A municipality open to all, an iconic building open to all. A highly symbolic event is taking place today and tomorrow at the Athens City Hall, in Kotzia Square.

Under the auspices of the Municipality of Athens, as part of the Open House Athens program and in collaboration with the municipality’s Athens Culture Net, the residents of the capital – and not only – will have the opportunity to enjoy an architectural tour with free participation, in the premises of City Hall, a unique building with a great history.

According to data previously published by Zetta Antonopoulou, head of the Cultural Heritage Department of the Municipality of Athens, the building of the City Hall began to be built in Athens in 1872 during the mayorship of P. Kyriakou, after a loan of 130,000 dirhams was granted by the National Bank and was inaugurated in 1874. The design of the building was done in a strict neoclassical style, it was the prevailing architectural style at that time. The architect of the building was Panagiotis Kalkos, a famous and important architect of the time.

At the beginning, on the ground floor, due to the scarcity of the municipality’s financial resources, there were shops that provided it with some income, while the operation of the town hall was limited to the first floor.

Much later, changes were made to the building, the first reforms were carried out in 1901, during the mayorship of Spyros Merkouris, and concerned renovation and repair work mainly inside the building, while in the period 1935-1937 (during the mayorships of K. Kotzias and A. Plytas) the third floor, the decorative elements of the facades were removed, the shop entrances were converted into windows and the base of the building was covered with marble slabs.

In the period between the wars, the City Hall took the form it has today. In 1937, the first decoration works of the Town Hall began, which were assigned to very important artists of the time: Fotis Kontoglou and George Gounaropoulos.

At the main entrance of the building, going up the grand staircase, to the right and left, wonderful compositions in stained glass are revealed, depicting myths connected to Athens and covering an area of ​​about 30 square meters. These are newer works belonging to Takis Parlavantzas, according to the information provided by Mrs. Antonopoulou. Much newer works are the mosaics of Vlasis Tsotsonis, which also speak of Athens. In one the subject is the goddess Athena-Peace of the World and in the other Saint Dionysios the Areopagite, protector and patron of the city.

In the Banqueting Hall with the large heavy wooden table in the middle of the room and the doors of enormous dimensions, are the display cases with the ceramic effigies of the mayors who passed through. Starting with Anargyros Petrakis who was the first mayor of the city and reaching Dimitris Avramopoulos, where this tradition stopped.

“This collection was started again under the mayor of Kotzias and it is about the works of the sculptor, painter and decorator Loukia Georgantis,” says Ms. Antonopoulou. “Of course, when Georganti died, the collection was continued for a few more years by her students. They are works of micro-sculpture created from baked clay (terracotta). What makes them so successful is the exhaustive study and design of their facial features, posture, gestures and also their detailed clothing,” he emphasizes. Next to this hall is where the political weddings of Athens take place.

On the lower side, one can admire Aspasia, Nike, the goddess Athena above, the muses, right and left, as well as the Athenians, Pheidias and Iktinos, the engineer and the sculptor of the Parthenon. Also characteristic elements of Athenian ancient history, such as Athena and Poseidon in their dispute over the sovereignty of the Attic Land or Theseus with his mother Aithra when he discovers the weapons under the rock or the Athenians with his father Aegeus who they observe the ship with the black flag. In essence, it is about recounting all these myths that exist about Athens. On another wall of the Megaros there are naval battles and battles, such as the naval battle of Salamis and Marathon, Socrates at the moment he drinks the hemlock and the “history” of Athens goes up to Herod the Atticus, Karaiskakis, Faviero and others.

The guided tour will take place, for today Saturday 1/4, from 15:00 to 19:00, while for tomorrow Sunday 2/4, from 10.00 to 14.00. Entry will be free and no reservation is required.