🇬🇷 The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens, Greece

Hello Steemians,

In this post, I would like to share with you some pictures from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, and the new National Library of Greece.

Stavros Niarchos (1909 – 1996) was a multi-billionaire Greek shipping tycoon, and one of the key figures of global petroleum shipping. He was also a thoroughbred horse breeder, and his horses won many cups.

Niarchos was born in Athens, to wealthy naturalized American parents, and studied Law at the University of Athens. His great opportunity came with the Suez Canal Crisis in 1956; a demand for large tonnage ships developed, and Niarchos, owner of such ships, quickly became a billionaire.

His arch rival was another legendary Greek shipping magnate: Aristotle Onassis. He and Onassis would always compete with each other, who would build the largest fleet.

Stavros Niarchos

At the time of his death, Stavros Niarchos' estate was estimated to exceed $22 billion, and a significant part of that was bequeathed to a charitable trust, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) (1).

In 2006, the SNF announced the construction of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), a project that would include the new National Library of Greece, the new Greek National Opera, and the Stavros Niarchos Park, a 210,000 m² park for educational and recreational activities (2).

I visited the SNFCC on February 2017, on a chilly, gloomy wintry day. The library had just been opened, but unfortunately there were no books on the shelves! I believe the situation has been rectified now. I haven't been back there recently, always mean to, and always keep postponing it. The pictures you see are from 2017. I will repost, as soon as I revisit.

Entrance to the Libary

The Library

Stavros Niarchos Park

Kids playing at the park

The SNFCC is a very active cultural hub for Athens. Numerous educational and recreational activities take place here throughout the year, and many of these are actually free 😉.

And that's the end of today's post. I hope you liked it, and that you will follow me to the next one.

So, have a good day, and we'll speak again soon!

Image credits:
Stavros Niarchos: from https://upload.wikimedia.org

Text credits:
1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavros_Niarchos
2.https://www.snfcc.org/about/vision/