Monastiraki
Athens' old-town flea market district, where bargain shopping spills across the square that gave the neighborhood its name.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Athens offline.
One of Athens' main shopping districts, Monastiraki packs clothing boutiques, souvenir shops, and specialty stores into the streets around its central square. The neighborhood's name — "little monastery" — traces directly to the Church of the Pantanassa standing in the square itself, so history and commerce share the same ground.
What to look for
- The Church of the Pantanassa in Monastiraki Square — the building the entire neighborhood is named after
- Pandrossou Street and Adrianou Street, the two main shopping thoroughfares running through the district
- Monastiraki Metro Station, where Line 1 and Line 3 meet at the edge of the square
Monastiraki Metro Station on the square serves both Line 1 and Line 3.
Monastiraki is one of 36 sights worth the detour in Athens, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Athens pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Athens
- ParthenonA temple built to celebrate a war victory that went on to become a church, a mosque, and a gunpowder depot — blown apart in 1687 and still being reassembled.
- Acropolis of AthensA flat-topped rock 150 m above the city where Pericles spent the 5th century BC erecting the buildings that still define Athens.
- Platonic Academy (Akadimia Platonos)Aristotle studied here for twenty years before leaving to found his own school — and the word "academy" has followed ever since.
- Classical AthensDemocracy was invented here in 508 BC — and it took a bribe at Delphi to get it started.
- Olympic Stadium Athens "Spyros Louis"Santiago Calatrava's white steel roof arches over the same track where Athens opened the 2004 Olympics — and hosted three Champions League finals.
- ErechtheionThe one Greek temple that broke every rule of classical architecture — and scholars still can't agree on what it was actually called.