Athens: How the image of the city changed
Her passing of Athens from the 19th century to the 20th, with the older buildings being torn down mostly in the 1960s and 1970s, shows the three-minute video by the Athensville blog (http://athensville.blogspot.com).
The elegance of the 19th century has given way to modern lines, with the aim, every time, not to save space for uses by more people and for more activities. The reason behind the change is the phenomenon of urbanism, which in Greece took on great proportions and still maintains them, with the big cities getting bigger and the countryside becoming deserted.
The famous rebuilding of the capital is even advertised with a relatively large sign on the first building in the video in 56 September 3rd Street. A giant technical office sign has been placed on the ground floor of the four-story classical building. It may just be an advertisement, the office may have been housed in the building, but it is possible that it is also the announcement of imminent death.
In place of the classic building, a modern apartment building was erected, without exception, but with large glass windows, and large kennels, on which the central units of the air conditioners were supported.
Follows a “Tower” at the expansion of Kallidromiou and Fotila streets, in Exarchia. Due to the angle of the streets the architect of the previous century had chosen round lines, for the building which had a ground floor and a first floor. The modern architect, in order to cover the unevenness of the two plots that were joined at the corner, preferred to take advantage of the recess created by the union to build balconies. The hallmark of “reconstruction” was that no space was wasted.
in corner of Iulianos and Mavromatai, under the Field of Ares there was an imposing building in the shape of “C”, in the recess of which the architect at the time had erected a round vestibule, like another tower, which dominated the complex of houses. The new architect put simple straight lines, glass balconies and awnings. The grace of the old band was replaced by sharp angles.
Sta Patisiain the 190th century, the Athenians of the time built their summer houses. Mansion buildings like this one at the corner of Patision and Hevden. It was replaced by a modern six-story office building, without exception. In Kypseli and Lefkada, a building was lost that largely resembles the counterparts built in other capitals of Europe, however the architect added balconies, because the mild climate of Attica allowed it. The apartment building that replaced it is rather tacky.
At 228 Patision Street, the two-story mansion it gave way to a meaningless five-story apartment building, which, however, is full of balconies, compared to its neighbor. THE “Villa Margarita” adorned the corner of Mesogeia and Vasilissa Sofia. It was replaced by a colorless high-rise building that wanted to look like a skyscraper.
In the building on the corner of Vasilissa Sofia and Herodos Attikou the building had nothing to envy from the old apartment buildings in Paris. An apartment building with straight lines was erected in its place.
Following the same pattern are the buildings on Othonos and Amalias streets, at the corner of Mitropoleos in Syntagma, at Stadiou 5, at Panepistumi 20 and Panepistumi 39, at the corner of Charilaou Trikoupi, at Stadiou and Pesmazoglou, at 3 Athenas Street, at Koumoundourou Square . , at Piraeus and Menandros, at Piraeus 1, the Municipal Theater at Kotzia square, the building at Stadiou 60, at Aiolou and University, the Kotopoulis theater at Omonia, at the corner of Chalkokondili and Patision, at Marni 32 and Aristotelous, and finally at Acharnon 22.
Watch the video