Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1918. Today, as a branch of that museum, it houses the
Kyriazópoulos collection
of
ceramics - the legacy of a Thessaloníki professor. Good as it is, the collection is likely to
excite you only if you have a particular interest in pottery; most will probably find the
mosque
itself, the only one in Athens open to the public, at least as big an attraction.
Though missing its minaret, and with a balcony added inside for the museum, plenty
of original features remain. In the airy, domed space, look out for the striped
mihrab
(the niche indicating the direction of Mecca), a calligraphic inscription above the
entrance recording the mosque's founder and date, and a series of niches used as extra
mihrabs
for occasions when worshippers could not fit into the main hall.
1
Kapnikaréa
Ermoú, at Kapnikaréas • Mon, Wed & Sat 8am-1pm, Tues, Thurs & Fri 8am-12.30pm & 5-7.30pm, Sun 8-11.30am • Free • Metro
Monastiráki
The pretty Byzantine church of
Kapnikaréa
marks more or less the beginning of the
upmarket shopping on Ermoú, looking tiny, almost shrunken, in these high-rise, urban
surroundings. Originally eleventh century, but with later additions, it has a lovely little
dome and a gloomy interior in which you can just about make out the modern
frescoes. The church is allegedly named after its founder, a tax collector:
kapnós
means
smoke, and in the Byzantine era there was a tax on houses, known as the smoke tax.
Platía Mitropóleos
A welcome spot of calm among the busy shopping streets that surround it,
Platía
Mitropóleos
- Cathedral Square - is home to not just one but two cathedrals. The
modern
Mitrópolis
is a large, clumsy nineteenth-century edifice; the “little cathedral” or
Áyios Eleftheríos
alongside it is dwarfed by comparison, but infinitely more attractive.
There is said to have been a church on this site since the very earliest days of
Christianity in Athens; what you see now dates from the twelfth century. It's a beautiful
little structure, cobbled together with plain and carved blocks from earlier incarnations;
some almost certainly from that original church.
There are several other small churches nearby: look out especially for the dusty, tiny
chapel of
Ayía Dhynámis
crouching surreally beneath the concrete piers of the Ministry
of Education and Religion on Odhós Mitropóleos, a short way up towards Sýndagma.
Sýndagma
All roads lead to
Sýndagma
- you'll almost inevitably find yourself here sooner or later
for the metro and bus connections.
Platía Syndágmatos
, Constitution Square, to give it
its full name, lies roughly midway between the Acropolis and Lykavitós hill. With the
Greek Parliament building (the Voulí) on its uphill side, and banks, offices and
embassies clustered around, it's the political and geographic heart of Athens. The
square's name derives from the fact that King Otto was forced by popular pressure to
declare a formal constitution for the new Greek state from a palace balcony here in
1844. It's still the principal venue for mass demonstrations and political rallies.
The Greek Parliament and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Platía Syndágmatos • Not open to the public • Metro Sýndagma
he
Voulí
, the Greek National Parliament, presides over Platía Syndágmatos from its
uphill (east) side. A vast, ochre-and-white Neoclassical structure, it was built as the
royal palace for Greece's first monarch, the Bavarian King Otto, who moved in in
1842. In front of it, goose-stepping
evzónes
in tasselled caps, kilt and woolly leggings
