Syntagma Metro Station

What I can see

This is the city’s central metro station. It consists of 4 underground floors and two metro lines meet here. It is also a free museum which combines the ancient with the modern era. The first underground level has a multipurpose hall and exhibits findings (originals and copies) from the excavation that took place during the construction of the station in an area of about 500 sq.m. The attention is drawn to the stratigraphic representation from classical antiquity to the Ottoman Athens. One can distinguish the embanked bed of Heridanus stream, a road from the 3rd century AD, tombs, a sarcophagus (4th cent. BC), baths and the Peisistratid Aqueduct. Besides antiquities, worth mentioning are the modern works such as Psychopedis’ paintings, “The Metro Clock” (Thodoros, 2000-2001) at the centre of the station and the “Patio” of Zoggolopoulos before the platform of line 3.

What I can't see

The construction of the metro in downtown Athens was one of the most significant challenges of the city. The placement of all central stations, in an area full of antiquities, gave a rare opportunity to have an excavation of an extensive size that would cover a total area of 79,000 sq.m. and has brought over 50,000 findings to light. The difficulty of the project involved static issues as well. For this reason, the Syntagma- Monastiraki- Kerameikos part has a double tunnel, and the depth of the stations gradually becomes more pronounced.

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