The final episode of Athens Unpacked. Despite the devastating financial crisis, the arts continued to flourish in Athens during the second decade of the 21st century. From wealthy benefactors creating impressive cultural centres to street artists and buskers improving the quality of life in the city centre, high and low cultures co-exist and nourish each
Episode 7. BIRTH AND DEATH THE ATHENIAN WAY Athenians remain attached to the traditions of the Orthodox Church, from lighting a candle in a little church while out shopping to wanting a priest at the major rites of passage from birth to death.
From popular songs to great poets, episode 6 of Athens Unpacked looks at the central place of poetry and music in Athenian life. Both the Asia Minor refugees’ rembetika and the traditional dimotika, ‘folk songs’ have influenced today’s creators and performers. The great composers, Theodorakis and Xatzidakis used the work of Nobel-prize winning poets lyrics
From ancient philosophers and open-air cinema to protest marches and street dogs, this episode ponders on the penchant for protesting, and also how much of Athenian life happens outside. © Thomas Gravanis Photo: Lara Papadimitriou Photo: Michalis Kamakas Photo: Lara Papadimitriou Photo: Lara Papadimitriou
From Farmers’ markets to kite-flying picnics, this episode looks at food, tastes and smells in Athens.
Few Athenians are so-called ‘True Athenians’ and the city often seems like a collection of villagers, refugees and outsiders.
From Bavarian grand plans to “part-exchange” building schemes. When Greece became an independent nation state in the 1830s, King Otto arrived with his Bavarian entourage. They introduced beer… and planned a new Athens inspired by ancient aesthetics. Sofka meets architect Lazaris Zaoussis at the neoclassical Academy to discuss this city of dreams. During the 20th
From a little-known hill to a hidden tunnel. Sofka introduces the series and herself: a British writer and one-time anthropologist, she’s an adopted Greek with a Russian name. We visit an unfamiliar hill – the Tourkovounia. Former US diplomat and archaeologist Brady Kiesling gives a sense of Athens’ geography – an urban sprawl surrounded by
