Did you know that the European Union has named Athens the first cultural capital of modern Europe? There are as many as 44 ancient museums, 128 cinemas and 148 theater stages – much more than on Broadway, which means that Athens has the largest number of theater stages in the world! In the capital of Greece, there are as many as 18 UNESCO sites and 11 universities. Half of all Greeks live in this city and its port, Piraeus. In 2019, preceding the outbreak of the pandemic, approx. 6.5 million tourists visited Athens – this number exceeds the number of inhabitants of the Greek capital! What to visit in Athens? Discover the TOP 10 attractions that you can’t miss!
Historic Acropolis in Athens
In the case of Athens, there is no shortage of tourist attractions. However, it is worth starting your visit from the Acropolis. Literally translated as „the edge of the city”, it is one of the most visited places in the world. It owes its popularity to the presence of magnificent ancient temples – the most famous monuments in Athens – around which the whole life of ancient Greece revolved.
What is the history of the creation of the Acropolis?
When in the 5th century B.C.E. Pericles ordered the construction of the Parthenon dedicated to the city’s patron saint, the Athenians worked hard, but willingly, on this project for one drachma a day under the supervision of the best artists, architects and sculptors of that period. In this way, the most important building on the Acropolis was created, reflecting the nostalgic times of splendor and development of ancient Athens.
Did you know that the temple of the goddess Athena had already stood on the site of today’s Parthenon? However, it was destroyed twice by the Persians. It is interesting that a thousand years later it was transformed into a Christian temple, first St. Sophia, and then the Mother of God. However, during the Turkish occupation, it turned into … a mosque! Today, every year, 3 million tourists of different religions visit this building.
The Acropolis in Athens survived 2.5 thousand years of invasions and all possible cataclysms. During the Venetian-Turkish war, part of the Parthenon was blown up because the Venetian general Morosini gave the order to shell the temple while the Turks with explosives were hiding inside. Originally, inside there was a majestic, 13-meter-high statue of the goddess Athena, carved by the great artist Phidias. Phidias made his work of ivory, wood and gold. Unfortunately, the wood did not survive the fire and already in the 3rd century CE. the statue crashed. If the Acropolis hadn’t caught fire several times in history, the temples on the hill would be as colorful today as the main building of the University of Athens. Research conducted using modern technologies of the 21st century has proven that every temple on the Acropolis was once colorful!
What else is hidden in the Acropolis?
In the ancient Odeon theater on the Acropolis, today you can listen to concerts of the best Greek and foreign artists. In 1957, Maria Callas performed here. In 1962, a Frank Sinatra concert was held here. In 1991 and 2004 he performed at Odeon Luciano Pavarotti. In 2000 Elton John visited this theater. In 2010, Andrea Bocelli performed a concert at the Odeon to raise funds for people suffering from cancer.
The Greek Agora – history, meaning and application
At the foot of the Acropolis lies the Greek Agora, built before the temples erected on the hill. It was a place of social gatherings and trade, and the administrative center of ancient Greece. The temple of the blacksmith god, Hephaestus, located in the Agora, is today the best-preserved temple from the classical Greek era. This is due to the fact that it had sacred functions until the 19th century. In addition, it was the first temple in Athens to be built entirely of marble. Based on magnificent Doric columns, since 2004 it has played a key role during the Olympic Games for the disabled – it is here that the fire is ceremonially lit on the occasion of the Paralympics. This is a reminder that Hephaestus limped on one leg.
In the 7th century AD, the temple was turned into the Byzantine church of St. George. The last mass was held here in 1833, during the reign of the first king of modern Greece, Otto I. Did you know that it was in the Greek agora that Socrates was sentenced to exile, but at the age of over 70, he chose death rather than leaving his hometown? While giving his last lesson here, he drank poison. To this day, in the Agora Museum, you can see ostracas – ceramic shells on which the names of people sentenced to exile by voting were inscribed.
Athens Sandals – it’s time to shop in style!
Walking through the streets of Athens, it is impossible to miss stalls with leather products. They have been the attractions of Athens for centuries. Handbags, wallets, shoes… these are goods displayed in the very center of the capital. Athenian sandals have made a career in antiquity! In paintings depicting mythological scenes, the gods wear sandals. The marble figures of the twelve gods of Olympus also wear sandals. Hermes, the messenger god, was in a hurry to carry out Zeus’s orders, running on the ground in reliable leather sandals. In modern times, Greek leather sandals were purchased by Jackie Kennedy, Sophia Loren, Anthony Queen, Gary Cooper and The Beatles, among others. The largest selection of these shoes can be found in the historic shopping district of Monastiraki. In the 1920s, Monastiraki was a shoemaker’s district – shoes were made and repaired here. Today you will see here the best quality leather sandals in Greek style, dyed in many colors. Some stores will produce them to your order, just for you and to your taste.
Rembetika – listen to live music inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List
Plaka, the oldest district, is a must-have when visiting Athens. It is filled not only with 18th-century houses, but also with taverns and ouzeries where you can listen to live rembetika music and see how the townspeople have fun. Rembetika music is to the Greeks what blues is to the Americans or fado to the Portuguese. Associated with a very important historical event, which was the Great Migration, since 2017 it has been on the UNESCO list. Its beginnings were very turbulent. In 1922, after the end of the Greco-Turkish war, all Christians had to move to Greece, and Muslims to Asia Minor. The only criterion for the exchange of population between Greece and Turkey was religion, so people who spoke only Turkish most often found themselves in Greek cities. Many of these newcomers were artists performing in Turkish cafe-amanes until then. Because they did not know the local language, they felt alienated and, as a result, began to mix with the social margins. In the cities, the criminal underworld played in tekedes, or hash rooms, where a water pipe filled with hashish was placed in the center of the premises and customers sat around it. Artists from Turkey who joined them began to create songs about migration, death, disease and drugs. Due to controversial words, their songs were banned very quickly. When the Communist Party ruled Greece in the 1930s, you could even go to prison for owning a bouzouki instrument, on which these pieces are played to this day. Artists created rembetika music secretly until the 1950s. Officially, it was only heard when films known to us, such as Zorba the Greek or Never on Sunday, were released. In Zorba the Greek, Anthony Queen danced the sirtaki dance combined with the hasapiko dance on a Cretan beach – both belonging to rembetika music. This famous performance is now popularly known as the zorba. In the film Never on Sunday, the main actress and also a well-known singer, Melina Mercouri, sang the song Children of Piraeus in the rhythm of rembetik, which we hear today at all Greek evenings. Thanks to such films, once forbidden music has been revived and has become an integral part of Greek culture and one of the most intriguing attractions of Athens. Join the fun in Plaka!
Panathenaic Stadium – the only such attraction in the world in Athens!
Did you know that the Panathenaic Stadium is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble? For this reason, the stadium definitely stands out among the monuments of Athens, and its second name is kalimarmaro, which literally means „good marble” in Greek. The ancient Greeks built it to host competitions on the occasion of the most solemn festival for them, which was the Great Panathenaia, organized in honor of the birth of the goddess Athena. The stadium could accommodate up to 60,000 people. spectators! It was found in 1870 and reconstructed for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. It is interesting that the stadium was not completed at the time of the Games. Work on the reconstruction continued for several years. After the discovery of the Panathenaic Stadium, several other stadiums were built based on its design, including Harvard Stadium in the USA. Today, the Panathenaic Stadium hosts important cultural events, concerts and even dance shows. Scorpions, Depeche Mode and Bonnie Tyler performed here. The first sports disciplines in modern times were short and long-distance running, although the stadium is also designed for horse competitions. Today, you can walk from the stadium to the Olympic museum through a tunnel carved into the rock where the athletes used to enter.
