My friends,
As you know we will be leaving Athens, our home of the past years, by the end of summer. To my sadness I was unable to show you around this historic city, but instead I leave you with a few pointers, fresh from memory in case you ever come by here. This here is a young city, despite its age.
Attica is a land without much water or vegetation, yet when one steps off the plane coming from northern Europe one understands why it was settled in the Neolithic. It had towering rocks that naturally drew people and clay that gave us the amphoras of antiquity, most of all it was blessed with fair winds and blue skies that remain to this day.
Nevertheless, it is a young city, unlike the capitals of Europe with cores that are hundreds of years old, Athens was largely built in the last 2 centuries. Of course, its history goes back further than that, and that is visible. You will notice the Acropolis, the Agora, Kerameikos(the ancient cemetery) and many other ancient monuments peppered throughout the urban landscape. Without a doubt you will find the most important monuments in every guide to the city and every new visitor should see them. Alongside these monuments we naturally have a number of important museums that you should visit if it is your first time. The Acropolis Museum, the National Gallery, etc.
Let me not bore you with that but give you a few of my most beloved. Without a doubt my favorite monument is the Monument of Filopappous, located on the park of the same name. Lit at night, it stands alone watching over the city. A wanderer sitting atop a grove of olive trees. As mentioned, Attica is a dry place, and I believe it is likely that the trees there were planted in the last decades, as they don’t exist in any older depictions that I have seen. Still, it is a beautiful place to walk through and, being somewhat isolated from the cement of Athens, one can believe himself connected to ancient times. If one visits during Clean Monday, it is a beautiful sight to see children’s kites gliding above the gate to the Acropolis. If you travel the areas around Plaka and Thiseo, pay attention to the following: Tholou Street, the little caves dotting the Sacred Rock of the Acropolis, the Mosques of the Agora and Monastiraki, the Hammam of Abid-Efendi and the old Madrassa. I want to note two things. On Tholou Street we find the first modern university of Athens, a restored Turkish house which previously had served as the house and office of the architects Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert. It was these men, alongside others such as Leo von Klenze and the Hansen Brothers, these were the men that shaped modern Athens and the culture of Neo-Classicism and Historicism. It is this influence that gives Greece its plethora of Antefixes and Stoas.
The other thing of note is the history of the Madrassa, the Islamic religious school of Athens. Of it, only the gate remains and is possibly the most unique relic of Ottoman architecture in Athens. I cannot recount its entire history here, but it went from school to political prison to finally being torn down. If there is anything in this city I recommend reading about, it is this.
I raise these two points because they mark the first big turn in the recent history of Athens, from a city of the East, to one of the West. You can hear Greeks often say that Greece was enslaved by the Ottomans and that unlike the western European sovereigns before them, they largely left their new domain untouched, only extracting taxes and kidnapping boys for their Janissary regiments. The truth of course is more complicated, and authoritarian regimes are never free of evil, but Athens grew under Ottoman reign, and this was a small return of lifeblood after the sack of the city by Sulla, Emperor Justinian’s Reign, or the relatively stagnant reign of the Frankish Dukes.
When Athens was chosen as the new capital of Greece, much of this history was left behind. The hammams slowly closed, the mosques were no longer necessary, and buildings not considered archeologically worthy or in the way of new construction (including Byzantine, Frankish and Ottoman) were demolished. Athens slowly became part of the west, something that was often welcomed. Forgotten are now the ties we once held with Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant.
At that time we were not yet talking about beauty and proportions. These houses were scenically foreign. Slowly, however, these Bavarian or Italian houses became Greek. Not only by the residents. The Greek craftsmen and the Greek architects who began to design them when the Bavarians left made them their own.”
Says the painter Tsarouchis.
For a moment perhaps there was something.
The next step that changed the face of the city was the institution of Antiparochi. The exchanging of plots of land to contractors in return for apartments. It was what allowed Athens to absorb the plethora of refugees from Anatolia after the Greco-Turkish war and refugees after the Civil War. It also changed the people that had their hands on the reins of the city. At first it was the Ottomans, then the Bavarian and European architects, then the Greek architects. Now finally it was mostly the contractors that were in control, leading to the concrete landscape of today. Aside from the roads and sidewalks, the lack of parks, I like this style of the city. It is messy, but visually interesting, unlike many middle-class neighborhoods in Europe which are boxy and symmetrical.
In this giant labyrinth I recommend visiting the following streets, Troon, Kasomouli, Ippokratous, Stoa Kalliga, Agias Eirinis and Praxitelous. You will find different experiences there, bars and restaurants, architecture and shops. I recommend that you visit Katerina Stamati a very dynamic artist at Psit, Katerina Koukou a great craftswoman working with silver and enamel. Not to forget Marilena Kontou of Casa L’On and Zoe Xemantilotou of Neso. A store owner and a jeweler again, respectively. Then there is also this little art shop by Agias Eirini near Plaka. [find out the name]. They are all very skilled and delightful people, all of them represent to me some good points of Athens. There is always a deference to tourism but to the extent that it is impossible to fully avoid it. None of them are secrets of course, but they represent my time in Athens and probably who an Athenian might visit on a special Sunday, much like they bourgeoisie of old would take their Sunday-walks in the National Garden. If you do see them, give them my greetings, though they might not remember. There are infinite such opportunities in any city, to write all of them down would result in a book.
Finally, what is the essence of Athens? Summer is characterized by Athenians fleeing the city, so if you ask many of them, the essence might be away at Aggistri, Egina, Mykonos. To me, essence is simple. Simple nights at bars or for food, summer cinema, theatre at the Herodeon and rooftops as even our great painter Rizos painted. Go to any place with people, even if the food is not good, if you find some people you will have a good time. See a movie at Thiseon or Cine Paris. It is about a measured time. I believe you will not find the fun getting drunk in Athens that you will in Europe. Though with the right company I don’t discourage it. Be careful a little bit about the sea, best to go far outside the city for swimming, Limanakia or a nearby island.
I believe anyone with some time, even better with time and money, can enjoy this city to the fullest.
Andrej Markov 