The changing of the guard
Fustanella and tsarouchia, and a slow, deliberate step.
C messier โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Archaeaoris โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Rakoon โ CC0 ยท Rakoon โ CC0
**Every hour** there is a short change through the day, enough to see the dress and the movement โ arrive ten minutes before the hour. The **grand ceremony is Sunday at about 11:00**: the full unit takes part with a military band, marching from its barracks to the square, and it is longer and more impressive โ and far more crowded, so come at least twenty minutes early. โ Anyone who dislikes crowds or has small children will find the ordinary hourly change on a weekday much easier.
Every part of it stands for something. The **fustanella**, the white kilt of four hundred pleats, is said to represent four hundred years of Ottoman rule. The **tsarouchi** is the pointed red shoe with a woollen pompom, its sole studded with iron nails that make the clack you hear at each step. The dress derives from that of the **klephts**, the mountain fighters of the war of independence, so it is a revolutionary costume rather than a courtly one. The strangely slow movement is deliberate: a measured step that lets a soldier stand motionless for an hour between changes without his legs going numb.
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Athens's central square and its political heart, its name meaning **"Constitution"**: in September 1843 the army and the people gathered here and compelled King Otto to grant the country a constitution, and the square was named for that day. The **Greek Parliament** overlooks it, originally the royal palace built in the 1830s. In front of it is the **Tomb of the Unknown Soldier**: a stone wall carved with a fallen ancient Greek warrior, ringed by the names of the battles in which Greeks died. The best-known sight here is the **changing of the Evzone guard**. The tomb's guards wear traditional dress: the **fustanella** kilt of four hundred pleats, said to stand for the years of Ottoman rule; red **tsarouchi** shoes with a woollen pompom and nails in the sole; and a tasselled cap. Their movement is strangely slow and entirely deliberate. **The guard changes every hour**, and on **Sunday at 11am** the full ceremony is held with the whole unit and a military band. โ The square is also Greece's traditional site for demonstrations.
Fustanella and tsarouchia, and a slow, deliberate step.
A fallen warrior and battle names on the wall.
Archaeological finds from the station's own excavation.
Syntagma Square, 10563 Athens