Retro Photos of Early 20th Century Athens

Hello everybody,

My last post was dedicated to 19th century Athens, but for today I got some rare photos from the early decades of the 20th century that give us an image of Athens back then. I don't know what went wrong and the most historic city in the Western World ended up looking like the concrete mess it is today, but Greece's capital could have been modernized in a truly beautiful way. Apparently, some people in power just didn't want to for their own reasons (and profit).

I don't know exactly from which street this photo was taken, but if I have to guess I would say that this has to be Aiolou street....It looks like Plaka, but it's definitely not Plaka judging from the Parthenon's position in the photo. What do you think fellas?

Here's Panepistimiou back in the 1930s.

A picture of Piraeus before Olympiakos was found and pollute the port of the city. At least with Piraeus we know what went wrong post 1925 he he ;)

Τhe old tram of Athens. Lycabettus Hill can be seen on the background.

Here's a shot from the left side of Syntagma square of the GORGEOUS building in Ermou that today looks like shite and hosts Prinou&McDonald's. It's so sad that they had to take down this neoclassical gem to build the hideous looking glass construction that is there today.

I could be wrong (as it looks like it could be Athinas Street as well) but I have the impression that this is Panepistimiou Street (towards its end in the way to Omonoia). Again, I will need help here.

Source: All photos were taken from Η Παληά Αθήνα Facebook Page.