What I can see

This 8 km long road connects Piraeus with the centre of Athens. It was necessary for the road to be constructed in order for Athens to be directly connected to the port. A satellite view or full length view of the road reveals it is “broken in two”. From Piraeus to Tavros, it is oriented towards the Acropolis, while from Tavros northwards, it is oriented towards Omonia Square. This is because of a disagreement over the alignment of the road when it was built in the 19^th century. Apart from the abundant and fascinating graffiti near Omonia Square, at Gazi and ELAIS, there are also historical buildings on this street like the former municipal nursery, the church of Agios Georgios, Technopolis, the Pavlidis and Ion chocolate factories, the Cacoyannis and Hellenic World Foundations, the School of Fine Arts, the Benakis Museum and the ELAIS olive oil production plant.

What I can't see

The road’s alignment traces the Long Walls, which united ancient Athens with Piraeus. In the first city plans (by Kleanthes and Schaubert), this road was intended to unite the palace that was going to be built on Omonia Square with the summer one on the coast of Piraeus. The street would then be lined with important buildings. The palaces eventually were not constructed there and Pireos Street became an industrial zone with brick works, lime kilns, tanneries and other highly polluting plants and factories. The street did have a number of neoclassical buildings near Omonia Square however, because of the original idea to build the palace on the square or in nearby Keramikos. Connecting Athens with Piraeus was crucial for commercial reasons and in spite of the fact that the street was flooded regularly during the winter months and was inundated with dust clouds in the summer, it was a busy central artery. Pireos Street never managed to end straight at the port. Along the entire length of the road, the only residential areas are Kaminia and Tavros, which were built as emergency housing for refugees. They are the only districts that “break” the continuity of the industrial physiognomy of Pireos Street.

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