Having walked the absorbing pedestrian street of Dionysius Areopagitos Street around the Acropolis down to Thiseio, the hectic Hermou high street lined with boutiques and shops from Syntagma down to Monastiraki Square. Around the old city streets of Plaka and the buzzy bar-filled psiri, another must-do Athenian trek is from the central Syntagma Square down to the hip neighbourhood of Pangrati. This jaunt passes through some iconic locations of Athens – National Garden, Irodou Attikou Street, the Zappeion Megaron (mansion), the Kallimarmaro stadium.
National Garden of Athens
Just behind the Greek parliament (the old palace) you’ll find the extensive National Garden. Open from sunrise to sunset, the 15-hectare oasis of copses dotted with lawns, strewn with faux marble ruins and numerous water features even boasts a mini zoo. It was originally commissioned by Queen Amalia in 1838 as her personal botanical garden next to the palace. Completed by 1840 and eventually renamed in the 1920’s and made into public park open to all and sundry.
“It remains in my memory like no other park I have known. It is the quintessence of a park, the thing one feels sometimes in looking at a canvas or dreaming of a place one would like to be in and never finds.” Henry Miller 1939
It’s a central attraction in the largely concreted Greek capital, drawing locals and visitors to it’s tranquil environs, to wander the paths surrounded by around the 7,000 trees; Australian pines, Chinese trees-of-heaven, Judas trees, Centenarian Holm oaks and Canary Island date palms, a meditative experience.
Irodou Attikou Street
The eastern entrance of the garden leads to Irodou Attikou St, one of the Greek capital’s most iconic streets. It was named after Herodes Atticus, a Marathon-born Athenian, Roman senator, rhetorician, sophist and philhellene. Herodes Atticus commissioned many Athenian public works, several of which stand to the present day. Athenians honoured Herodes Atticus by naming Irodou Attikou St, one of the city’s most important streets, after him. This street runs between the National Gardens on one side and Megaro Maximou, the official seat and residence of the Prime Minister and the Presidential Palace, the official residence of the President of Greece and once the ‘new’ Palace of the Greek king.
Zappeion Mansion
At the bottom end of the National Gardens on the right of Irodou Attikou St is the neoclassical Zappeion Mansion. It was specifically built for the reintroduction of the Olympic Games in 1896 (the final ancient Olympics was in 394 AD after a hiatus of 1,503 years). Zappeion is one of the city’s most renowned modern landmarks. Its design was based on the vision of benefactor Evangelos Zappas and the architect T. Hansen. Zappas, unfortunately, did not live long enough to see the project completed and on his deathbed he appointed his cousin Konstantinos Zappas to oversee the completion of the project. In front of the Mansion there is a colourfully lit marble fountain facing out towards the monumental Temple of Zeus.
Kallimarmaro stadium
Irodou Attikou Street concludes opposite the lustrous white marble Kallimarmaro stadium, also known as the Panathenaic Stadium, still one of the world’s most impressive arenas. It is made entirely of Pentelic marble, hence its Kallimarmaro name, meaning beautiful marble. The amphitheatrical stadium hosted the first modern Olympics, in 1896, and was on top on top of 50,000 seats commissioned by Herodes Atticus (144 AD), which itself was constructed over a racecourse built by the Athenian statesman Lykourgos (4th century BC), for the Panathenaic Games.
Pagrati
The urban Pagrati district close to the Athens Hilton and is just a short hop from the Presidential Palace and National Garden. It is begins behind the Kallimarmaro stadium and Ardittos hill. Pagrati is currently on a high, developing into a lively, stylish and cosmopolitan neighborhood.
Here you can still find old confectionary stores and classic tavernas from old Athens (early 20th-century). But now Pagrati also offers Michelin-starred gastronomy (Spondi and Soil restaurants), trendy bistros , some serving up new and old Greek fare (Vassilenas) others dishing out vegan and vegetarian options (Baba Ghanoush and Vegan Vandal). Buzzy cafes, bars (Chelsea and Superfly) and pubs entice young Athenians to wile away the hours. You’ll come across lofty architecture along Vasileos Georgiou Street; the house of Nobel Prize-winning poet Giorgos Seferis (1900 – 1971), on Agras Street.
And why not take in some culture while you’re at it, at the Basil and Elise Foundation Museum where your eyes will feast on works by Picasso, Matisse and Degas.
Reas also:
Ode to Hot Chocolate: Athens’ Best Cafes for Ultimate Indulgence
Venerable Byzantine Churches and Chapels in Central Athens
