Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
every respect except colour, an entirely faithful reconstruction; with or without its
original bright red and blue paint, it is undeniably spectacular.
A small
museum
occupies ten of the 21 shops that formed the lower level of the
building. It displays items found at the Agora site from the earliest Neolithic
occupation to Roman and Byzantine times. Many of the early items come from burials,
but as ever the highlights are from the Classical era, including some good red-figure
pottery and a bronze Spartan shield. Look out for the
ostraka
, or pottery shards, with
names written on them. At annual assemblies of the citizens, these
ostraka
would be
handed in, and the individual with most votes banished, or “
ostracized
”, from the city
for ten years.
Pláka
The largely pedestrianized area of
Pláka
, with its narrow lanes and stepped alleys
climbing towards the Acropolis, is arguably the most attractive part of Athens, and
certainly the most popular with visitors, a welcome escape from the concrete blocks
that dominate the rest of the metropolis. With scores of
cafés, restaurants and shops
to
fill the time between museums and important sites such as the
Roman Forum
, it's an
enjoyable place to wander.
An attractive approach to Pláka is to follow
Odhós Kydhathinéon
, a pedestrian
walkway that starts near the
Anglican and Russian churches
on Odhós Filellínon. It
leads gently downhill, past the Museum of Greek Folk Art, through café-crowded
Platía Filomoússou Eterías, to Hadrian's street,
Odhós Adhrianoú
, which runs nearly
the whole length of Pláka and on into Monastiráki and Thissío. These two are the main
commercial and tourist streets of the district, with Adhrianoú increasingly tacky and
downmarket as it approaches Platía Monastirakíou and the Flea Market.
The Museum of Greek Folk Art
Kydhathinéon 17 • Tues-Sun 9am-2.30pm • €2 •
W
melt.gr • Metro Sýndagma or Akrópoli
he
Folk Art Museum
is one of the most enjoyable in the city, even though let down
somewhat by poor lighting and labelling. Its five floors are devoted to displays of weaving,
pottery, regional costumes, jewellery and embroidery along with other traditional Greek
arts and crafts. The highlight, though, is on the first floor: a reconstructed room from a
house on the island of Lesvós with a series of murals by the primitive artist
Theofilos
(1868-1934). These naive scenes from Greek folklore and history, especially the
independence struggle, are wonderful, and typical of the artist, who was barely recognized
in his lifetime, spending most of his career painting tavernas and cafés in exchange for
food and board. There are two other branches of the museum: a tiny but fascinating
section devoted to the world of work, entitled “
Man and Tools
” at Panós 22 (Tues-Sat
9am-2.30pm; €2), and a
ceramics collection
housed inside a mosque (see p.78).
Jewish Museum of Greece
Níkis 39 • Mon-Fri 9am-2.30pm, Sun 10am-2pm • €6 •
W
jewishmuseum.gr • Metro Sýndagma
he
Jewish Museum
tells the story of Jews in Greece, elegantly presented in a series of
dimly lit rooms, with plenty of explanation in English. Downstairs are art and religious
paraphernalia, many of the pieces centuries old. The centrepiece is the reconstructed
synagogue of Pátra, dating from the 1920s, whose furnishings have been moved here
en
bloc
and remounted. Upstairs, more recent history includes World War II and the
German occupation, when Greece's Jewish population was reduced from almost 80,000
to less than 10,000. There are features, too, on the part played by Jews in the Greek
resistance, and many stories of survival.
