At the time of the first Modern
Olympics in 1896 ,
Athens was a dusty provincial town hankering after
the cosmopolitan sophistication of the West. Back then, visitors
could enjoy a quiet stroll from the river Ilissos - off the
refurbished Kallimarmaron stadium - to the newly discovered Kerameikos
cemetery ,
along what is now one of the busiest thoroughfares
of the capital.
Over a century later, the prospect of the Athens
2004 Olympic Games ( http://www.2004.gr ,
http://www.2004news.gr , http://www.cultural-olympiad.org.gr )
has led to the implementation of a 25-year-old dream: to link
the city's major ancient sites in a vast pedestrian network,
a modern Panathenaic Way closed to all vehicles
but public transport.
"We want to create an area where people can walk,
starting from the ancient stadium, past the Acropolis
, and through the Thissio to the Kerameikos," Prime
Minister Costas Simitis
told journalists after a visit to the area in February.
"This will allow easy access to the archaeological
sites . Our intention is to increase the space where
citizens can find peace away from the traffic and the noise
of the city, and an interesting approach to the sites."
The Project
In January 2000, work began on a 200m. section
of Dionyssiou Areopagitou Street, starting at the site
of the new Acropolis Museum . Eventually,
the project will reach to the ruins of ancient Eleusis, in
an industrial zone 22 kilometres away.
The New Acropolis Museum
The new GRD 50 billion Acropolis Museum is being built on
the site of the former Makriyianni barracks.
Within its 10,000 square metre exhibition area,
Athens hopes eventually to display the British Museum's collection
of 5th century BC Parthenon
marbles , removed from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin
in the early 19th century.
By summer 2001, the 1.7 kilometre stretch of tarmac
from the Roman Arch of Hadrian to the classical Dipylon Gate
at Kerameikos will be paved in Cycladic marble and stone.
This walkway will be the heart of a web extending from the
site of the first modern Olympics to the overgrown foundations
of Plato's Academy , four kilometres to the
west.
The greater part of the work will have been completed
in time for the 2004 Olympics .
Priority is given to linking the Temple of Olympian Zeus with
the Acropolis, Philopappos Hill, the ancient and Roman Agoras,
Hadrian's Library, and Kerameikos cemetery.
All six sites will be spruced up, the ancient structures
conserved and restored to a degree. Furthermore,
paving work - involving excavations to a depth of half
a metre - is expected to further clarify the map of ancient
Athens.
The ten-year project, expected to cost over GDR 150 billion,
is managed by a state-run company set up in 1997 to unite
the ministries of culture and public works in one of the greatest
town-planning ventures of recent years.
