Athens architecture

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
View from the Acropolis to the northeast
Ancient finds on construction sites are not uncommon

If you look at Athens from a plane or one of the hills in the city area, the city presents itself as a white sea of ​​apartment buildings and offices. This unstructured carpet aesthetic is due on the one hand to the rapid growth (in the 1920 / 1930s and 1960 / 1970s) and on the other hand to the building regulations that prevent the erection of dominant buildings to protect the Acropolis as landmarks.

Three architectural focal points of Athens deserve attention:

  • the buildings of antiquity (and especially those less visited, such as the Agora and the Kerameikos),
  • the classicist buildings from the mid-19th century and
  • the Athenian interpretations of the modern apartment house, especially the buildings up to around 1935.

Buildings of antiquity

Acropolis in Athens
Temple of Zeus

Buildings of the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages Athens was off important trade routes; in the eastern Mediterranean, Constantinople, on the Silk Road, had taken on the role of an economic center. Other centers were Saloniki and Mystras . That is why there are only a few examples of the Frankish and Byzantine buildings, which are not uncommon in Greece, in Athens. However, this is more due to the destruction caused by the Greek War of Independence and the subsequent demolitions for the redesign of the city and archaeological excavations. In the Middle Byzantine era, Athens developed its own style of cross-domed church with small, slender buildings. The following examples are mainly included.

Due to its location on the popular Odos Ermou shopping street, the Kapnikarea Church is the most famous Byzantine church in Athens. The church is consecrated to Panagia Theotokos (Mother of God), the name comes either from Kamou Karea (virgin with robe), or perhaps from the founder of the church, if he was a collector of the hearth tax called Kapnikon or was called so. The church was built around 1050 as a three-axis cross-domed church of the four-pillar type, inside Roman capitals are used. In addition, an exonarthex was added in the 12th or early 13th century and a parekklesion of Hagia Barbara on the north transept. King Ludwig I of Bavaria campaigned against the demolition of the church, and the new Hermesstrasse was then laid out in the middle of the church so that it lies on a square. Today's wall paintings are by Fotis Kontoglou, one of the more important Greek artists of the 20th century and revitalizer of the Byzantine painting tradition.

The small Metropolis (next to the Metropolis or cathedral from the 19th century), built in the late 12th or 13th century after the demolition of a monastery church from the 7th century. More than 100 ancient spoils were used that are visible from the outside (probably from an Eilitheia temple), including a relief with an Attic calendar cycle as a door lintel. After Athens was captured by the Turks, it served as the episcopal church. After the cathedral was built, the church served as a library and collection of inscriptions until 1868. From the original painting from the 13th / 14th centuries. The Virgin Mary in the apse and a multiple painted pantocrator in the dome have been preserved. The church is dedicated to the Panagia Gorgoepikoos (the "faster hearing Mother of God") or St. Eleutherios. Since both are called by signers, there is a connection to the earlier Eilitheia temple, because this goddess was also responsible for obstetrics. The Small Metropolis is considered to be the most beautiful Byzantine church in Athens.

Other Byzantine churches

  • Hagioi Theodoroi (11th century)
  • Hagios Ioannes Theologos (11th / 12th centuries)
  • Hagia Aikaterini (13th century)
  • Hagioi Asomatoi at Thissio train station (11th century)
  • Metamorphosis at the foot of the Acropolis (11th or 12th century)
  • Hagioi Apostoloi on the ancient agora (ditto)
  • Hagios Ioannes "Kolonna", a chapel built around an ancient column not far from the central market (probably 11th century)

Byzantine monasteries

Ottoman architecture

Tzisdaraki Mosque at the Monastiraki metro station next to Plaka

The Ottoman Empire left only a few, mostly sacred buildings in Athens. Probably the oldest preserved Ottoman building is the Fethije Camii ( Conqueror Mosque ) in the Roman Market. Allegedly it was built in 1456 on the occasion of the visit of Mehmet II the Conqueror to the city, but it is probably more recent (while a church located there was rededicated at first). Today it is not open to the public and serves as an office and warehouse for excavation finds.

Another mosque that has survived is the Tzistarakis Mosque on Monastiraki Square, built in 1759 . The Ottoman city administrator Mustafa Aga Tzisdarakis had several ancient buildings demolished for their construction against the protests of the Athenians. Finally, the public demolition of a pillar of the Olympieion (from which lime was burned for the whitewashing of the interior) led to its removal. An old Turkish calligraphy above the entrance door flanked by mihrabs names the builder and the construction date. In 1821 the top of the minaret was demolished, in 1918 the building became a folklore museum, today it houses the ceramics department of this museum.

Other Ottoman remains in Athens include the portal of an earlier Koran school (madrasa) at the Tower of the Winds and an earlier Turkish bath nearby, both from the 18th century. Shortly before the 2004 Olympic Games, the foundations of the Kücük Camii (Little Mosque) were exposed above the Roman market.

The cleanup of non-classical buildings on the Acropolis in the 19th century (in addition to Franconian and Byzantine buildings) also fell victim to the mosque in the Parthenon. The stump of the old minaret in the southwest corner of the cella is present but not visible from the outside.

Urban planning under King Otto

The founding of the Greek state was followed by the relocation of the capital from the provisional in the small town of Nauplion to Athens under King Otto . The new capital was far from major trade routes and not very important either. However, before the Greek War of Independence, Athens was still the largest city in central Greece with 10,000–12,000 inhabitants. The fact that the city was once the cultural center of the country (and the later center of Byzantium was outside the borders of the small empire) led to the decision to develop the city into the capital. The architectural duo Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert , who had both studied with Karl Friedrich Schinkel , were commissioned to develop a master plan for the new capital. A triangle was created around the old town (mainly Plaka and neighboring districts such as Psyrri) (now called Emporiko Trigono = trading triangle), at the ends of which there are three squares and avenues leading out of town.

One of the first buildings was the house designed by G. Lüders and J. Hoffer by Stamatios Dekozis-Vouros. It served as Otto's provisional residence in Athens from 1836 to 1843 and today, together with an adjacent villa, houses the Museum of the City of Athens. The former throne room has been preserved and partially reconstructed.

Since this urban planning did not take into account roads that have existed since ancient times, today's excavations often lead to overlaps with roads and properties. For this, the largely ancient routing in the old town was left untouched (the streets were often reduced in size in the Middle Ages in favor of the plots). Here, the construction activity was limited to facade cosmetics - in any case, many buildings there have been changed again and again, and walls are often from antiquity.

In the course of the redesign, around 50 sacred buildings were torn down or converted for other purposes (e.g. the ruins of the Hagia Eleousa church in the Psyrri district by Hans Christian Hansen as a criminal court). The building material was stored (and later used as spolia in the construction of the eye clinic and the cathedral). Since Klenze or Gärtner probably recognized the historical importance of the Kapnikarea Church, it was not demolished when the Hermesstrasse (Odos Ermou) was built. Since then, the 11th century church has been in the middle of a square on this street. Ludwig I of Bavaria had also lobbied his son Otto to preserve it. There were protests from the population because of the boulevards, which were felt to be too wide and inhuman, and which were narrowed to their current width. Land interests also played a role here.

The Syntagma Square to the Parliament House of Gardener became the center of this new Athens (just the metro construction was more important for some decades Omonia). The funds came partly from the king's capital, but mainly from donations and investments by wealthy Greeks abroad . The Viennese Baron von Sina financed the Athens observatory and the construction of the Athens Academy as part of the Athens trilogy of the architects Hans Christian and Theophil von Hansen (completion: University in 1842, Academy and Library in 1891) or the Zappas brothers the Zappeion (also by Th . Hansen). The predominant architectural style of this time is a puristic classicism, which is closely based on the classical Periclean epoch of the city. The academy z. B. is based on the Erechtheion in individual forms. The colors of the ancient models were also taken into account for the first time. The reign of Otto, as much as fundamentals such as law or education were promoted and he was an ardent patriot, turned out to be an economic fiasco, not least because of the many construction works that significantly exceeded the financial resources of the state. In 1863 Otto finally abdicated. Today the Wittelsbacher and his wife Amalie von Oldenburg are the most popular monarch couple in Greek history.

The end of the 19th century in Athens

Watercolor design by Ziller for the Patsiadis house (right) and the neighboring house on the left
Construction of the national library

Otto's successor, George I from Denmark, benefited from the reforms of his predecessor. The Greek state is recovering and could also afford wars with territorial increases. Funds are available in the now larger city to complete important projects or start new ones.

The Saxon architect Ernst Ziller came to Athens as an employee of Hansen. He soon learned the Greek language and became a court architect as a Greek citizen. In his private life he received more than 600 construction contracts, ranging from train stations (the Peloponnesian train station is now in its restored original state) to private residences and tombs. This architecture is still wrongly attributed to Otto, often because of the German builders or architects, but it differed in design and style. The design language was now less puristic. In the construction of the National Theater , Ziller quoted Hadrian's library in Athens with the protruding columns and thus also Roman architecture. This theme was later adopted by other buildings abroad. Styles with no structural reference to the city, such as the Italian Renaissance or the German Gothic, are cited relatively rarely.

"Because many of these architectures directly and precisely cite ancient models from Athens, or even copy them as a whole, a very precise three-dimensional idea of ​​intact ancient architecture can be gained from them, which the ruin-like originals can often no longer convey."

19th century buildings:

Modern instead of Art Deco

One of the numerous apartment blocks from the 1920s

Art Nouveau could never gain a foothold in Greece, provided that Art Nouveau buildings were built, whether they were holiday villas or houses in the province. At best, Art Nouveau elements can be found on a few facades in Athens. The city cannot claim to have invented classical modernism, but it was there when it was born. This was pathetically received and adapted. There were several reasons for this. The client perceived the modern as a purist form of the ancient classic and thus as a traditional design. Added to this was Le Corbusier's demonstrable enthusiasm for the cubic houses of the Cyclades . This is also confirmed by the details, for example the building has a cubic shape, while the use of white and black marble and some subtle ironwork inside ensure impressive comfort. Architects distanced themselves from reciting old architectural styles, which they defamed as school-based or academic (in the sense of art academy).

After the Greeks were expelled from Turkey in 1921, the population of Athens almost doubled, and most of them settled there, so that barrack settlements now lined the whole of Attica, and the castle on Syntagma Square became a transit dormitory. The once prosperous Greeks in Asia Minor had indeed lost all their wealth, but their knowledge allowed them to quickly rise in society. The shape of the Athens apartment house emerged. At that time, this was not yet cheap mass accommodation. Rather, it offered comfort for the new and old upper middle class with a concierge, elevator and a large shaded terrace, often based on the Parisian model.

One of them is the blue apartment block in Exarchia. The old villas and two-story houses from the time the state was founded were increasingly torn down or degenerated into cheap living or even storage space.

Modern and state buildings

As the Greek state recovers from the excessive number of refugees, major construction programs are being launched to adapt the infrastructure to the new population. Mainly hospitals are being built in Athens, such as the Sotiria Sanatorium of the Bauhausler Ioannis Despotopoulos . Over 3000 schools are being built across the country, designed in the office of the school building program under Patroklos Karantinos , a student of Auguste Perret and a friend of Le Corbusier. In 1933 Karantinos organized the CIAM congress and the Athens Charter was signed, which was henceforth the worldwide manifesto of modernity. The political situation in Greece is also clouding over, the new ruler Ioannis Metaxas , a dictator, never takes a position on modern architecture. However, the modern architects no longer received construction contracts, and the few new buildings, such as the building for the army's participation fund (later the German command, now the Attica department store), are being erected in a monumental, cubic Art Deco streamline shape.

Post-war modernity

After 1945, building activity began again, which was supported on the one hand by the Marshall Plan and on the other hand there was a rural exodus. With the exception of the workers' estate in Nea Philadelphia designed by Aris Konstantinidis , only a few state social housing are being built in Athens. The time of the military dictatorship had a fatal effect. In the period 1967–1974, clients were able to replace historic buildings with second-rate, often too high, new buildings without major hurdles. There were also no lawsuits or complaints from citizens to fear, since the junta considered any initiative of this kind (as apolitical as it was) to be subversive. The system of the Antiparochi (the property owner leaves the house in exchange for a certain number of apartments in the new building) led to entire streets that were built cheaply (in contrast to the apartment houses of the 1920s to 1930s, which appear formally similar). The rooms in the apartments are mostly small. Today, migrants are increasingly settling in the poorer residential areas of this time.

Since the 1960s, some outstanding buildings have also been built, such as the Terminal East at the former Athens Airport Hellenikon by the Finnish star architect Eero Saarinen (1960-63) or the Embassy of the USA on Vassilis Sophias Avenue by Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius ( 1961). The construction of the Hilton Hotel (1963) caused outrage; Although it is considered to be architecturally valuable (and received an inconspicuous new wing at the rear in 2003), it already contradicted the Athens building regulations of the time, on the one hand due to the number of storeys, on the other hand due to the non-compliance with the requirement not to build any landmark buildings in the cityscape because this would then disrupt the outstanding importance of the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens . Experimental building was mainly realized by Takis Zenetos , who saw the formal overcoming of the cube as an important challenge for architecture. He became known with his early work, the Fix brewery, but his later work is classified as more important.

Dimitris Pikionis , who redesigned the pedestrian paths around the Acropolis and the Philopappos Hill from 1951 to 1958 , achieved attention with an unspectacular building project .

Athens Tower 1 on Kifissias Avenue

The Greek military junta (1967–1974) not only restricted the prohibition of erecting tall buildings to a certain radius around the Acropolis, but also encouraged their construction, for example through shortened approval procedures. During this time, numerous skyscrapers such as the 103 m high Pyrgos Athinon (1968–1971), which was the tallest building in Southeast Europe at the time, the Piraeus Trade Center in Piraeus with 85 m (completed in 1976) and the 68 m high Hotel President (completed in 1977 ). In 1973, the 80 m high residential tower Pyrgos Apollon (Apollon Tower) was built with government funding . After the end of the junta, the building regulations were changed again so that no permits for tall buildings were issued.

Quality of life and infrastructure projects

The period of the late 1970s and 1980s can be considered the lowest point in Athens in terms of urban planning. Prosperity had led to an increase in individual traffic, the gitonies (districts) were abandoned in favor of the suburbs, where apartment blocks with garden were built. Against this trend, the architect couple Dimitris and Susana Antonakakis began to realize buildings with their studio Atelier 66 , which were formally modern, but took up the fragmented nature of traditional architecture: for example, the stairwell of the apartment building Emannouil-Benaki-Straße 118 (1975 ) across the whole building, and each apartment is cut differently, sometimes with different ceiling heights. Architectural critics such as Kenneth Frampton or Alexander Tzonis see this work as the beginning of critical regionalism in architecture.

The Megaro Moussikis was built as a music hall in the 1970s. The design of the building, which was initially financed by the Verein der Musikfreunde, takes up the volumetry of the adjacent American embassy designed by Gropius. Noteworthy is the large hall with a large concert organ by Klais , one of the few that was planned from scratch by the Austrian star acoustician Heinrich Keilholz .

In 1990, Antonis Tritsis was the first architect and urban planner to be elected mayor, who promoted the greening of the city, introduced bus lanes and upgraded public spaces. As an opponent of subways (which he denied urban qualities), he wanted to build a close-knit network of trams and tunnel under important intersections. A few years in office, he died of a heart attack, so that many of his projects remained unrealized. Ultimately, both the metro was expanded and the tram reintroduced. The (unsuccessful) Olympic application for 1996 intensified the upgrading efforts for the center of Athens. In the periphery, important infrastructure projects such as the Proastiakos S-Bahn , the motorway clasp and the new Athens airport were created. Due to the proximity to the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the projects were often associated with it.

In Athens, too, postmodern buildings have been built since the late 1970s, among others by Demetri Porphyrios . The first tender for the new Acropolis Museum, which the Italian firm Manfredi Nicoletti & Lucio Passarelli won with a playful design, turned into a farce and ultimately led to a new tender and the demand for a factual design. Alexandros Tombazis dared the formal reinterpretation of an office building in downtown Athens with the publishing house on Leoforos Alexandras (1991–95), which takes the Purimus and the colourfulness of the previous millennium.

With the Fresh Hotel (design by Zeppos - Georgiadis & Associates) near Omonia Square and the Semiramis Hotel in Kifissia (design by Karim Rashid ), two hotels were converted into design hotels for the first time at the end of the 1990s .

Urban planning impulses for the 2004 Olympic Games

A few years pass before the new (and successful) candidacy and the subway construction moves from one archaeological excavation site to the next. One station in the shell even had to be abandoned because excavation areas that were too important were discovered along the route. The new route curves and the old station became an underground car park. The “Olympic Law” was passed, which only allows legal action against Olympic buildings a priori , on the grounds of time pressure. And indeed, some buildings that were not classified as Olympic were showered with complaints from local residents. A prominent example was the Acropolis Museum . First an important excavation site was discovered and the Italian architect refused to integrate it. After a new call for tenders, Bernard Tschumi won , his design was highly praised by the public, and local residents filed lawsuits. There was a delay of years and the opening for the Olympics could not be kept. Santiago Calatrava was chosen as the main architect of the 2004 Olympics .

The construction delays were often mentioned in foreign media, but without illuminating the causes. One reason was the high standards that Calatrava wanted to set, often new technological territory was broken and unexpected problems arose. When building the roof of the Olympic Stadium, which has the largest span of a single pipe, the subsoil also proved to be problematic. The safety regulations had changed since September 11th, so that these also led to changes. In the end, some buildings were simply cut for cost reasons and the long construction time was put forward as an argument, such as the roofing of the Aquatic Center. Contrary to what critics claimed, both the subway construction, which had been affected by archaeological excavations, and the sports facilities were completed.

After 2004 until the economic crisis

The Mall Athens
Katehaki footbridge
New building for the National Bank

The construction of the subway continued after the Olympics, the orange line 4 is currently being planned, which will run through the inner city districts near the center in a horseshoe shape.

The improvement of the transport infrastructure in the periphery led to a relocation and concentration of the retail trade, especially at subway stations outside of Germany, such as numerous branches of supermarket chains, electronics chains and hardware stores (Lidl, Media Markt, Ikea etc.). For the first time in Greece, two larger shopping centers were also built, The Mall and, further south, the shopping center for luxury labels Golden Hall . The large McArthurGlenn Athens outlet center was built outside of Athens . What these buildings have in common is that tent roofs are not classified as built-up areas according to the Athens building code, so that corridors in shopping centers are often spanned with them in order to keep the built-up area within the legal framework.

While more and more new settlements are emerging in the suburbs of Athens , former middle-class quarters in the city center, for example near Omonia Square or at Larissa train station, are becoming slums of emigrants. Inner-city retail with small arcades is also considered out of date, with entire rows of shops standing empty. At the same time, districts close to the center such as Psirri and Plaka, which used to be known for cheap taverns or tourist shops, have also come into fashion. Numerous old houses have been restored here.

Demolition of the fix factory

The Fix brewery was located at the Syngrou-Fix subway station along Syngrou-Avenue until the 1970s. The building, erected in 1957–63, was considered a masterpiece by the architect Takis Zenetos . After the company went bankrupt, it stood empty and was used by drug addicts and the homeless. Residents wanted to have it demolished, and ultimately the building was sold to a parking garage operator who wanted to build an underground parking garage and a green area above it. Architecture critics' concerns were ignored. When the demolition was finally in full swing, there were violent protests and demonstrations for the preservation of the building. Ultimately, the compromise was only found when the car park operator agreed to limit himself to the section that had already been torn off and he renounced the rest. This is currently being converted into the newly founded National Museum of Contemporary Art .

Improvement of the cultural infrastructure

Tourism as an important source of income for the city is also the reason for the improvement of the associated infrastructure. Together with the new Acropolis Museum, the second Peripatos , a pedestrian path south along the Acropolis, was inaugurated. Some of the projects are privately donated, such as the Onassis House of the Arts of the Alexander Onassis Foundation or the museum of the DESTE Art Foundation . In the case of the new opera and the new national library, which are planned by Renzo Piano on the former site of the racetrack (moved to Markopoulo for the Olympics), an agreement between the founder and the state was reached. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation demanded a minimum budget from the state for both institutions, according to their foundation. However, the Ministry of Culture is forced to cut its budget.

The realization of the largest city park in the world on the site of the former Hellenikon Airport is now considered uncertain, as the state will presumably sell the area.

Some recent projects

literature

  • Dimitris Phillipides: Urban Housing of the '30's - Modern Architecture in Pre-War Athens . Athens 1998, ISBN 960-7597-11-7 (English).
  • Dimitris Phillipides: Athens Suburbs & Countryside in the 1930s . Athens 2006, ISBN 960-8154-51-0 (English).
  • Errica Protestou: Athens: A Guide to Recent Architecture . Little booklet, ISBN 1-899858-55-5 (English).
  • Alexander Tzonis: Santiago Calatrava: The Athens Olympics . Rizzoli New York, ISBN 0-8478-2789-5 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DuMont Art Travel Guide: “The Classical Athens of the 19th Century” in Mainland Greece , DuMont Buchverlag , p. 140.