Skaramagka Street - Photo credit: Stergios Karavatos
Wherever you live, you’ve likely passed a building and wondered about its history.
Who used to live there? Who lives there now? In Athens, scores of buildings spread through the city’s neighborhoods—neoclassical, eclectic, and modernist edifices from the inter- and post-war periods—stand alone between newer buildings like memories of a bygone era.
Until a few years ago, no official recording of these buildings had taken place, apart from fragmentary documentation of structures of a certain period or in specific geographical areas.
Since 2013, the team at MONUMENTA, aided by a small army of volunteers, has led a meticulous effort to protect the city’s architectural heritage, documenting more than 10,600 buildings between 1830 and 1940.
As part of this effort, which was carried out with the exclusive support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), MONUMENTA recently created a smartphone application to help users locate and learn about thousands of historic buildings, from Plaka to Nea Filadelfeia to Kallithea, on a digital map of Athens.
The next time you’re walking around Athens and come across an intriguing building, you’ll finally be able to get answers.
Building, 64, Aghia Lavra Street - Source: Monumenta
Kalamos, Attica - Source: Monumenta