National Garden

In 1836, Friedrich von Gaerthner, the Bavarian architect, chose the Analabi’s hill – today’s Syntagma Square – as the most suitable area to construct the palace of the King Otto, of the newly established Greek state.The area of “Exechorou” as it was called was the perfect choice topographically, climaticly and socially and was about half a million m2.

Surrounding buildings:Egyptian Embassy – Ministry of Foreign Affairs – French Embassy – Italian Embassy – Benaki Museum – The Maximos Mansion – The Presidential Mansion – The Parliament (Old Palace).

Garden BuildingsBotanical Museum – Children Library – Bouzi

Garden Plants The configuration and planting of the Garden took place gradually. In the beginning, 15,000 ornamental plants, were from transferred from Genoa in 1839 for the planting of the first part of the garden (30acres).

Garden Birds The National Garden iw an oasis in the concrete metropolis for the winged world of Athens. The best known winged inhabitants are the sparrow, the owl, the robin, the magpie, the hoopoe. The birds come in the garden because they find abundant food and nesting sites.

Created by Agapi Ariadni Polymeropoulou - Translated by Niki Katsari