The most complete information guide about Athens, Greece
Monastiraki
Monastiraki
(little monastery) is an old part of Athens which nestles under
the ancient Acropolis. Monastiraki Square is the hub of life around
here and the main street leading off takes one to narrow streets
with a thousand artifacts to buy and sell. On one corner of the
square is a relic of the Turkish occupation, the Mosque, minus
minaret, built by the Athenian Moslem, Tsisdarakis in 1759.
At
its center lies Abyssinia Square
which is the place where the Sunday flea market has been held
since 1910. Monastiraki is a true fair for the one who strolls
through it. Thousands of things are for sale. Anything from Nazi
uniforms to Mickey Mouse clocks to mock Roman helmets and old
money can be found in these narrow alleyways and streets. Souvenirs
galore, some of them very good bargains, set among jewelers and
furniture stores with pine cabinets stacked high among semi-antiques.
Ceramics, terra cotta and marble ware, old chess sets and new
ones made of silver, marble and brass, old copper pans and bronze
hearth sets, jostle with chandeliers and phonographs, anything
from souvenirs, to junk, to antiques. Bargaining is very acceptable
here as it is throughout Greece and it can be good fun too.
Monastiraki
shows a lot that is Greek, in its shopping habits and tradesmen,
its people and variety. It hasn’t changed very much in centuries.
A visit will show you a lot of the capital and its people, its
mixture of old and new, a fascination that will keep you busy
and guessing, and inevitably, shopping.
Next
to the metro station of Monastiraki and just a little west of
the Roman Agora you will find Hadrian’s Library, built in
132 AD by the Roman Emperor.
The
rectangular building of the library comprises a Corinthian propylon
on the west side, an open peristyle courtyard, three projecting
conches (apse or semi dome of an apse) on each of the long sides,
a library, study and lecture halls. It was destroyed by the Herulae
in 267 AD and was subsequently incorporated into the late roman
fortification wall.
It
was repaired by the Roman eparchus Herculius in 412 and in
the 5th century the quatrefoil building of the early Christian
church was constructed in the center of the peristyle court.
After its destruction, a three-aisled basilica was erected
on its ruins in the 7th century, which was in turn superseded
by the single-ailed church of Megali Panaghia, in the 11th
century. During the Turkish occupation it became the seat
of the Voevode (Governor) and in 1835, the barracks of King
Otto were erected in the place of the Voevodalik.
The
first excavations on the site were carried out by W. Doerpfeld
and St. Koumanoudis in the central and eastern part of Hadrian's
Library, after the great fire of 1885, which damaged the agora
and the church of Megali Panaghia.
Between
1942 and 1950 a second excavation campaign was conducted by the
Italians and later by A. Orlandos and I. Meliades. Between 1970
and 1980, J. Travlos carried out excavations at the north east
auditorium and the quatrefoil building. Since 1987 the 1st Ephorate
of Antiquities has been conducting systematic excavations in the
west section of the monument. In the years 1960-70 restoration
work was carried out at the west facade and the colonnade of the
basilica of Megali Panaghia, and in 1975-76 the propylon was consolidated.
The
1st Ephorate is currently preparing a study for the reconstruction
of the propylon and the south wing of the facade of the building.
The Roman Agora
East
of the Ancient Agora a new agora was built by the Athenians
in the first century BC. It is the Roman Agora or agora of
Caesar and Augustus. When continuing up the road at Hadrian's
Library, the archaeological site can be best seen from Aiolou
Street and even better from the higher up Polygnotou Street.
In
Roman times both the Ancient and the Roman Agora were connected
by a road that started at the Stoa of Attalos in the Ancient Agora.
The
Roman Agora is a space measuring 111 m by 98 m (364 ft by 321
ft) comprising a spacious rectangular courtyard surrounded
by stoa’s,
shops and storerooms and it was surrounded by Ionic columns.
During the reign of Hadrian the court was paved with slabs. After
the invasion of the Herulen in 267 AD the city of Athens was
restricted to the area within the late roman fortification wall
and the administrative and commercial center of the city was
transferred from the Ancient Agora to the Roman Agora and the
library of Hadrian. During the Byzantine period and the Turkish
occupation the area was covered with houses, workshops and churches.
The
Gate of Athena Archegetis is in the west side of the Roman Agora.
It was built between 19 and 11 BC.
The monumental entrance has a row of four Doric columns and a
pedestal made of Pentelic marble. It was constructed in 11 BC
with the donations of Julius Caesar and Augustus and was dedicated
by the people of Athens to their patroness, Athena Archegetis.
The east entrance to the Roman Agora had a row of four Ionic columns
made of gray Hymettian marble. Fethiye Djami, the Turkish mosque,
lies on the north side. It was constructed in 1456 AD on the ruins
of an Early Christian basilica.
The
Roman public latrines (vespasianae) were housed in a rectangular
building close to the Tower of the Winds and consisted of an antechamber
and a square hall with benches, 70 in total, bearing holes on
all its four sides, and a sewing pipe underneath. Dated to the
1st century AD.
The
Agoranomion is a rectangular building on the east side of the
Roman Agora, dated to the 1st century AD. It preserves the facade
which had three doorways with arched lintels and a broad stairway.
An inscription on the architrave mentions that the building was
dedicated to the Divi Augusti and Athena Archegetis. It might
be identified with the Sevasteion, that is a building for the
worship of the emperor.
In
the first half of the first century BC, a water clock was constructed
near the east end of the Roman Agora by the astronomer Andronicos,
from Kyros in Macedonia. It is now known as the Tower of the Winds.
The
name of the structure relates to the representations of eight
winds, Boreas (N), Kaikias (NE), Apeliotes (E), Euros (SE), Notos
(S), Lips (SW), Zephyros (W) and Skiron (NW), sculpted on the
eight facades.
The
octagonal tower, 3,20 meters (10,49 ft) long on each side, stands
on a base of three steps and is built of white Pentelic marble.
It has a conical roof, a cylindrical annex on the south side and
two Corinthian porches, one on the NE and one on the NW side.
There were sundials on the external walls and an elaborate water
clock in the interior.
In
the early Christian period, the Tower of the Winds was converted
into a church or a baptesterion of an adjacent church, while the
area outside the NE entrance was occupied by a Christian cemetery.
In the 15th century AD, Cyriacus of Ancona mentions the monument
as the temple of Aeolos while an anonymous traveler refers to
it as a church. In the 18th century it was used as the tekke of
the Dervishes.
The
monument had been half-buried by the earth accumulated over the
centuries. It was excavated between 1837 and 1845 by the Greek
Archaeological Society. Restoration work was carried out between
1916-1919 by An. Orlandos and again in 1976 by the 1st Ephorate
of Antiquities.