Athens’ streets are known to be rich in history and wherever you look around you there is a piece of the past that is yearning to be unlocked.
The city has quite literally ‘illuminated’ history with the addition of 62 new smart signs around the streets of Athens depicting 29 key personalities of the Philhellenic Movement.
The exhibition, ‘Walking with the Philhellenes,’ showcases the honourable foreigners who helped secure Greece’s independence from the Ottoman rule.
The honoured foreign figures whose names adorn the street signs across downtown Athens are Hamilton, Santarosa, Webster, Treiber, Lord Byron, Lenormant, Heiden and Meyer.
The new smart signs include a portrait of the honoured, along with detailed historical references in both Greek and English.
At the unveiling ceremony, Mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, said that Greece “owed a great deal” to the Philhellenic movement.
“It is therefore very important for us to get to know them, to follow in their steps with our mind’s eye and to reacquaint ourselves with our past by exploring our city,” Mr Bakoyannis added.
