ATHENS: An ancient city transforms itself into a great modern city




Athens

This is an ancient city that basks in the glory of what its people achieved two and a half thousand years ago. At its peak, the golden age of Pericles, it was the most splendid and brilliant city in the known world not only because of its sparkiing marble temples and artistic wonders but also because of the heights it reached thanks to its philosophers, mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, politicians and great thinkers. More than any other Greek city, it helped shape western civilization as we now know it having been the birthplace of democracy.

But what did it achieve in the two thousand or so years that passed since then? Not much, in fact until a couple of hundred years ago, it was merely a small town overshadowed by Costantinople which out shone it, first under Byzantium and later as Istanbul under the Ottoman occupation. Had it not been for the surviving marble temples on and around the Acropolis, it would have fallen into complete obscurity, which is the fate that met its great rival: ancient Sparta.

After 1821 and the liberation of Greece from Ottoman rule, it became the capital of the first Hellenic state and began to flourish again. The intentions of the newly freed Greeks who governed were certainly good but by the 1960's it went out of control, it became a sprawling metropolis with little regard for city planning. This in turn brought the massive traffic jams that clogged the city for the past couple of decades. The pollution levels went through the roof and one began to wonder what happened to that great civilization of 2 millenia ago, as Athens transformed itself into a grey, dirty and ugly megalopolis gone amok.

But finally the 2004 Olympic games came back to the place where they originated and this gave the city the boost it needed. They finally got around to building the stadiums but more importantly for Athenians, the city's infrastructure was completely overhauled.

I saw Athens like I have never seen it before. It is almost as if a fairy flew above it and with a wave of her wand made the city beautiful again. The greatness of some of its historical buildings was restored. Everywhere I looked I found evidence of the fairy's works.

But in my mind, nothing symbolizes more strongly the transformation of the city as does the new metro. It had been an unattainable dream for decades, so riding it made feel a tinge of pride as I decided that Athens finally deserves to join the ranks of its European sisters and call itself a great city, at least in my opinion.


© evangelo costadimas 2005

Posted: Wednesday - November 02, 2005 at 10:34 PM          

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