University of Athens (National Capodistrian University)

30 Panepistimiou St, Athens, 1839-1864

Architect
Hans Christian Hansen (1803-1873)



The University of Athens (National Capodistrian University), the first of the "Athenian Trilogy", is one of the top-ranking works of neohellenic classicism, but also one of the main models for the academic tradition of public buildings in Athens. Construction was begun in 1839 using the proceeds of a fund-raising campaign from Greeks at home and abroad, and was not completed until 1864 owing to inadequate funds.
The building consists of three different wings that are in the shape of a double-T on plan. Supplemented by its two lateral courtyards, it is enclosed in a rectangle. The ground floor contains four chambers in the front wing, areas for the administration and secretariat in the middle and two amphitheatres in the back wing. On the upper floor of the front wing is the library, in the middle wing is the ceremonial hall and the back wing houses the Natural History Museum.
The building as a whole has a simple, neoclassical line and grandeur. The façade is symmetrically articulated with a projecting Ionic porch on the axis, a colonnade with ordinary piers on each side, and solid sections at the edges. The frieze on the colonnade is adorned with a work drawn by the Bavarian artist Karl Rahl and painted by the Polish artist Lembietsky on the theme of the renaissance of the fine arts and sciences in Greece under King Otho.
The main virtues of Christian Hansen’s neoclassical building are its simple plastic and chromatic treatment and its human scale.

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