Athens: The Way It Used to Be

I admit that I love Athens. Despite the traffic and the noise, the endless cement apartment buildings and the grafitti there is something I love about the city, even those areas Athenians themselves complain about. But if I am in love with modern Athens how would I have felt if I lived here eighty or a hundred years ago when Athens was a fine example of neo-classic architecture and there were more horses than there were automobiles?

One day I was wandering through Monastiraki and I walked into a small print shop owned by Basileios Korobesis called Syllektika Edi at # 7 Adrianou. Inside were color prints, photos and drawings of Athens and places around Greece, some antiques and some copies. I bought a set of his color postcards from the turn of the century and after I stopped gazing at them with a deep sense of nostalgia I put them on my scanner and made this page.

Click on photo to enlarge

Aeolis Street

Aeolis Street

Alisida

Athinas Street

Athinas Street

Ermou Street

The Grande Bretagne

Hadrian's Arch

Kifissia

Omonia Square

Omonia Square

Athens

Athens

Philelinon Street

Stadiou Street

Syntagma Square

Syntagma Square

University of Athens

You can find these cards and many others as well as large antique prints, maps and other items of nostalgia at Syllektika Edi at #7 Adrianou Street. It is just across the metro tracks from the ancient Temple to Hephaestus known as The Thission, just before you come to the Thission station.

Also visit my History of Greece for more information and historical photos. For photos of Athens and the rest of Greece in the sixties see my father's photos.