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Panepistimiou Street

Throughout its length, Panepistimiou Street has buildings of rare architectural value.

  1. Modern and Contemporary era (1821 - )


    1859 Completed.

  2. Ottoman era (1453- 1821)


  3. Byzantine era (331 AC- 1453)


  4. Roman era (30 BC- 330 AC)


  5. Hellenistic era (322- 31 BC)


  6. Classical era (478-323 BC)


  7. Archaic era (800-479 BC)


  8. Geometric era (-1100- 800 BC)


  9. Prehistory (-1100 BC)


What I can see

This street has been officially called “Eleftheriou Venizelou” since 1945, but no one ever refers to it by that name. It has a length of about 1.2 km and connects the two most central squares of the city, Syntagma Square and Omonia Square. It connects also two smaller squares, the Korai and Eleftherias (Santaroza) Squares. Throughout its length, there are buildings of rare architectural value, with the Athenian Trilogy, part of which is the building of the University of Athens from which the street took its name, being the most important. Along the southern part, towards Syntagma, public buildings, big stores, and banks dominate. In contrast, along the northern part, towards Omonia, stoas and smaller sized establishments are more common. The wide sidewalks favour walking on this street, the most central of the city.

What I can't see

This is one of the few projects that materialized in accordance with the first urban plan of Athens (Kleanthis- Schaubert). It was built as a boulevard and was called as such by the old Athenians. From the 19th century to the present day, all city guides suggest a walk on Panepistimiou Street. There was not a single bench along its entire length, although recently there were grandiose pedestrianization projects which never materialized. Studies examining the projects had found serious deficiencies, according to scientific specialists’ opinions (urban planners, traffic planners, architects, sociologists, historians, archaeologists, economists), such projects would cause major traffic problems, would be uneconomical, would not serve the purpose of attracting residents, and would possibly cause aesthetic and noise pollution due to food and bar businesses. For these reasons, the EU determined that the project would not attract growth and rejected the application for funding. Finally, the municipality decided to widen the sidewalks and reinforce the existing green areas with plane trees, which have difficulty surviving in Greece.

Bibliography

Yohalas T., Kafetzaki Τ., (2013), Αθήνα, Ιχνηλατώντας την πόλη με οδηγό την ιστορία και τη λογοτεχνία [Athens, Tracing the city guided by history and literature], ESTIA Bookstore

 

Konstantiou F., Tsirgialou A., Depolla H., (2009), Αθήνα, μεταμορφώσεις του αστικού τοπίου,[Athens, transformations of the urban landscape] Athens: Benaki Museum

 

Biris K. H. (1966), Αι Αθήναι από του 19ου εις τον 20ον αιώνα, [Athens from the 19th up to the 20th century], 5th edition 2005, Athens, Melissa

 

Filippidis D., (1984), Modern Greek Architecture, Athens: Melissa