Athens Guide: Syntagma (Constitution) Square
Syntagma Square is the most famous in Athens if not all of Greece. No matter where you have to go in Athens, if you can find Syntagma Square you can find your way there.
Syntagma Square is back and better
then ever. Well maybe not better
than ever. It was probably at it's
best in the early 1900's when
there were not cars and buses
whizzing around it and it was
shaded by large trees. But with
the re-routing of the traffic, the
opening of the new metro and the
removal of the wooden billboard
covered walls that hid the
construction site that was once
Athens most popular platia,
Syntagma looks better then it has
in many years.
The name Syntagma means
Constitution. When Greece
was liberated from the Turks the
great powers decided that they
needed a king and chose Otto of
Bavaria. Since he was too young to
actually rule he came with a
military force and three regents
who ruled as dictators, imposing
heavy taxes, and stealing from the
country. When the king finally
came of age the Greeks who had
fought to free the country from
Turkish occupation were now fed up
with the tyranny of the Bavarians.
With the support of British
diplomats, two Greek soldiers,
Dimitrios Kallerges and Ioannes
Makriyannis led their troops to
the palace and demanded the king
get rid of the foreigners and
within thirty days produce a
constitution. This was the end of
foreign domination of Greece
(supposedly)
The Square has a long history. It
seems every major event in Greece has
either been mourned or celebrated
here. It has held some of the biggest
political pep-rallys that have ever
been seen on the planet. In the
nineteen forties it was the sight of a
battle between the communists and the
right-wing government. Greece had been
occupied by the Nazis and like many
countries, the resistance was made up
primarily of communists. In December
of 1944 British forces arrived
to liberate Athens but the
Germans had already left. Instead they
turned their guns on the Partisans who
had fought the Germans and sided with
the collaborators to create a Greece
that would not be communist. Churchill
wanted to restore King George to the
throne but the majority of Greeks who
had suffered through the Metaxas
dictatorship under the King neither
wanted his return or the return to
power of the right wing royalists who
had collaborated with the Nazis.
Unfortunately for the people of Greece
their fate had been decided by England and
Russia at a meeting in Moscow. Greece would
fall under the influence of Great Britain in return
for Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary coming under the
control of the Soviets.
On December 3rd
a demonstration in Syntagma
turned into a battle when the
police fired upon the crowd. After
the shooting while the wounded
were being attended to more shots
were fired. In the end there were
23 demonstrators dead and 140
wounded including many women. The
British were ordered by Churchill
to treat Athens as a captured
city. Athens had survived
World War 2 only to be bombed from
the air and have its working class
neighborhoods attacked by its
own allies. The British who had
supported the resistance against
the Germans now were fighting
against them in a class war,
defending Syntagma and the wealthy
neighborhood of Koloniki against
the poor and working class
neighborhoods that comprised the
rest of Athens. This led to
Civil war throughout the whole
country, with Britain and later
the USA providing guns and money
to the establishment to destroy
the left. That it was viewed by
many as supporting the
collaborators against some of the
heroes of the resistance did not
seem to matter and Greece,
after suffering through the
occupation, instead of
experiencing the joys of
liberation was thrust into a war
that pitted brother against
brother and caused more death and
despair than the Nazis had. The resistance
and heroism of the Greeks
against the Italians and the
Germans had been an inspiration to
all the subjugated people of
Europe. But this did not matter when a new
world order was being carved out.
You could say that the events on
December 3rd in Syntagma were the
beginning of the Cold War. Though these
events are known to few people outside of Greece,
when you consider the effects that the policies
of the cold war had on the entire world, it is a
wonder that there is not some kind of international
recognition of the importance of that day in Syntagma
Square in the last half of the twentieth century.
It was a defining moment in history. The first shots
of the cold war. See also my History
of Greece
Syntagma has also seen it's
shining moments. When the Military
Junta that ruled Greece from 1967
to 1974 fell and Constantine
Karamanlis came back from exile in
Paris to lead Greece back to
democracy, it was in Syntagma that
he first spoke to his newly free
constituents.
To appreciate what the absence of
Syntagma for all these years, while
they built what is probably the
world's most beautiful Metro station
means, imagine Greenwich Village
without Washington Square or Boston
without the Commons. It was a large
public square with tree shaded
walkways and benches and cafes where
Athenians and travelers could talk
politics, sports or whatever it is
people talk about when they are
hanging around in squares. Syntagma
was also the scene of the massive
political rallies of New Democracy,
PASOK and the KKE political parties as well as
holiday concerts and festivals, the
biggest perhaps being the New Year's
Eve Concert, a giant party thrown by
the City of Athens, featuring some of
Greece's most popular performers.
During the Christmas season the square
is bejewelled in lights and full of
skinny Santas with miniature ponies.
See
www.athensguide.com/christmas
At the top of Syntagma is the
Parliament Building, formerly the
King's Palace, built between 1836 and
1840 by King Otto and financed by his
father Ludwig I of Bavaria. The
original idea was to put the king's
palace on the Acropolis but luckily
this never happened. The classical
style of architecture, known as
neo-classical which originated in
Greece and is the dominant style of
all the old public buildings, houses
and mansions of Athens, was actually
re-imported into Greece in the late
eighteen hundreds from Europe and then
modified (improved) by Greek
architects. From the top of Syntagma Square
to the right if you are looking at the Parliament is the terminal
for the Athens Coastal Tram where you can
ride to the beaches. Across the
street at the entrance to the National Gardens
is where you can take the trolley buses to the National
Archaeological Museum.(2,4,5,11 and 15). You can also walk it
in half an hour by going down Panapistimiou and turning right a
block before Omonia Square on 28th of
October-Patission Street.
The tomb of the unknown soldier is
guarded by Evzones, the elite soldiers
who also guard the Palace and are
chosen for their height and strength.
They are like the guards at Buckingham
Palace with the big furry hats and are
treated the same way by tourists who
come to take their pictures and see if
they blink. Every so often they do a
little march and dance to break the
monotony of standing still all day and
they occasionally do this little kick
step with their sarouchi shoes with
the pom-poms. The pleated skirt, the
foustanela, was worn by the Greek
fighters of the 1821 revolution and
today it serves as the official
uniform of the Evzones. It was
established by Otto as the formal
court dress in the middle of the 19th
century. At 6pm you can see the
changing of the guard while dodging
pigeons. If you have children they
will probably enjoy feeding them with
the nuts that are sold there. On
Sunday at 11 there is a big ceremony
for the changing of the guard with a
marching bands and a whole troop of
evzones.
To the left of the square is the
Grande Bretagne a hotel as
historically significant as it is
elegant and a great place to go in for
a coffee in the beautiful lobby or the
bar. It is considered
the
best place to stay in Athens and has
been since it was built in 1862 to
accommodate Heads of State, for which
purpose it is still used. It is one of
the most well known hotels in the
world. In the second world war it
was requisitioned for the military for
it's headquarters. The guests were
given an hour to leave. Then it was
the headquarters of the Wermacht
during the Nazi occupation. Hitler,
Goering, Himmler and Rommel all stayed
here. When the civil war began it
became headquarters for the British
Expeditionary force and machine guns
and sandbags guarded the lobby. Later
that month a plot to assassinate
Churchill was discovered when police
found one ton of dynamite in the
sewers directly under the door. For
more on the history of the Grande
Bretagne as well as reviews and
information see
www.hotelsofgreece.com/athens/grandebretagne
At the bottom of Syntagma is the
McDonalds which replaced the popular
Papaspyros. The cafe was the meeting
point for travelers to Greece going
east and west, since it was downstairs
from American express where everyone
got their mail and cashed their
travelers checks in the sixties and
seventies. It is also the beginning
of
Ermou
Street
, closed to auto traffic and Athen's
main shopping district which leads
down to the
Flea market at
Monastiriki
. An important thing to remember, just
like in America when you are on the
road and you want to stop to use a
clean bathroom, the first place you
think of is McDonalds, the same goes
for Greece. But if it is too crowded
you can use this contraption on the right, one of
the new toili-tubes that are being
placed around Athens. The only problem
is there are other tubes that look
almost exactly the same that do not
have toilets in them. So before you
heave a sigh of relief in an emergency
situation, make sure the tube you are
using has a door.
Syntagma is on the border of the Plaka. Besides the Grande Bretagne there are two other major hotels on the square. The Athens Plaza and the King George. Within a block or two are the Astor, Amazon, Athens Central and the Electra Palace.
