The New Histories Guide to... Athens

Article by Stephen Woodward. Edited by Liz Goodwin.

I’d like to welcome you to what we hope will be a regular feature in future issues of New Histories. We’re hoping to provide travel advice from personal experience, hidden gems of European cities, to benefit anyone with a passing interest in history looking for some hints on what to see when abroad.

Anyone familiar with my articles may have spotted my affinity with Greece, so naturally studious philhellene that I am I bring you:

THE NEW HISTORIES GUIDE TO... ATHENS

Athens is a city naturally rich in history, as one would rightly expect for a city that has been in existence for some 7,000 years. It therefore presents many attractions to the would-be history tourist. However the key with Athens is not to linger. Whilst it undoubtedly has some of Europe’s most interesting heritage sites, it is not a place one would wish to stay in for longer than a couple of days. One might expect to find a city composed entirely of antiquated buildings, however the reality is quite different. The city itself experienced a phenomenal growth spurt in the latter half of the twentieth century, so suffers from fairly bland uninspired apartment block architecture. It is only from a high vantage point that the vast city scope can be admired, with the apartment blocks in their thousands making the Attic plain look as if it is covered in snow, even at the height of summer!

Syntagma Square is the place where any tour of Athens should begin. Today famed as the epicentre of the riots which shook the international stage, Syntagma Square is the heart of Athens. Its name means Constitution Square and commemorates the granting of one by King Otto (the first King of Greece) in 1834. The best entry to it is from the metro station beneath, which incorporates exhibits of the artefacts found when the metro system was dug in 2000. Syntagma Square is therefore the best place to appreciate the juxtaposition of Greece’s ancient and modern heritage. The juxtaposition continues to the small plaza in front of the Greek Parliament that overlooks the square. Here a sculpture of a dying Hoplite commemorates the unknown Greek soldiers of modern war, under constant ceremonial guard by the elite Evzone soldiers, their kilts comprised of 400 pleats, commemorating the 400 years of Ottoman occupation.

Now of course the site everyone comes to see in Athens is the Acropolis and Parthenon. Indeed, no trip to Athens, even if you’ve been two hundred times before, would be complete without a visit. The good news is, if you’re an EU student in possession of student ID, you can visit as many times as you like as it is FREE! In fact all archaeological sites and most museums in Greece are free to EU students, so do not get caught out buying entrance fee packages. The best time of day to visit the Acropolis is around one in the afternoon, when all but the diehard traveller are either enjoying lunch or defeated by the combination of the intense summer sun and plenitude of steps.

Although many may be disappointed by the Parthenon’s scaffolding, it is important to remember that this building is 2,500 years old and has suffered a lot in its time! Having been a treasury, temple, church and mosque (the Ottomans added a minaret to the Parthenon in the fifteenth century!) it suffered the fate of being destroyed by a Venetian mortar attack in 1687 which struck a powder magazine inside. Afterward the site fell prey to looting by tourists and enterprising foreigners from all over Europe. No doubt in reference to Lord Elgin (famous for liberating the intricate friezes from the Parthenon and gifting them to the British Museum where they remain) one witty piece of 19th century carved in Latin onto the Erechteion reads ‘What the Barbarians began the Scots finished’.

Athens’ current pride and joy is the new Acropolis museum. Opening its doors in 2009, it overlooks the complex from below. Personally I think this new museum, with its stark modernist concrete based architecture, is a blot on the surrounding area, one of the few areas of Athens with any architectural integrity. It contains galleries of artefacts discovered at the Acropolis, but with its plaster replicas of the Elgin marbles occupying the centre of the museum, mimicking the ancient monument itself, the intention is clear: this whole museum has been built to add further credence to Greece’s argument that Britain should return the treasures. There are however finer museums in Athens, the National Archaeological Museum for one contains some of the finest ancient artefacts from all over Greece. In particular the gold death mask of the legendary Mycenaen King Agamemnon being amongst some of its finer exhibits.

If by now you’re tired of pottery, spears and marble columns it is probably a good time to explore some of Greece’s modern heritage. I would strongly recommend you look into the National Historical Museum. This wonderful museum set inside the first ever parliament house (and preserving its main chamber) of the modern Greek state primarily focuses on the Greek Revolution of the 1820’s but has an impressive array of armoury, paintings and even ships figureheads dating from the fall of Byzantium to the Second World war.

The entrance to the museum is guarded by the equally impressive bronze statue of Theodoris Kolokotronis, a heroic general of the revolution and previous face of the 5000 drachma banknote, renowned for his anachronistic armour (an exhibit of the museum) when entering battle against the Ottomans in the 19th century. If you wish to pursue an interest in Greece’s modern warriors the Athens War Museum next to the Evangellismos metro is a good option. Even when closed you are still free to wonder around its open air exhibits of fighter jets, submarine torpedoes and armoured cars. The other advantage to this museum is that it is only a short walk from the famous Benaki museum, a world class collection of artwork that spans all ages of Greek history from classical to modern.

The best tip that one can impart about Athens is that it is best to spend two days hectically doing all of the above and then get away! You’ll soon tire of the traffic, litter and unflattering 1970s flatblocks, so you’ll definitely be in want of tranquillity. This is surprisingly easy is to find. My recommendation is to head to Piraeus, the main port of Greece and readily accessible on the metro network and to book onto a car ferry to one of the nearby Aegean islands. Aegina for example is only an hour ferry ride away and a return ticket should not cost more than 20 euros and is well worth the expenditure. The ferry ride alone is worth it for as the Greek literary genius Nikos Kazantzakis (most famous for Zorba the Greek, the book, not the tune) said ‘Happy is the man, who before dying, has the fortune to sail the Aegean sea!’ Aegina itself has a pleasant 19th century main town, but its real delight is the Temple of Aphaea a short bus ride away from the main port. This temple built in 500 BC sits atop a pine clad hill looking out over the bay of Agia Marina (which has a fine beach for when you’re finished sight seeing). It is said that on a clear day one can see both the Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus at Cape Sounion, with which it forms a perfect equilateral triangle, a terrific feat of maths by the ancient builders which still confounds academics. The Temple of Aphaea is the only one from which all three are visible. The temple itself is in arguably as good if not better condition than its counterparts and has the distinct advantage of being completely unmolested by the coach hordes which plague the other two sites, meaning that in the height of summer you could be the only visitors at the time.

What other advice would I offer a traveller to Athens? Well, I’ve only touched on the basics of its most famous ancient sites, deliberately omitting detail to be discovered elsewhere. The backstreets of the less central districts might feel uncomfortably unsafe at night, with the best areas to stay in being the restaurant and market orientated Monistiraki (you might even get a view of the Acropolis!). Athens is not without its problems, plagued with the twin nuisances of city planning and traffic. Yet for anyone with a passing or greater interest in history, it is a city rich in attractions to hold the attention for at least a few days. It is important to remember this is a continuous city, constantly evolving around its heritage which makes it so fascinating.

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