National Gardens & Zappeion (could see)

The National Garden is a park in the heart of Athens. It was commissioned by Queen Amalia (the wife of King Otto or Othon) in the mid-19th century to serve as the royal gardens. It is therefore located next to the former palace, which today is the Greek parliament building in Syntagma Square.

Reason to Go

In an effort to keep your expectations to a realistic level, I must tell you that, in my opinion, the park is not maintained as well as it could be. But, it still is a refreshing space in the middle of the city! It has several trees and plants and there are some ponds where you’ll see ducks, geese and turtles.

It has a lot of benches and is really nice to walk through if you want to enjoy some shade on a hot summer afternoon. Entrance is free and the main reason I’m including it here is that it’s opposite the Panathenaic Stadium (Kallimarmaro).

So if you want to visit the stadium from Syntagma Square, you should go through the National Gardens. Zappeion is also located there and it’s also very close to what remains of the temple of Olympian Zeus. Zappeion, named after its benefactor, Evangelos Zappas, is the building that was erected for the revival of the first modern Olympic games in 1896.

On the eastern side of the park is Herodou Attikou Street which is the most expensive street in Greece. An apartment of 150 sq.m. can cost 2 million euros or more. The Presidential Palace (where the President of Greece lives) and the Maximos Mansion (the Prime Minister’s office) are located on the same street. Maximos Mansion is also where the Prime Minister welcomes official visitors from other countries (i.e. foreign Prime Ministers and Presidents of other countries).

Lunch or coffee

Next to the Zappeion building there is a historic café-restaurant called Aigli of Zappeion which translates to Glory of Zappeion. It has been in operation since 1909 and was a favorite meeting place for upper class Athenians in the early 20th century. I like it because of its calm atmosphere and the feeling that you’re somewhere far from Athens, even though you’re a breath away from Syntagma. Next to it is the open-air movie theater, Aigli Zappeiou, which is considered to be one of the best and more classy open-air movie theaters in Athens.