Athens - Academy of Arts

This building on Panepistimíou (University) Street - now officially Venizélou Street - together with the University, National Library and the New Palace, are the most striking achievements of the young kingdom of Greece in the field of architecture and town planning. It was designed by the Hansen brothers of Copenhagen.

The two flanking buildings of the Academy were designed by Christian Hansen's younger brother Theophil (1813-91) in a richer style than the university. The design for both buildings was prepared in 1859, and work began in that year on the Academy of Sciences (to right of the University), which was financed by a Greek living in Vienna, Baron Sina. The building was not completed, however, until 1885. When restored in 1982 the Ionic columned-hall was returned to its original coloring. The carved pediments display the gods of Olympia. In front of the buildings are seated sculptures of Plato and Socrates, and to the side of them, on tall Ionic columns, are the deities Athena and Apollo.