Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Don't Miss
Church of Agios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris
The 16th-century
Church of Agios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris
(Greek for cannon) is
named after an incident in which a gunner from a Turkish garrison on the Acropolis was
killed by a thunderbolt while attempting to fire a cannon on the Christian congregation. It
has an old-world feel with a smell of incense, marble floors, a timber roof, and myriad
icons and frescoes.
Socrates' Prison
Enter the cover of pines, with doves cooing, and follow the path to this warren of rooms
carved into bedrock and rumoured to have been the place Socrates was
imprisoned
. Dur-
ing WWII artefacts from the Acropolis and National Archaeological Museum were
secreted here, sealed behind a wall.
Shrine of the Muses
Follow the stairs up the hill, and you'll reach a ruined shrine to the
Muses
, to whom this
hill was deemed sacred. Even today grateful or hopeful artists place offerings on a small
stone cairn.
Fortifications
According to myth, this hill was a strategic bastion for Athenians defending against
Amazons. In the 4th and 5th centuries BC, defensive walls - such as the Themistoclean
wall and the Diateichisma - stretched over the hill. Extensive ruins still remain.
Monument of Filopappos
The 12m
Monument of Filopappos
crowns the summit of the hill. Built between Ad 114
and 116 in honour of Julius Antiochus Filopappos, a Roman consul and administrator, the
top middle niche depicted Filopappos enthroned, the bottom frieze showed him in a chari-
ot with his entourage.
