by John Fisher
Byzantine and Christian Museum
Vasilíssis Sofías 22. Tues–Sun 8.30am–3pm. €4.
Perhaps the best feature of the Byzantine and Christian Museum is its setting: a peaceful villa with courtyard that once belonged to the Duchesse de Plaisance, an extravagantly eccentric French philhellene and widow of a Napoleonic general who helped fund the War of Independence. To enjoy the exhibits – almost exclusively icons, housed in two restored side galleries – requires some prior interest. Labelling is sometimes Greek-only, and you are told little of the development of styles, which towards the sixteenth century show an increasing post-Renaissance Italian influence, owing to the presence of the Venetians in Greece.
War Museum
Cnr Vasilíssis Sofias & Rizári 2. Tues–Sat 9am–2pm, Sun 9.30am–2pm. Free.
The only “cultural” endowment of the 1967–74 junta, the War Museum becomes predictably militaristic and right-wing as it approaches modern events such as the Asia Minor campaign, the civil war and Greek forces in Korea. Earlier times, however, are covered with a more scholarly concern, showing the changes in warfare from Mycenae through to the Byzantines and Turks. Among an array of models is a fascinating series on the acropolises and fortresses of Greece, both Classical and medieval.
National Art Gallery and Aléxandros Soútzos Museum
Vasiléos Konstandínou 50. Mon & Wed 9am–3pm & 6–9pm, Thurs–Sat 9am–3pm, Sun 10am–2pm. €6.
The state’s core collection of Greek art, from the sixteenth century to the present day, is combined in the National Art Gallery with the private collection of the Athenian lawyer Aléxandros Soútzos. Today, the whole shebang holds around 9500 paintings, sculptures and engravings as well as miniatures and furniture.
Although a slightly disappointing experience, it’s worth checking out the work of Nikos Hatzikyriákos-Ghíkas (Ghika), a modern painter well represented on the ground floor, as well as the small group of canvases on the mezzanine by the primitive artist Theofilos, more of whose work can be seen at the Museum of Greek Folk Art in Pláka.
A recent refurbishment has created a much more prominent area for temporary exhibitions, most of them major loans from the world’s best museums, and these are definitely worth catching.
Shops
Beauty Works
Kapsáli & Neofýtou Doúka, Kolonáki tel 210 72 25 511.
Favoured by Madonna and other celebrities, the Beauty Works cosmetics chain stocks all the classic brands.
Berto Lucci
Sólonos 8 tel 210 36 03 775.
Well-priced men’s and women’s clothes and accessories at one of a chain of stores around Athens. Shoes and classy leatherwear feature also, including men’s attaché cases.
Bettina
Pindárou 41 tel 210 32 38 759.
Reliable, chic and classy clothes store – Greek designers such as Angelos Frentzos and Sofia Kokosalaki feature heavily.
Carouzos
Patriárhou Ioakím 14 tel 210 72 45 873.
Part of a chain of upmarket boutiques selling high-quality clothing, with a great range of classic and formal clothes for both men and women, good-quality shoes and accessories.
Christos Kostarelos
Cháritos 44 tel 210 72 28 261.
One of the most talented designers in Athens, Christos Kostarelos gives a new edge to native Greek design – the superb fluffy shawls are a good buy.
The Cigar
Kánari 21 tel 210 36 03 725.
Fine cigars from Havana, Honduras and Nicaragua, packed into a small, humidified room.
Cravaterie Nazionali
Valaorítou 5 tel 210 36 20 996.
Small but stylish tie boutique, with a fine collection.
Enny di Monaco
Irodótou 18 tel 210 72 17 215.
Occasionally eccentric, avant-garde clothing shop; the high-fashion labels include Cesare Fabbri, Adam Jones, Luella and Diana von Furstenberg.
Fresh Line
Skoufá 10 tel 210 36 44 015.
Cosmetics store, selling hand-made soaps made from Greek herbs such as nettle, thyme and saffron.
Galerie Zamboulaki
Háritos 26 tel 210 72 52 488.
Old furniture and modern art make this place perfect for browsing; you’ll find everything from used monastery tables to embroidery.
Giorgos Eleftheriadis
Pindárou 38 tel 210 36 15 278.
A great little boutique from a fine Greek designer. Styles are avant-garde – European in cut but essentially Greek in style.
Gucci
Melathron Centre, Tsakálof 5 tel 210 36 02 280.
A Gucci boutique in the heart of Kolonáki, with clothes, bags and accessories.
Kanari 5
Kánari 5 tel 210 33 92 597.
A mixed bag here, with clothes, shoes, accessories, cosmetics and CDs sharing the same spacious display area. Very chic and aesthetically progressive, with a hairdressing salon on the second floor.
Oikos
Irodótou 26 tel 210 72 31 350.
Interesting gifts or just items to scatter around your lounge, – the large collection of gadgets and objets makes for a refreshing change from tourist trinkets.
To Paleopoleion
Irodhótou 18 tel 210 72 43 922.
Fine old French and Greek furniture and antiques, including porcelain and perfume bottles.
Petai Petai
Skoufá 30 tel 210 36 24 315.
A jewellery store with a large collection garnered from Greek designers, featuring exquisite handcrafted silver, gold and precious stones.
Petridis
Plateía Kolonakíou 7 tel 210 72 38 434.
Long-established and producing some of the best Greek-made shoes in the country. In addition you’ll find men’s and women’s ranges from Charles Jourdan, Camper, Parallele and other top-line shoemakers.
This ‘n’ That
Levéndi 7 tel 210 72 93 790.
A touch of the Orient, with ethnic fashions, kaftans, sandals and shawls.
Restaurants
Agrio Rodho
Sarandapíhou 15–17 tel 210 36 36 337. Closed Sun.
A good place for a post-Lykavitós theatre meal. Food is homely as opposed to haute cuisine, plus game is also on the menu.
Central
Plateía, Kolonakíou tel 210 72 45 938.
This fairly upmarket and fun-oriented lounge-bar-cum-restaurant does a funky twist on modern Greek fare, serving a good selection of salads and decent sushi.
Cilentio
Mantzárou 3 & Sólonos tel 210 36 33 144.
Serving modern Mediterranean and Greek fusion dishes, this upmarket and fairly costly eatery in an old restored building combines charm with rusticity. Many of the house ingredients are organic.
Dhimokritos
Dhimokrítou 23 tel 210 36 13 588. Closed Sun.
Occasionally snooty – but good-value – restaurant in a beautiful Neoclassical building with high ceilings and classy interior decor. The vast menu includes well-prepared dishes such as rabbit in lemon sauce, fish soup, and cabbage dolmádhes with lamb.
Filippou
Xenokrátous 19 tel 210 72 16 390. Closed Sat eve & Sun.
This conservative taverna, favourite of office workers and residents, is liveliest at lunch. The food is fresh and moderately priced, and includes good grills, stews and casseroles.
47 Maritsa’s
Voukourestíou 47 tel 210 36 30 132.
Fairly expensive restaurant with a posh interior and pavement seating. Specializes in seafood like monkfish, crayfish fritters, lobster spaghetti and grilled mussels.
Fourtouna
An. Polémou 22 tel 210 72 21 282.
The best place for quality seafood in Kolonáki, serving moderately expensive, well-prepared fish. The grilled or steamed crayfish is a speciality; dishes are displayed in a wooden boat in the front area. There’s also a buffet range, and a decent wine list which includes lesser-known vintages from Macedonia and the is
lands.
Ikio
Ploútarhou 15 tel 210 72 59 216.
As the restaurant name (meaning “homely”) suggests, Ikio is an unfussy taverna with a wide range of oven-baked dishes and salads that don’t dent a huge hole in your wallet.
To Kioupi
Platía Kolonakíou 4 tel 210 36 14 033. Closed Sun.
A budget subterranean taverna with good, standard Greek fare such as moussakás and dolmádhes.
Rodhia
Aristíppou 44 tel 210 72 29 883.
Closed Sun.
Popular taverna set in a cosy old house – the menu hasn’t changed in twenty years, but that doesn’t bother its many loyal regulars. Favourites include beef in lemon sauce, lamb fricassee and octopus in mustard sauce, while the prices go fairly easy on your pocket.
Rooms
Kriezótou 11 tel 210 36 15 628.
A mid-priced newcomer to the Kolonáki culinary scene, Rooms is a bit of everything: delicatessen, sushi bar, café and even cigar bar. Very popular with the local trendies.
Sale & Pepe
Aristíppou 34 tel 210 72 34 102. Closed Sun.
Good-quality but fairly pricey Italian fare come to town in the form of Sale & Pepe, high up on the flanks of Lykavitós Hill. The menu is simple yet hearty and the wine list is most impressive.
Ta Skalakia
Eyinítou 32, Ilísia, off some stairs behind the Holiday Inn tel 210 72 29 290.
Ta Skalakia is not as cheap or unpretentious as it once was, but still has many classic taverna dishes and attracts a lively crowd.
Bars
Alekos Island
Tsakálof 42. Daily 11pm–3am.
Long-established, easy-going basement gay bar playing rock and pop music; Alekos is one of Athens’ more colourful bartenders.
Baila
Háritos 43 tel 210 72 33 019. Opens 12.30am.
More of a socializing hangout than a full-on bar, with drinks and coffees; the music is low-key, and patrons often gather on the pavement.
City
Háritos 43 tel 210 72 28 910. Opens 9pm.
Artists and wannabes hang out here, where sipping drinks takes precedence over the light, discreet music.
Clubs
Café Alu
Skoufá & Omírou 58 tel 210 36 11 116. Opens 10pm.
Upbeat venue, hosting guest DJs playing mainly modern music.
Memphis
Vendíri 5, Ilísia, behind Hilton Hotel.
Roomy, comfy club/bar with a garden and a good sound system pumping out rock and dance.
Mommy
Delfón 4 tel 210 36 19 682. Opens 10pm.
One of Kolonáki’s better meeting places, this is a trendy watering hole for thirty-somethings where soulful house is pumped out by resident DJs.
Live music
Hi-Hat Café
Dhragoúmi 28 and Krousóvou 1, Ilísia nr Hilton Hotel tel 210 72 18 171.
Crowded, energetic bar that plays mainly blues music, but also features Latin and jazz.
Kriti
Ayíou Thomá 8, Ambelókipi tel 210 77 58 258. Closed Mon.
Live music venue specializing in Cretan music.
La Joya
Tsóha 43, Ambelókipi tel 210 64 40 030. Open until 2.30am.
Successful venue with a great atmosphere, beautiful decor and adventurous food; it’s popular with celebrity parties. The music is rock, jazz and Latin.
Lykavitós Theatre
Lykavitós Hill.
Spectacular outdoor venue used mainly for music concerts from May to October.
Palenque
Farandáton 41, Platía Ay. Thomá, Ambelókipi tel 210 64 87 748.
Live Latin music by South American groups, as well as salsa parties, flamenco music and dance lessons.
Tsai stin Sahara
Laodhikías 18, Ilísia. Admission and first drink €12.
Local venue that often hosts enjoyable Greek folk nights.
Sýndagma and around
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 heart of Athens politically as well as geographically. The square’s name derives from the fact that Greece’s first constitution was proclaimed (reluctantly under popular pressure) by King Otho from the palace balcony in 1843. It’s still the principal venue for mass demonstrations, and in the run-up to elections the major political parties stage their final campaign rallies here. Vital hub as it is, however, the traffic and the crush mean it’s not an attractive place to hang around. Escape comes in the form of the National Gardens, a welcome area of greenery stretching out south from the parliament building and offering a traffic-free route down past the Záppio to Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. In other directions the prime shopping territory of Odhós Ermoú heads west towards Monastiráki, with Pláka and the Acropolis to the southwest; Stadhíou and Panepistimíou head northwest towards Omónia; while to the north and east lies Kolonáki and the embassy quarter.
Hotel Grande Bretagne
Vasiléos Yeoryíou 1 tel 210 33 30 000, grandebretagne.gr.
With the exception of the Voulí, the vast Hotel Grande Bretagne – Athens’ grandest – is just about the only building on Sýndagma to have survived postwar development. Past the impressive facade and uniformed doormen, the interior is magnificently opulent, as befits a grand hotel established in the late nineteenth century – it’s worth taking a look inside, or having a drink at one of the bars. There’s a rooftop pool, bar and restaurant, all with great views across the city.
The hotel has long been at the centre of Greek political intrigue: in one notorious episode, Winston Churchill narrowly avoided being blown up here on Christmas Day 1944, when saboteurs from the Communist-led ELAS resistance movement placed a huge explosive charge in the drains. According to whom you believe, the bomb was either discovered in time by a kitchen employee, or removed by ELAS themselves when they realized that Churchill was one of their potential victims.
The Voulí
Platía Syndágmatos. Not open to the public.
The Greek National Parliament, the Voulí, 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 Otho, who established his capital in Athens and moved in in 1842. In front of it, goose-steppingevzónes in tasselled caps, kilt and woolly leggings – a prettified version of traditional mountain costume – change their guard at intervals in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. On Sundays, just before 11am, a full band and the entire corps parade from the tomb to their barracks at the back of the National Gardens to the rhythm of camera shutters.
The National Gardens
Entrances on Amalías, Vasilíssis Sofías, and Iródhou Attikoú. Daily sunrise–sunset. Free.
The most refreshing acres in the city are the National Gardens – not so much a flower garden as a luxuriant tangle of trees, whose shade, benches and duck ponds provide palpable relief from the heat in summer. It’s a great spot for a picnic. The gardens were originally the private palace gardens, a pet project of Queen Amalia in the 1840s; supposedly the main duty of the tiny Greek navy in its early days was fetching rare plants, often the gifts of other royal houses, from remote corners of the globe. Despite a major pre-Olympics clear-out, there’s still something of an air of benign neglect here, with rampant undergrowth and signs that seem to take you round in circles back to where you started.
A small zoo (signed Irattikou) contains ostriches, exotic fowl, chickens, rabbits and domestic cats, and there’s a children’s playground on the Záppio side. Occupying an elegant little pavilion nearby is a botanical museum.
On the far side of th
e gardens is the Presidential Palace, the royal residence until Constantine’s exile in 1967, where more evzónes stand on sentry duty.
The Záppio
Open 24hr.
On the southern side of the National Gardens are the graceful, crescent-shaped grounds of the Záppio. Popular with evening and weekend strollers, they’re more open, and more formally laid out. The Záppio itself, an imposing Neoclassical edifice originally built as an exhibition hall, is not open to the public. Although it has no permanent function, the building has taken on prestigious roles such as the headquarters for both the Greek presidency of the European Union and for the people who ran the 2004 Olympic bid.
Hadrian’s Arch
Hadrian’s Arch stands in splendid isolation on what feels like one of the busiest corners in Athens, where Odhós Syngroú arrives in the centre of town. With the traffic roaring by, this is not somewhere you are tempted to linger – but it’s definitely worth a look on your way to the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
The arch, eighteen metres tall, was erected by the emperor to mark the edge of the Classical city and the beginning of his own. On the west side its frieze is inscribed “This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus”, and on the other “This is the City of Hadrian and not of Theseus”. With so little that’s ancient remaining around it, this doesn’t make immediate sense, but you can look up, westwards, to the Acropolis and in the other direction see the columns of the great temple completed by Hadrian. Many more Roman remains are thought to lie under the Záppio area, and over towards the old Olympic Stadium.
The Temple of Olympian Zeus
Entrance on Vasilíssis Ólgas. Daily: April–Sept 8am–7pm; Oct–March 8.30am–3pm. €2, or joint Acropolis ticket.
The colossal pillars of the Temple of Olympian Zeus – also known as the Olympieion – stand in the middle of a huge, dusty clearing with excellent views of the Acropolis. One of the largest temples in the ancient world – according to Livy “the only temple on earth to do justice to the god” – its construction was begun by the tyrant Peisistratos as early as the sixth century BC, but only completed almost seven hundred years later under Hadrian. It was finally dedicated in 131 AD, an occasion that Hadrian marked by contributing an enormous statue of Zeus and an equally monumental one of himself, although both have since been lost. Just fifteen of the temple’s original 104 marble pillars remain erect, though the massive column drums of another, which fell in 1852, litter the ground. To the north of the temple enclosure, by the site entrance, are various excavated remains including an impressive Roman bath complex and a gateway from the wall of the Classical city. The south side of the enclosure overlooks a futher area of excavation (not open to the public) where both Roman and much earlier buildings have been revealed.
