Aiolou: The street of Athens where time “froze” – Newsbomb – News
Lefteris Theodorakopoulos
17/06/2022 23:12
A road that hides history deeplyThis is evidenced by the buildings that have been built since Athens became the capital of Greece, that is, since King Otto came here.
Her name
Her name is that of the god of the winds of Aeolus, because the road starts from the Clock of Andronikos Kyrristos (inside the current fenced archeological site of the Roman market) which was a building of the 2nd and BC. dedicated to winds as a sundial and hydraulic clock, and occupying enormous length, became the main artery of visual escape to the most important monumental complex of the city, the Acropolis.
Who was Aeolus who named the street?
Aeolus was the God of winds, according to Homer, son of the Knight because he is also called Knight. THE Hostage characterizes Aeolus in Rhapsody K of the Odyssey as a friend of the immortal gods. Zeus made him ruler of the winds. However, Homer and other writers did not consider Aeolus a god, so they did not pay homage to him. Only in Roman was he considered God.
As far as etymology of his name there are two versions. According to the first, the basis is adjective aeolus = full of life, manifested by mobility. According to the second it is formed from the subject of the word aella, from άημι = blow. This etymology explains the use of the name Aeolus in the use of winds.
City center in Athens of Otto
post royal palace to be at Constitution a little further down Aeolus was from the founding of the Greek state a road which was an informal center of the city.
Many hotels were blown up while its intersection with Ermou was one of the reasons why trade flourished. In the years of Otto, Aiolou Street was the first hangout of the best hotels in the city until 1850, when the Syntagma took over, along with Ermou Street.
Besides, when they arrived in the newly established capital of the Greek state many foreigners stayed in a hotel in Aeolus and had many shops next to them. Shopping and social center the street on which many great personalities had walked.
From here took their first steps prominent and well-known to this day merchants and entrepreneurs Goutakis, Dragonas, Zolotas, Thanopoulos, Krinos, Lambropoulos, Loumidis, Meimaridis, Pavlidis, Sgourdas etc. Krinos, Loumidis has kept to this day the same philosophy in their building infrastructure.
The logic of buildings
Aeolus developed together with the newly formed Greek state. Its buildings had the then European culture and logic. Specifically and according to the building conditions, the buildings had to have a ground floor and a first floor. Thus, “familiar solids and in the view is very elegant” were built, the ground floors of which were used for the operation of shops, photo studios, pharmacies, patisseries and cafes that had air. Some of them remain intact today. Time has not touched them and they are jewels of another era.
New Year’s Eve in Aeolus
THE Athenographer Eleftherios Skiadas mentions about Aiolou Street something that we younger people do not know. And who is this? How Aeolus was the meeting point of all of Athens at that time for New Year’s Eve. Specifically, Mr. Eleftherios Skiadas mentions in a relevant text, “From the first period that the newer Athens was created, Aiolou Street was the street that gathered a large number of street vendors on New Year’s Eve. And as Athens developed, the traffic on Aiolou Street grew, which was the joy of young children and the popular classes. It turned into a street farewell farewell of the old time and reception of the new. Noisy emission, with all kinds of noises produced by instruments such as rockets, harpsichords, rattles and accordions. On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, Aiolou Street was turned into a street of panzourism. How many and how many did not write to describe the climate of those days.
No other street and at no other time of the year presented the spectacle and the noise of Aiolou Street in the afternoon and the night of the stay. From the pre-war years, the traffic started at noon and extended from Aiolou Street to the whole of Ermou, Syntagma Square and Stadiou Street. Tons of whole paper warfare were falling, streamers and small cookies. New Year’s Eve was reminiscent of Carnival days and almost all the inhabitants of the city participated in the celebration.
“These habits had erupted in the 1920s and began to take shape in the late 1930s.”
Walking today in Aeolus
THE pedestrian street of Aeolus even today it has a charm. A nostalgia that may evoke buildings that belong to another era. Surely the walk on the pedestrian street refers to the flourishing Athens. The only thing that could change and benefit even more the road is the green. Especially at the height of Kotzia.