Our unofficial but very Athenian SECRET GARDEN tour, part three
Athens is not renowned for its green spaces — but maybe it should be.
Confession! When it comes to gardens of supreme loveliness and grace, Athens can’t compete with, say, Paris. The Jardin des Tuileries in the spring? Beyond compare. Despite its array of glories, the National Garden doesn’t rock the gorgeousness of Central Park (regardless of the season). And yet…
Athens gets a bad rap as a congested city of traffic-choked streets, pollution and unsightly apartment blocks and does it have all of that? Yes, of course. It’s crowded and it’s the capital city, after all, as well as one of the world’s oldest. But beside the obvious green spaces: think the ancient Agora, Filopappou Hill or again, the National Garden — there are more oases of green than you might think, some pretty much hiding in plain sight.
A couple blocks past the National Archaeology Museum lies a real urban gem: the Pedion tou Areos park. Most tourists never see it and frankly, there is no shortage of shady characters in this part of town, park included (think Tompkins Square Park, Athenian version) — that would be enough to dissuade a lot of people from visiting, but it’s worthy of some serious strolling. This nearly 70-acre park dates back to 1934 and was designed as an homage to the heroes of the Greek Revolution. That said, the big equestrian statue at the main entrance is a likeness of King Constantine I, who came after the revolution. Elsewhere there are numerous small marble statues commemorating figures from the revolution that started in 1821.
The Green Park restaurant is one the city’s oldest, and is sort of the Athenian answer to Tavern on the Green. It’s located on the eastern edge of the park at 22 Mavrommateon, a street that with its neoclassical building facades of faded and sometimes actually crumbling grandeur is itself worth a wander.
The restaurant is a great place for an upscale bistro-style breakfast or lunch, or also makes for an uncommonly elegant coffee stop. Check out the menu. Note that most of the al fresco seating is behind the entrance pictured above (you can’t see it from the street-facing side).
As for the Pedion tou Areos, which incidentally translates to Field of Ares and — here come the French again — is said to be a reference to the fabled Champs de Mars beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris (itself a reference to the Campus Martius in ancient Rome) — it is best appreciated on a sunny, clear day, which is a more likely occurrence in Athens in autumn or winter than in any other major European capital. But again, after dusk, prenez garde — Athens is a very large city, this is not at all a touristy area, and in our view there should be more police officers on patrol, as you might find in Central Park. By nightfall you want to be heading back to busier, better lit areas.
The same proviso applies to a real underdog of a park even further afield: the Akademia Platonos or Plato’s Academy park in the Kolonus neighborhood. Where there isn’t much left of the academy, the ruins and green setting make for an evocative visit all the same. There is no admission fee to what is a rather unmanicured site/archaeological park, unlike at the Lyceum of Aristotle across town in Pagrati — which is in a park-like setting, but is technically speaking an archaeological site and not a park, with an entrance fee and strictly observed closing times. The Lykeion, or Λύκειον in Greek, is also easier to find, and situated near a really truly secret Athenian garden —
More to come…
