Zappeion
The first building ever raised for the modern Olympic revival — and its patron's head is sealed inside one of the walls.
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Designed by Danish architect Theophil Hansen and opened in 1888, the Zappeion has been the 1896 Olympics fencing hall, the 1906 Olympic Village, home to Greece's first national radio station, and the room where Greece signed into the European Community in 1979. It still hosts official ceremonies — a working civic building, not a roped-off relic.
What to look for
- The marble-clad peristyle hall where Greece signed its EU accession documents in May 1979
- The exterior, which Hansen designed in the same style as his Austrian Parliament Building
- The wall where benefactor Evangelis Zappas's head is reportedly buried — he died before the building was finished
Sits between the National Gardens and the Temple of Olympian Zeus — easy to take in all three in a single walk.
Zappeion 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.