Athens, the most important metropolis of Southeast Europe

Saturday, 19 February 2011 - 03:59 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Architecture, European Union, European Capital of Culture, UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time:  5 minutes

Academy of Athens © Olavfin

Academy of Athens © Olavfin

Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica periphery and it is one of the world’s oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state. A centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum, it is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the rest of the then known European continent.

The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by a number of ancient monuments and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, widely considered a key landmark of early Western civilization. The city also retains a vast variety of Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a smaller number of remaining Ottoman monuments projecting the city’s long history across the centuries. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery. Landmarks of the modern era, dating back to the establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1833, include the Hellenic Parliament (19th century) and the Athens Trilogy consisting of the National Library of Greece, the Athens University and the Academy of Athens. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. Athens is home to the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world’s largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, as well as the new Acropolis Museum.

Hellenic Parliament © Orlovic Kifissias Avenue © Barcex Kolonaki © Giorgoos Mount Lycabettus © Barcex Museum of the City of Athens © Hoverfish National Archaeological Museum of Athens © Lucretius National Library of Greece © Dimboukas Old Greek Parliament - National Historical Museum © Badseed Panoramic view of Athens © Jay Galvin Theatre of Herodes © Юкатан Academy of Athens © Olavfin Acropolis from a top Philopappos Hill © ccarlstead Acropolis Panorama © Demos Athens Montage © Dimboukas
<
>
Old Greek Parliament - National Historical Museum © Badseed
Athens has been a popular destination for travelers since antiquity. Over the past decade, the city’s infrastructure and social amenities have improved, in part due to its successful bid to stage the 2004 Olympic Games. The Greek Government, aided by the EU, has funded major infrastructure projects such as the state-of-the-art Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, the expansion of the Athens Metro system, and the new Attiki Odos Motorway. Athens is home to 148 theatrical stages, more than any other city in the world, including the famous ancient Herodes Atticus Theatre, home to the Athens Festival, which runs from May to October each year. In addition to a large number of multiplexes, Athens plays host to a variety of romantic, open air garden cinemas. The city also supports a vast number of music venues, including the Athens Concert Hall, known as the “Mégaron Musikis”, which attracts world-famous artists all year round. The Athens Planetarium, located in Andrea Syngrou Avenue is one of the largest and best equipped digital planetaria in the world.

The city of Athens contains a variety of different architectural styles, ranging from Greco-Roman, Neo-Classical, to modern. They are often to be found in the same areas, as Athens is not marked by a uniformity of architectural style. Many of the most prominent buildings of the city are either Greco-Roman or neo-classical in styling. Some of the neo-classical structures to be found are public buildings erected during the mid-nineteenth century, under the guidance of Theophil Freiherr von Hansen and Ernst Ziller, and include the Athens Academy, Athens City Hall, Greek Parliament, Old Parliament (1875–1932) (Now the National Historical Museum), University of Athens, and Zappeion Hall.

To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facepage pages/Twitter accounts. Read more on City of Athens, Athens Guide, WikiTravel Athens und Wikipedia Athens. Learn more about the use of photos.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Oestrich-Winkel in the Rheingau

Oestrich-Winkel in the Rheingau

[caption id="attachment_161044" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Vinyards and Vollrads Castle © Brühl[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Oestrich-Winkel is a town in the Rheingau-Taunus district in the Darmstadt region in Hesse and is characterized by winegrowing. The Rheingau Music Festival has its office in Oestrich in a former winery, the presshouse (Kelterhalle) converted to a hall for intimitate concerts and events. The Oestricher Kran, Oestrich’s main landmark, is a former wine-loading crane from the 18th century for lo...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Istanbul - Hagia Sophia

Theme Week Istanbul - Hagia Sophia

[caption id="attachment_27005" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Dennis Jarvis/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum (Ayasofya Müzesi) in Istanbul. From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. Th...

[ read more ]

Upper New York Bay

Upper New York Bay

[caption id="attachment_206277" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Governors Island © Antony-22/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Upper New York Bay, or Upper Bay, is the traditional heart of the Port of New York and New Jersey, and often called New York Harbor. It is enclosed by the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island and the Hudson County, New Jersey, municipalities of Jersey City and Bayonne. The Upper Bay is fed by the waters of the Hudson River (historically called the North River as...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Sylt - Kampen

Theme Week Sylt - Kampen

[caption id="attachment_154318" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Rotes Kliff Beach © Bin im Garten/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Kampen is located north of the island's main town, Westerland. The municipality is part of the Amt Landschaft Sylt. The local economy is dominated by tourism. The name Kaamp means "a marked out field". The first mention of Kampen occurs in a tax registry from 1543. The village is considered to have been founded quite late, possibly as a result of people moving there from an earlier se...

[ read more ]

Grand Bazaar in Tehran

Grand Bazaar in Tehran

[caption id="attachment_163291" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Antoine Taveneaux/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Grand Bazaar (Persian: Bāzār e Bozorg) is an old historical market in Tehran, the capital of Iran. Located at the Arg Square in Southern Tehran, it is split into several corridors over 10 km in length, each specializing in different types of goods, and has several entrances, with the main being the entrance of Sabze Meydan. In addition to shops, the Grand Bazaar of Tehran has contained banks, mosques...

[ read more ]

Memphis in Tennessee

Memphis in Tennessee

[caption id="attachment_171632" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Christopher Boyd Jr/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of Tennessee and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers. Memphis had a population of 653,000, making it the second largest city in the state of Tennessee. The greater Memphis metropolitan area, including adjacent counties in Mississippi and Arkansas, has a ...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Ukraine - Dnipropetrovsk on the Dnieper River

Theme Week Ukraine - Dnipropetrovsk on the Dnieper River

[caption id="attachment_160871" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Hoodrat/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Dnipropetrovsk is Ukraine's fourth largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central part of the country. Dnipropetrovsk is the administrative centre of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Within the Dnipropetrovsk Metropolitan area the population is about 1,360,000 people. A vital industrial centre of Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk was one...

[ read more ]

Fondaco dei Turchi in Venice

Fondaco dei Turchi in Venice

[caption id="attachment_231287" align="alignnone" width="590"] Fondaco dei Turchi © Didier Descouens/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Fondaco dei Turchi is a Veneto-Gothic style palazzo, later on named as the Turks' Inn, on the Grand Canal of Venice, northeast Italy. It was described by Augustus Hare in the 19th century as "a Byzantine palace of the 9th century, and one of the earliest buildings, not ecclesiastical, in Venice. .... A few years ago it was one of the most unique and curious buildings in Europe, and the ...

[ read more ]

Market Hall Stuttgart

Market Hall Stuttgart

[caption id="attachment_237441" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © MSeses/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Stuttgart market hall was opened in 1914 in Stuttgart city center (Dorotheenstrasse 4). Today the market hall is a food market in the upper price segment. It offers a total of 6,800 square meters of usable space for service providers and retailers, including 3,500 square meters on the ground floor for sales stalls. In 2010 there were 37 different stalls. The column-free space in the hall is 60 meters long and 25 ...

[ read more ]

Rovaniemi, second home of Santa Claus at the Arctic Circle

Rovaniemi, second home of Santa Claus at the Arctic Circle

[caption id="attachment_151848" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Santa's Post Office © Cédric Puisney/cc-by-2.5[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Rovaniemi is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland. It is situated about 5 kilometres (3 miles) south of the Arctic Circle and is between the hills of Ounasvaara and Korkalovaara, at the confluence of the river Kemijoki and its tributary, the Ounasjoki. The city and the surrounding Rovaniemen maa...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
Energie-Plus-Haus in Berlin © Werner Sobek
My home, my station!

The Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development will continue the building and electrical mobility research from October 2011...

Fortress Wawel © Hstoffels
Krakow is home to the second oldest university in Central Europe

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow, is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the...

Overview of Trondheim © Åge Hojem/Trondheim Havn
Trondheim in Norway

Trondheim, historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag, Norway. With a population of 171,000, it is...

Schließen