What I can see

The French School at Athens or French Archaeological School at Athens is housed in a neoclassical building designed by Eugene Trumbe, in collaboration with Greek and French architects, and has a garden. New buildings were added later. The original building consists of a central part and two wings on either side. The central part and the arcades have arched openings and passages.

What I can't see

The French School of Archeology was the first foreign school in Greece. At first, it was housed in the Gennadios Mansion and then in the Dimitriou Mansion. This plot of land was donated to France by the Greek government, in exchange for the concession of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. The school’s work is very rich, but during the first years of its operation, it encountered many obstacles, as a result of which no independent scientific work had been completed. The only member with practical experience in archeology was Lenormant, while the other members were painters and philologists, whose knowledge derived only from books and were clearly influenced by romanticism, a trend of the time. Lenormant decided to continue on his own and gradually the members split up. Over the years, the school regrouped and participated in important excavations, such as the Temple of Zeus in ancient Olympia. Today, the metopes of the temple are in the Louvre, as a result of negotiations between the French government and Kapodistrias (1776-1831) for the issuance of a loan to Greece. However, the activity of the school today extends throughout the country (Philippi, Delphi, Thassos, Argos, Delos, Crete), Cyprus and Albania. It is under the scientific auspices of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and is a member of the network of French schools (Athens, Rome, Madrid, Cairo and the Far East). It aims at the study of Hellenism, has a research laboratory, a library with over 92,000 titles and hundreds of thousands of archives, collaborates with over 300 university researchers, museums and research centres and publishes its own scientific journal.

Info

• Address: 6 Didotou St.
• Postal Code : 10680
• Phone: +30 210 3679900
• Website: http://www.efa.gr

Bibliography