The Syntagma Metro Station (Red & Blue Lines) Excavations

This area belongs to the eastern half of ancient Athens which extended from the southern foothills of Mt. Lykabettos (Queen Sophia's and University Avenues) to the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus and the east side of the ancient fortifications (near the ministry of education, as far as the eastern edge of the National Garden or Iroidou Attika St.). The excavation for Syntagma Station was conducted on the west slope of the low hill that existed on the side of the Greek Parliament, the top of which was leveled in 1836 when King Otto's palace was built there.

This is a privileged location, with plenty of water from the two rivers that flowed through it, The Illisos to the south and the Eridanos to the north, a feeder of which came down from Mt. Lykabettus, passed under the esplanade of the Unknown Soldier, crossed Amalia's Avenue diagonally and via Othonos, Mitropoleos and Hadrian streets reached the keramicos (potters quarter) where is is (barely) visible today.

In antiquity the area was extra muros, that is outside the walls of the city of Athens, and specifically outside the east branch of the ancient fortification which passes today close to the Ministry of Education. It was therefore natural that cemeteries and workshops were located here. Its southern part, where the excavation in the Zappion shaft was conducted was an idyllic landscape, watered by the river Illisos and with lush verdant vegetation. Many sanctuaries were founded hereabouts from earliest times, while it was a place of residence and burial too. The east edge of the area where the excavation for the National Gardens shaft was conducted was also extra muros in antiquity and close to the road artery to the demes of Mesogeia. From early times a large cemetery developed here. However, with the eastwards expansion of Athens during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, the area of Syntagma Sq., The National Gardens and Zappion was included in the layout of the city and indeed formed a wealthy quarter, since new sanctuaries, private and public buildings and bath-houses were built here.

The Excavations for the Athens Metro

Displayed in the exhibition area of the station are finds from the excavations made in the course of constructing the Athens Metro, in Syntagma Station its two ventilation shafts in the Zappeion and the Nation Garden. The excavations were conducted by the third Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, in Athens, with personnel, equipment and technical infrastructure provided by Attiko Metro S. A. Essentially it was the contribution of the project contractor, Olympiako Metro, which backed the difficult and painstaking endeavor in every way.

The excavations carried out here (fig 1, 2, 3 see map) was one of the largest in Athens, since the total area investigated, along the Amalia's Avenue and in the eastern part of Syntagma Sq., was 7,500 sq meters. Work began in late 1992 and lasted until mid 1994, with intervening breaks on account of traffic diversions. The many and important finds confirmed the continuous occupation of this area from the classical period to the 19th C, while sporadic evidence of earlier use also came to light. Among the features excavated were the bed of a tributary of the river Eridanos, sections of the classical branches of the Peisistratos Aqueduct, the central roadway to the demes Mesogeia, bronze foundries, cemeteries of the late Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods, a large Late Roman complex with bath installations, a Roman Aqueduct with a very dense network of pipes, a cluster of Early Christian and Byzantine ossuaries (to hold human bones), part of the Byzantine city with built storage jars, a water supply system of the Ottoman period and a sections of Amalia's Street from the reign of King Otto. On completion of the excavations, the most significant and representative architectural remains were removed and placed in a specially arranged park on the University campus of Zographou.

The excavation for the Zappeion ventilation shaft was carried out near the junction of Amalia's Avenue and Vasilissis Olga's Avenues and lasted from mid-1994 to early 1996. The Roman Baths uncovered here are preserved in situ and will be an archeological site open to visitors, incorporated within the project for the unification of archaeological sites of Athens.

The excavation for the National Gardens ventilation shaft took place in the first half of 1995, inside the National Gardens, near Irodou Attika Street and adjacent to the barracks of the Presidential Guard. Among other finds, part of the Peisistratean aqueduct, an Early Roman cemetery, 15 rooms of a larger Roman public building and part of the central drainage-sewagage networks of the period were revealed

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