September 18, 1834: Athens Becomes the Capital of Greece

The Temple of the Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis successful Athens successful 1830. Credit: Wikipedia/Public domain.

When Athens was officially declared the superior of the recently established Greek State connected September 18, 1834, it was a tiny colony of 7,000 residents surviving astir Acropolis Hill.

Following the assassination of Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias successful the Peloponnesian metropolis successful 1831, Greece’s archetypal politicians had to determine wherever the caller authorities and archetypal parliament would beryllium established. At the time, Athens was an country of ancient, Byzantine and medieval ruins with makeshift houses astir them, each astir Acropolis Hill.

The determination was acold from easy. Personalities of the time, politicians, arsenic good arsenic architects and metropolis planners took portion successful the debate, trying to power developments and the last decision. The cities projected were, among others, Corinth, Megara, Piraeus, Argos, and Nafplio again.

Eventually, Athens won the contention and connected September 18, 1834, it was officially proclaimed “Royal Seat and Capital”. The main crushed was the city’s glorious past arsenic the cradle of Hellenic Civilization. According to historians, King of Bavaria Ludwig I was influential successful the determination arsenic helium was a large admirer of ancient Greece.

Athens, from a tiny municipality to a superior city

However, the metropolis was not prepared to transportation the value of the superior of the caller state. It was much of a municipality than a city, with 7,000 residents and 170 regular houses, arsenic the remaining Athenians were surviving successful huts. Furthermore, the battles that took spot successful Athens had near galore ruins. By comparison, astatine the time, the colonisation of Patras amounted to 15,000, portion Thessaloniki had 60,000.

Athens stretched astir the Acropolis (from Psiri to Makrygianni), with ​​Plaka (the Old Town). One of the large problems of the caller superior was the deficiency of a h2o proviso system, arsenic good arsenic the lack of nationalist lighting and transport, portion determination was a implicit deficiency of societal services.

Greece’s archetypal king, Otto of Bavaria, commissioned the reconstruction of the devastated metropolis to Greek designer Stamatis Kleanthis and the Bavarian Leo von Klenze with a strict bid not to harm the archaeological sites. For the extortion of antiquities, Otto issued a decree prohibiting the operation of limestone astatine a region of 2,500 meters from past Greek ruins, truthful that antiquities could not beryllium damaged.

Within 4 years, astir 1,000 houses were built successful Athens, galore of them makeshift, with nary architectural oregon thoroughfare program successful place. Otto banned quarrying successful the hills of Nymphs, Achanthos (Strefi), Philopappou and Lycabettus and issued decrees with the strict bid to instantly demolish each location built adjacent archaeological sites and everything built connected the outskirts of the Acropolis Hill.

The strict measures regarding gathering houses led to Otto losing popularity among the mediocre masses, but helium insisted connected issuing different decrees.

In the years to come, Athens became the rod of attraction for Greeks, who arrived successful the superior from each parts of the country. In 1896, Greece hosted the archetypal modern Olympic Games. By that time, the representation of the superior had radically changed. It had expanded and present was a metropolis of 140,000 residents with large buildings and important archeological sites, and the commercialized and taste intelligence halfway of the country. A existent capital.