,
and the place where Socrates was imprisoned and died having drunk a poison.
From a certain part of the hill, you can experience a beautiful view on Acropolis.
Beneath
Acropolis, at the place where once the ancient city centre - Agora, stood, the
only building still in its place is the Temple of Hephaestus (the god of
blacksmith and merchants). Although the market, court, prison, and other
ancient public buildings no longer exist, a half century ago the Stoa of
Attalos, an ancient „shopping mall“ was reconstructed. Inside, there is a
museum of everything that was found in Agora, starting from an ancient
ballot-box, dice for games, a baby’s potty, urns of deceased, coins, and
finally „ostrakas“ - pieces of broken pottery with name inscriptions, votes for
people who were supposed to be expelled from the city.
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| Erechtheum, Acropolis of Athens / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Parthenon, Acropolis of Athens / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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Ancient Agora, Stoa of Attalos - ostrakas / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Plaka / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
Beneath the Acropolis, from its northern and eastern
slopes, you will enter a bohemian quarter - Plaka. Except for taverns with
sirtaki (gyros and tzatziki), this is the place to buy your souvenirs, T-shirts,
or perhaps a rather cheap but a good quality hand-made leather sandals with a long strips, typical footwear of
ancient Greeks.
Between
the alleys with taverns and souvenir shops, there is a Roman Agora, the centre
of the city during the ancient Roman occupation of Athens (from 2nd c. BC),
with the remains of Hadrian’s Library and fascinating Tower of the Winds - a
place where they used to measure a time by the amount of water that ran from a
spring (from the Acropolis Hill).
Not
far from there, next to the Vironos alley, named after the British poet Lord
Byron - a great admirer of the ancient Greek civilization and a supporter of
independence of Turkish rule, settled the Monument of Lysicrates, one of the
first public monuments in the world (4th
c. BC).
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| Ancient Agora / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Plaka / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Plaka, Monument of Lysicrates / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Roman Agora, Tower of Winds / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Roman Agora, Emperor Hadrian's Library / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
At the end of the 18th century, when the British ambassador to
the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, requested a permission from Turkish authorities to pick up the scattered pieces of columns and relief decoration of the
Parthenon from the Acropolis, no
one could guess that a few
years later, his collection would
be sold the newly established British Museum, in London. Even today, there is
a silent war between the British and Greek governments, where
the former claims to have bought and fairly paid
for the objects in the museum a long ago, and the latter tries to return to
their country the taken cultural heritage.
For
years, the main advantage against returning the "Elgin
Marbles" (as the collection is called), was the fact that the old Acropolis museum is small and without adequate
conditions for keeping such a historical treasure.
For this reason, the new, modern
museum was built and opened in 2009 -
right next to the Acropolis.
Entirely made of glass, with a large exhibition space on three levels, the top
floor of the museum is set to
the original Parthenon frieze, or more precisely - slightly more than its one-third. The remaining parts are
left empty, as a sort of notice to visitors that
less than two-thirds of the strips/relieves
are still in the British Museum.
Apart
from the Parthenon frieze,
in the New Acropolis Museum you can see various
Archaic statues (“kouros” and “korai”), original Caryatides, remnants
of pottery, jewelry, and other everyday objects that have been found on the Acropolis.
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| The oldest in the world - Theatre of Dionysus, with New Acropolis Museum / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| New Acropolis Museum / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Caryatids in the New Acropolis Museum / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
4)
Monastiraki and Kerameikos
Although it may sound weird to
someone that a cemetery could be one of a tourist attraction, in this case it is what
it is. However,
it is not a "regular"
cemetery, but the ancient one - from the 5th
and 4th century BC. Tombstones
with interesting relieves depicting the life and desires of the ancient Athenians, their professions and family
members, as well as decorative
ceramic urns (lekithos)
at the museum near by, will introduce
you to another
world where, once upon a time,
death had a different meaning.
On the
east from the Kerameikos Archaeological Site,
on the way to the centre, you
will pass through a part of the city
named Monastiraki. Antique shops of forgotten crafts, brass coffee pots and
bells, a chess figure or shadow puppet theatre Karagoz, and
pieces of coconut on small stalls, as in
the East, may give you an idea of
buying some less usual
souvenirs of Greece.
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| Ancient cemetery of Kerameikos / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Monastiraki / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Monastiraki / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Taverna Bairaktaris in the Monastiraki / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
The first ancient Olympic Games were created a
few hundred kilometers southwest
of the present capital, in
Olympia, in the 8th c. BC, and the first
modern - in Athens, thanks to
the French historian Baron Pierre de Coubertin,
who invested his money and reputation in the birth of the idea of Olympism at
the end of the 19th century. He was the one who founded the
International Olympic Committee and eventually succeeded to convince a large
segment of the European society and politicians, that the Olympic Games should
be revived.
For
this purpose, near the centre, on the remains of the ancient Panathenaic ("all-Athenian")
stadium, the new one of the same name was built. In 1896, it was the
host of the first modern Olympic Games. The only marble stadium
in the world was used during the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, for
the finish of marathon race. In
addition to sporting events,
the stadium has been
also used for holding rock concerts and those of classical
music.
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| Panathenaic Stadium / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
6)
Hellenic Parliament and Syntagma Metro Station
The central Athenian metro station - Syntagma, is located
on the square with the same name, right under the Parliament building (the old
royal palace). After photographing the guards (Evzoni) dressed in interesting
costumes, descend into the underground to see what archaeologists found when
the metro station was built. Everything was left in the place where it was
found, only the glass window was installed as a protection. The remains of
tombs, pottery and ceramic water pipes, are among some of the artifacts that
you will see on the way to the subway station platform.
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| Hellenic Parliament - Evzoni (guard) / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Hellenic Parliament / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Syntagma Metro Station / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Evzoni parade (guard) in front of the Hellenic Parliament / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
7)
National Archaeological Museum of Athens
North of the very centre of Athens, stands a large
edifice - the most important of Greek national museums. The remains of almost
all of the crucial archaeological sites, from all parts of Greece, are located
in this place, arranged in separate rooms. From
the Cretan (Minoan)
culture that was not of the Greek origin, the Cycladic culture - the prehistoric culture of the Greek
islands (of the same name), the
oldest Doric - Mycenaean
culture (e.g "Agamemnon’s"
death mask and cups
of Vafi), through
the Greco-Persian and Peloponnesian
wars, Sparta and Athens,
to the Roman occupation, in this museum you will
see some of the most important exhibits of the history of the ancient Greece.
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| National Archaeological Museum - ancient statues of kouros / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| National Archaeological Museum / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| National Archaeological Museum - Zeus or Poseidon? It is still the question / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| National Archaeological Museum, ancient footwear / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| National Archaeological Museum, Antikythera mechanism / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
Northeast of the city, if you go on foot or by
underground funicular, in a few minutes you will find yourself at the top of
the Lycabettus hill. In addition to a little church and a restaurant, the most
common reason for going to the top is a famous view to the southwest of Athens -
a panorama that you have to experience. In front of you, in a plain view you
can see not only the centre of the entire city (e.g. Acropolis on the hill), but
also the Port of Piraeus, in the distance. For the best photos, come in the morning,
when the sun is in the east.
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| A view of Athens from the Lycabettus Hill / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| A view from the Lycabettus Hill / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| The story written in the Lycabettus Hill funicular / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
Once an inhabited island near Athens, during the 5th
c. BC earth filling and wall construction made Piraeus a part of a town, and
its port. One of the largest ports in this part of the Mediterranean, as far as
passenger and cargo transport are concerned, has experienced popularity with a
famous Greek movie „Children of Piraeus“ („Ta pedia tou Piraia“) and its song
„Never on Sunday“, sang by Melina Mercouri. You’ve probably heard and maybe
hummed the song which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song back in 1960,
at least once, while traveling through Greece.
Even if you do not intend to go
to one of the Greek islands by ferry, in Piraeus
you will need to get at least two or three hours. Sit
on the shore and watch the
comings and goings of ships, loading and unloading of people and cars, and even
briefly feel and
smell the harbour atmosphere.
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| Piraeus Port / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Piraeus Port / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Piraeus Port / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
10) Cape Sounion
According to an ancient legend, more than two and a half
thousand years ago, wrongly interpreting black sails aboard a ship of his son
Theseus, the more saddened king of Athens, Aegeus threw himself from the cliff in a big
blue (so the sea was named after him - Aegean). Near the spot from which this
happened, there are the remains of the Temple of Poseidon, dating from the 5th
c BC. Although not of particular importance, many Greeks consider this place as
one of the most romantic in Athens and around, as for sitting on the cape and
looking through the pillars of the temple, one of the most beautiful sunsets in
the world can be seen.
Perhaps
the popularity of this benefited from the fact that in one part of the temple, an
engraved signature in marble was found, assumed to belong to the greatest
English romantic poet, Lord Byron. In his poem „The Islets of Greece“, in the
three short verses full of emotion, he described Cape Sounion.
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| Agora, Temple of Hephaestus / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Monastiraki / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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| Monastiraki / Photo: Ivana Dukčević © All rights reserved |
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