Olga Petrunina
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
This study analyzes the concept of Athens developed by German and Greek architects in the 1830s and its implementation as well as contemporary Greek socio-political primary sources.
In 1834 the Greek government decided to transfer the capital of the country from Nafplion to Athens. But the famous ancient polis of Athens was only a small village at the beginning of the 19th century. It had to be revived and rebuilt. Was it necessary to transfer the capital city and why? What was the conception of the new capital? Was there any interaction between an architectural concept and socio-political life in Greece?
The very idea of the capital city transfer had nothing to do with economic and military state needs. It was born as a product of an idealistic thesis that the ancient glory of Athens could be restored. But the Greek polity had no resources to embody the luxurious projects suggested by German architects. It was a difficult task to reduce the price of the Athens development plan and to retain its main idea simultaneously. Implementation of this plan was a slow process that could be finished only with the influx of diaspora investments. Meanwhile the concept of the Greek capital was changing and finally supplemented with Neo-Byzantine architecture. This modification indicates a significant change in Greek national self-identification. More realistic understanding of national history came to take place of dictated by foreigners’ attempts to revive Ancient Greece. The new concept postulated temporal and spatial unity of national history, so Athens could become a real center of modern Hellenic world instead of Constantinople.