The road to the Acharnian Gate
Part of the old road leading out of the Athens wall.
C messier — CC BY-SA 4.0 · George E. Koronaios — CC BY-SA 4.0 · George E. Koronaios — CC BY-SA 4.0 · George E. Koronaios — CC BY-SA 4.0
A broad square before the Athens City Hall, ringed by nineteenth-century neoclassical architecture, with an open archaeological site below street level at its centre. The site was found in the 1980s during excavation for an underground car park. Part of the old road leading to the Acharnian Gate in the Athens wall came to light, along with graves, workshops and the remains of houses from the classical to the Roman period. The car park was abandoned and the site left open behind a railing, so you see it from above. This situation is typical of Athens: any deep excavation in the centre strikes antiquity. The Athens metro itself took extra years for this reason, and its stations display what was found while digging them — Syntagma station holds a section through the city's strata behind glass. The square itself is among the quieter ones in central Athens, ringed by elegant neoclassical buildings few visitors look at. It is an open public space and free to see.
Part of the old road leading out of the Athens wall.
The Athens metro took extra years for the same reason.
Elegant nineteenth-century buildings few visitors notice.
Before the Athens City Hall
Syntagma station is the best known: a glass wall showing a vertical section through Athenian soil with its strata, graves and water channels as found during the digging. Akropoli station displays pieces and casts from the Parthenon frieze. And Monastiraki station reveals the channel of the ancient Eridanos river running beneath the city. All are free to anyone using the metro and need no museum ticket.
Kotzia Square itself and the streets around the city hall and central market are ordinary and busy by day. But nearby Omonia and some streets north of it have a worse reputation at night, and the usual big-city alertness is advised: watch your bag in crowds, and avoid empty streets after midnight. Pickpocketing on transport and in tourist areas is Athens's most common problem rather than violence.
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