The wider area

   The most important sights of Athens are a breath away from our guest house and actually without need to use public or private transportation, like:

• the pedestrianized Apostolou Pavlou street where the Acropolis is present in every glance. Don’t hesitate to sit at a coffeeshop to enjoy the view…
• the Herakleidon museum with a variety of educational exhibitions (herakleidon-art.gr),
• the Observatory on the Hill of the Nymphs, with a great view,
• the summer cinema cine Thiseion, one of the most beautiful cinemas in the world, with a great view of the Acropolis and a very tasty homemade spoon sweet grom sour cherry,
• the sidewalk of Thiseio (its name coming from the temple of Thiseio or of Hephaestus in the Ancient Agora) – going parallel to the train tracks – where you can enjoy your walk having a view of not only the Acropolis but of the Stoa of Attalos peeking up from the Ancient Agora,
• the two Hebrew Synagogues of Athens,
• the Synagogue of the Ancient Agora of Athens,
• the Athenaum Music School (a musical multipurpose space) dedicated to Maria Kallas,
• the Byzantine church of the Agioi Asomatoi in the square with the same name,
• the church of Agia Marina of Thiseio on the square with the same name that is integrated with a cavernous church of the 13^th century,
• the Ancient Agora with the Panathineon street, the Stoa of Attalos, dated at 150 BC, housing the museum of the Ancient Agora, the Agioi Apostoloi church, and the temple of Hephaestus, also known as Hephaesteio or Thiseio, one of the most well-maintained temples of the ancient world, dated to the 5^th century BC, the “golden” century of Pericles. In the area of the Ancient Agora the most important events of Athens were taking place, from the Mycenean period…
• the Monastiraki square with the old church of Panagia the Pantanassa, also known as the “church of the Great Monastery,” giving its name to the square, the Tsisdaraki mosque, built on the 18^th century using second-hand materials from older buildings as well as ancient sites, and the ruins of the Hadrian’s library,
• the Avissinias square with its famous antique shops,
• the Psyri district, which under the Ottoman occupation contained the residences of noble families, and then – after the war – it was turned into an industrial area, with tanneries, leatherworks, shoemakers, blacksmiths, and more,
• the oldest picturesque neighbourhood of Plaka, through the Monastiraki square and the pedestrianised Adrianos street, where you’ll meet:
• the Roman Agora (next to the Ancient Agora), built during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus, one of the most brilliant examples of the admiration the Roman emperors had for the city of Athens,
• the hammam, also known as “The Bath House of the Winds,”
• next to the Roman Agora, in an old mansion, the museum created by the collection of Foivos Anogeianakis, when he donated it to the Greek state. The collection contains more than 1,200 Greek folk instruments, half of which are displayed in such a way that the visitor can hear the sound of every instrument. In the same area, there’s a Centre of Ethnomusicology, which offers classes for folk instruments, and in the gift shop there’s a great collection of folk music CDs,
• in Kidathineon street, in the central building of the Museum of Greek Folk Art, with representative samples of embroidery, weaving, clothes, shadow theatre, silversmithing, and more, that aid us in getting to know the folk traditions and culture of Greece

• the Acropolis Museum, in Dionisiou Aeropagitou street, with the beautiful and “alive” statues of the Parthenon. It houses 4,000 great findings of the Acropolis, and among them, there are exhibits from the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike,
• the pedestrianized street of Dionysiou Aeropagitou, one of the most beautiful walks in the city, with the Parthenon on one side, and great mansions on the other. With the unification of the archaeological sites, the street begins in the Olympeion (the Temple of the Olympian Zeus), and joins the Apostolou Pavlou street, connecting the archaeological sites of the Olympeion, of the Theatre of Dionysus, of the Oden of Herodes Atticus, of the Acropolis, and of the Areios Pagos…
• in a side street of Dionysiou Aeropagitou, there’s the only museum of contemporary jewellery of Greece, the Ilias Lalaounis Jewellery Museum. More than 4,000 pieces of jewellery are exhibited, as well as small sculptures from more than 50 collections, designed by its founder, from 1940 and later,
• the Theatre of Dionysus,
• the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an open-air theatre built at the foot of the sacred rock of Acropolis, which was donated to the city of Athens by the roman emperor of the same name, to honour his last wife. It was restored in the 1950s, and it houses cultural events during the summer months since then. Don’t hesitate to visit one of these…
• and, of course, the sacred rock of the Acropolis, which was a fortress since its founding – the “edge (akro) of the city (polis)” – stands tall since the age of Copper, built in the 5^th century BC, during Pericles’ golden age and during the Athenian Democracy, along with the Propylaea, the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena.

• the Jewish Museum, which is housed in a neoclassical building near Syntagma square, where you can admire exhibits-remnants of the 2,300 years of Jew life in Greece. Items from the Holocaust hold a distinguished place among them,
• the Greek Children’s Museum, whose purpose is the design and execution of educational programs for kids up to 12 years old,
• the Frissiras Private Museum of Modern European Paintings, founded by the Frissiras family, housed in two beautiful neoclassical buildings in Plaka, containing paintings, drawings, and sculptures of famous European and Greek artists made after 1940,
• in a neoclassical mansion on the foot of Acropolis, the Museum of Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulou, with one of the largest private collections of ancient findings in the country – a donation to the Greek state with over 6,000 items and pieces of art from the prehistorical times up to more recent years,
• in the highest part of the area, with an impressive view, there’s the “Anafiotika” where the houses are built according to the architecture of the Cyclades, so the whole neighbourhood reminds the visitor of the Greek islands,
• interesting byzantine churches and beautiful restored neoclassical houses,
• and of course, countless traditional little taverns, where you shouldn’t hesitate to sit and enjoy the local delicacies…
• the most historical road of post-war Athens, connecting Syntagma square with Thiseio and Monastiraki, is the Ermou Street, where you can shop and admire the byzantine church of Panagia the Kapnikarea that sits in almost the half-mark of the distance between the two. The church was built on the ruins of an ancient temple, and its name is believed to come from the one who built it, who was a building tax collector in the time of the Byzantine, called the “kapnikos” tax (a tax for all households and institutions, the word meaning “smoky,” and named after the smoke of the hearth)… Ermou street connects the Kerameikos cemetery on one side with Syntagma square on the other…
• the archaeological site or cemetery of Kerameikos (its entrance is in Ermou street) with copies of burial monuments, since the originals are now in museums, and it’s impressive because the Eridanos river still flows through the area… A small museum functions inside the archaeological site which houses burial items coming from the excavations in the area of the necropolis,
• next to the archaeological site, a Study Centre for Contemporary Ceramics, an institution with the purpose of saving and promoting usable Greek ceramics from the beginning of the 19^th The institution also hosts classes and seminars of pottery, and you can buy authentic pottery from the museum’s gift shop,
• near Kerameikos cemetery, in a beautiful neoclassical building, you can find the Mpenakis Museum of Islamic Art, with representative samples of the Islamic culture from the 7^th to the 19^th One of the most famous items in the collection are the two Mesopotamian doors, the wicker carpet of Tiberias, and the velvet saddle of Prousa, while there’s also an impressive representation of the marble welcome room of a 17^th century mansion in Cairo. You can also find a well “hidden” coffeeshop with a great view from the terrace,
• the Technopolis of Gazi, that during the 1860s, it first housed the gas factory of Athens, while today it houses many exhibitions, seminars, concerts, and other cultural events. Some of its buildings are inspired by the names of famous Greek poets…
• in the crossing of the Dionisiou Aeorpagitou and the Apostolou Pavlou streets, a path to the Filopappou Hill and the Pnyx sets off. On top of the Filopappou Hill or the Hill of the Muses – as it’s also known as – there’s a burial monument of the same name of the Roman prince Julius Antiochus Philopappos from the Roman period. Don’t forget to visit the monastery of Agios Dimitrios the Loumpardiaris, or simply take a walk between the olives, the sacred tree of the ancient city of Athens,
• next to the Filopappou Hill, there’s the Pnyx Hill, where, during the ancient times, the Ekklesia or the Popular Assembly of Athens gathered, as well as the Areios Pagos or the Supreme Court, and the hill was the seat of the most ancient court of Athens, where, in about 51-52 AD, Apostle Paul arrived to speak about Christianity, first going to Faliro. In his honour, the road going around the Acropolis was named Apostolou Pavlou…