The transformation of Athens from a wounded city in the aftermath of the 1821 Revolution into the capital of the newly established Greek state marks a significant phase of rebirth, centered on architecture and urban planning.
From 1830 onward, with the involvement of architects Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert in 1831, the city embarked on a path of deliberate transformation. Their initial urban plan (1833), approved by the Regency, embraced the principles of neoclassical and romantic urbanism: geometric rigor, functional organization, and a symbolically oriented connection with the Acropolis, the Stadium, and Piraeus. The new city was conceived as an isosceles triangle with Omonia at its apex and Ermou Street as its base, embedding authority and historicity into the very fabric of the landscape.
The plan's provisions for extensive expropriations, public spaces, and archaeological excavations sparked opposition, leading to its revision by Leo von Klenze in 1834. His amendments, along with interventions by Hansen, Schaubert, and Gaertner, shifted the axis of development, favoring the city’s eastern expansion (Stadiou Street, Panepistimiou, and the Palace district).
Despite its visionary scope, the plan’s implementation was slow. Expansion beyond the boundaries of the Old City was delayed until the end of the century, while urban growth was primarily driven by administrative imperatives. Piraeus assumed the industrial role, and the anticipated population growth was realized only belatedly.
In the late 19th century, Athens’ urban architecture is inscribed within a transitional landscape of aesthetic and social transformations, epitomized by the shift from strict Neoclassicism toward Historicism and Eclecticism.
This shift, beyond being stylistic, also reflects a deeper transformation within the social fabric: the emerging bourgeoisie at the close of the century seeks to assert its social ascent through architectural expression. Private residences and villas become instruments of cultural self-awareness and markers of social prestige.
Architects such as Ernst Ziller, Ioannis Lazarimos, and Panos Karathanasopoulos embody this transition through works that blend formal rigor with creative freedom.
The Architect Who Shaped the Identity of the Urban Space
Ernst Ziller emerged as a defining figure of his era. Deeply influenced by Central European traditions and the classicism of his mentor, Theophil Hansen, he adopted and developed a mature Athenian neoclassicism in public architecture, while in private residences he expanded the aesthetic horizon toward Romanticism and Eclecticism.
Ziller transformed 19th-century Athens from a village into a European capital, endowing it with the architectural identity and aesthetic dignity that the capital of the new Greek state so urgently required—reconnecting it with its ancient past.
Born in Saxony to a family of builders, he arrived in Greece at the age of just 24. He came to Athens to supervise the construction of the Academy (designed by his Danish employer, Theophil Hansen), and soon became highly sought after by Athens’ upper bourgeoisie. He designed around 600 buildings across Greece: public structures in a classical style or with Byzantine influences, and private residences in neoclassical—and later also eclectic—forms. His major works include the Iliou Melathron, the National Theatre of Athens, the Syngros Mansion, the Presidential Mansion, the Melas Mansion, the City Hall of Ermoupolis, the Patras Theatre, nearly all the buildings of the royal family, and many more.
Ziller received numerous honors and served as a professor at the Polytechnic School (1872–1882), but was dismissed in 1883 after refusing to cover up a financial scandal related to the construction of the Zappeion. He also conducted extensive studies and wrote on ancient Greek architecture.
Ziller was a pioneer in the standardization and industrialization of architectural decorative elements. He introduced innovations to Greece such as artificial ventilation and central heating. As the first architect to use iron columns in construction, he had a deep love for detail, exemplified in his famous railings adorned with mythologically inspired motifs. He replaced shutters with rolling blinds in Athenian shops.
Ziller’s personal qualities—refined taste, intelligence, entrepreneurial daring, industriousness, methodical precision, talent for public relations—as well as his Protestant family background, granted him a pragmatic inclination toward the standardization of building typologies, formal language, and construction methods.
He was the mind behind Greece’s ten most important winter theatres: the elegant Municipal Theatre Apollon in Patras (1871–72), the Foskolos Municipal Theatre in Zakynthos (1871–75), the two eclectic-style theatres in Athens—the ill-fated Municipal Theatre (1872–1888) and the Royal Theatre, now the National Theatre (1891–1901)—as well as the short-lived open-air Theatre of the Olympians (1881–1887) in Athens, which he also designed.
The city that the 19th century bequeathed to the 20th was a relatively coherent Athens, home to roughly 200,000 inhabitants, graced with elegant two- and three-story residences featuring gardens and courtyards. Architecturally articulated along European lines, it nonetheless remained fragile in its structural infrastructure.
The exhibition sheds light on the work of both Greek and German architects who together forged a hybrid aesthetic identity—one that reflects the vision of urban Athens as a European capital rooted deeply in its historical past.
The exhibition contains items from the following institutions:
