Recovering and Rebuilding: Athens in 1951-1953

Background

1951 - Greece was finally at peace and rebuilding after a terrible decade of invasion, occupation, and civil war.  The Civil War had ended in 1949, during which tens of thousands died from starvation and Communist death squads. And the brutal civil war had followed invasion and occupation by German and Italian troops during World War II.  By 1950, a constitutional monarchy was in place, with backing from the United States and NATO. Athens was the capital, the economic and political center of a recovering country. Rebuilding the economy and putting people to work was a critical element of the Truman Doctrine. As written in Wikipedia, "The Truman Doctrine was an international relations policy set forth by the U.S. President Harry Truman in a speech on March 12, 1947, which stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere."

In many ways, the Cold War began in Greece. The United States played a heavy-handed role in running Greek affairs from the late-1940s through the 1960s. As a benefit, Greece experienced its first two decades of peace in the 20th century, as well as an unprecedented economic boom. But there were many critics. For anti-U.S. views of the post-war era in Greece, I recommend Papandreau (1970) and Roubatis (1987).

This short introduction to the political situation in the 1950s sets the stage for my family's residence in Athens. Many American companies set up offices to design and construct civil works and infrastructure development projects, mostly funded by U.S. foreign aide. My father was a hydraulic engineer and accepted a job to help conduct watershed and hydraulic studies as part of major water supply projects. He moved to Athens in February of 1951. Planners expected Athens to grow in the post-war era, although I doubt they anticipated that it would eventually be a metropolis of 3.09 million in 2011 (General Secretariat of National Statistical Service of Greece).

Athens in 1951

In the early 1950s, Athens was still a very "European" capital, with tree-shaded streets, parks, and elegant early-20th century houses. The following photographs document some of my father's wanderings in this historic city.

This is the view from Mt. Hymmetus, a mountain range east of the city. Athens was a compact urban area with fields and olive groves on the outskirts.  Today this scene would reveal total urban sprawl, concrete, and smog. And notice the clear blue sky. My father noted in his diary that he had never been to a major city with such clean air.

Athens in 1953, Kodachrome film

The contemporary Acropolis viewpoint (Kodak digital file)

This is the view northeast from the Acropolis. In 1953, Athens was a city of 2- and 3-floor stone buildings with sloped tile roofs and just a few taller modern buildings. Fortunately, Athens was not bombed in World War II (although the Port of Piraeus was). Many elegant mansions and townhouses from the late-1800s were still standing. But most were torn down in the pell-mell burst of post-war uncontrolled urban growth. Only in recent years have Athenians realized how much of their architectural heritage they destroyed. Now much of Athens is a boring concrete mess with massive traffic jams.

Temple of Zeus with Mt. Hymmetus in the distance

Temple of Zeus

The Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Gate have always been popular tourist sites.

In the early 1950s, you could walk right into the Parthenon and clamber among the rocks. Now tourists are restricted to wood boardwalks.

Syndagma Square and the Grande Bretagne Hotel

Changing of the guard, Syndagma Square.

Syndagma Square, in front of the Parliament Building, was the tourist and political center of Athens. Parades were held here and families brought their children on Sundays to walk around. The hotel in the background is the Hotel Grand Bretagne (Ξενοδοχείο Μεγάλη Βρεταννία), in business since 1874. On Christmas Day, 1944, while Winston Churchill was a guest (the German Army had been driven out only three months previously), British army engineers discovered a huge dynamite bomb in the sewers below the hotel (Churchill, 1953). British sappers successfully defused the bomb, sparing the hotel and its illustrious guest.

Note the yellow tram. I remember when the tracks were taken out in the late-1950s, one of those misguided "modernization" steps to substitute smelly diesel buses instead. I wonder if General Motors had a hand in this as in U.S. cities?

The older parks and city squares were beautifully planted with palms and gardens. Many now are paved.

Omonia Square, Athens, 1953

Omonia Square was the heart of the commercial city, close to markets and factories. The Metro to Piraeus and Kiffisias ran underneath. Notice the blue sky....

Paltea Kotzia, in front of the National Bank of Greece Building

From Omonia, you could walk south on Athinas Street towards the Monastiraki District and the Acropolis.

Central Market, Athens

Central Market, Athens

Walk south from Omonia, and you soon reached the famous Central Market. It has not changed all that much to this day. We have explored the Central Market before (click the link).

Athens Flea Market, 1953

Athens Flea Market, 1953

Further south, one would have entered Monasteraki Square, in the Plaka district. On a narrow street to the right was the flea market. It is still there, although rather modernized. We have explored the flea market before:

1951 (black and white film)
2013

Somewhere in the Plaka, Athens (Kodak digital file)

The Plaka area also has not changed too much, but it has been gentrified over the decades. For a more recent view, click the 2013 link.

References

Churchill, W.S., 1953. The Second World War, Volume VI, Triumph and Tragedy.  Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, NY., 717 p.

Papandreou, Andreas, 1970. Democracy at Gunpoint: The Greek Front.  Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 365 p.

(Note, this is the same Andreas Papandreou who was Prime Minister of Greece in the 1980s. He had a troubled relationship with the United States when it suited his political needs, even though he served in the U.S. Navy, had U.S. citizenship, married an American wife, and taught economics at Berkeley.)

Roubatis, Yiannis, 1987. Tangled Webs, the U.S. in Greece, 1947-1967. Pella Publishing Company, New York, NY, 228 p.

Camera notes

My dad took the 1953 photographs with a Leica IIIC rangefinder camera with 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens (I still use this lens regularly). The Kodachrome film was processed in the United States or France with difficulty because of the undependable postal service in the early 1950s. I scanned the Kodachrome slides on a Plustek 7600i film scanner using Silverfast Ai software.

Revisit to the Pláka of Athens, Greece

When visiting Athens, one of your first destinations should be the Acropolis and the Pláka District. Compared to the noisy and congested modern city, in the Pláka, you have a sense of village life before the cars and mobile phones and pollution.  To refresh your geography, the Acropolis is the limestone hill on which temples and sacred precincts have existed for 3000 years.  Classical Athens was situated around the Acropolis, and the Pláka is the last remnant of the 1800s village that clung to the slopes before 20th century urban sprawl.

First, here is a 1951 photograph of the Acropolis taken on Kodak Plus-X black and white film. The big temple is the Parthenon.

View from the University of Athens History Museum (site of the original 1800s university).

Walk in the Pláka, look up, and the Acropolis looms above you.  History is everywhere. The two photographs above were taken from The University of Athens History Museum. The building is one of the few remaining from before the King Otto era. From 1837 to 1841, it served as the first university of the independent Greek State.  The museum is free, and the building is air conditioned if you need a cool break.

The narrow lanes wind up and down, and are really pleasant.

View north with Mount Lycabettus in the distance

Sadly, look in the distance, and the frenetic, uncontrolled post-World War II urban construction is all too evident.  Thousands of elegant homes, mansions and early 20th century Art Nouveau buildings were demolished and replaced with rapidly-constructed concrete boxes.

Still, take your time, look around, and stop for a relaxing drink or meal under an umbrella.

Temple of the Winds, 1951

Here is the Temple of the Winds, another 1951 scene.  This view does not look very different today.

I have written about the flea market in the Monastiraki District before.It is a bit dull compared to the 1950s (see the link) but still worth a visit.

It is definitely worth a visit to see lovelies like these two.

Emerge from the flea market, and you are in Monasteraki Square, now a popular meeting spot with easy access to the Metro. Beware of pick-pockets.

Turn around and look south, and there is the Acropolis dominating the skyline.  The building in the foreground is a former mosque, one of the few remaining from the Ottoman era.

Editorial note:  The US media is full of ominous stories about the terrible state of the Greek economy, strikes, civil disobedience, and general gloom and decay.  The stories may be true to some extent, but as a tourist, you are mostly sheltered. The Greek people are as friendly as ever, the restaurants a bit less expensive than five years ago, the food as good as ever, the wine better, the scenery as magical as ever, and the ladies weigh less than 300 lb. Moral: don't believe the scare stories in the media.

Update, October 2016:  Conditions have deteriorated badly in Athens. In 2015, it looked almost "normal." One year later, the city looks distinctly grungy, as if buildings have not been pressure-washed or painted in years. In rural Greece, trash is everywhere. Street repair is of a much lower standard than before. Graffiti has been sprayed on almost all flat surfaces as well as on busses and trams. The area between Omonia and Monasteraki has a distinctly Middle-East flavor and crime there has increased. I am changing my previous opinion and now recommend tourists not travel to Greece until it can sort out its financial and security issues. It's really sad.

2013 digital images were from July 2013 with a Nexus 4 phone, reprocessed with ACDsee Pro software. The 1951 photographs were from a Canon rangefinder camera (possibly a model IIB) with 50mm ƒ/1.9 Serenar lens.

Village in the city: Pláka, Athens, Greece

The Acropolis hill has been occupied since Neolithic times. For millennia, people lived around the base of the hill because it was blessed with natural springs. But when visiting Athens today, other than the Acropolis and various other classical remains such as the Agora, most of what we see is a modern city. The first post-Turkish-era king of the modern state, King Otto, brought in his Bavarian architects to design an elegant European capital city with a palace (now the Parliament), parks, and broad boulevards. Greece and Athens suffered terribly during World War II and in the brutal Civil War that followed. But much of what we see today was the result of frantic uncontrolled urban expansion that followed the end of the Civil War in 1949. Beautiful old mansions and municipal buildings were torn down and replaced with concrete boxes. Now they look like mass-produced, tired 1960s concrete boxes.

First some geography. The Acropolis is the limestone hill in the middle of the view. This is a photograph taken from Lycabettus Hill facing west at sunset. The port city of Piraeus is in the upper right, and ferry boats and container ships are in the roadstead off the port. The big temple on the Acropolis is the Parthenon.  Look at the base of the limestone bluff below the Parthenon, and you can see a cluster of small houses. This is known as the Pláka district (Greek: Πλάκα). The uppermost houses are the Ano Plaka or upper Plaka. This area has been inhabited for centuries, and this is all that remains of medieval Athens.

Now let's reverse positions.  This is the view east from the base of the Acropolis towards the Lycabettus hill. The post-World War II city fills the entire valley now.

This is the view from the Acropolis in 1900. The royal palace (now parliament building) is in the distance, and the city spreads out in the foreground. I scanned this from the left side of a stereo card. The only printed information stated, "Webster & Albee, Rochester, NY."

Walking in the warren of lanes in Ano Pláka, you almost think you are in a village (if you ignore the din of the traffic in the distance).  On a sunny day, the area has an island look.

Most of the houses have been restored since the 1960s, when this was a hippy haven and pretty grungy.

Cats love it up here, especially on a warm sunny day.

There is a lot more graffiti now, worse then I ever remember it. This is one consequence of the Greek economic crisis.

There is also widespread disgust with the priesthood, but, to its credit, the church runs many soup kitchens and helps the hungry and poor.  (The priest above is carrying a bag of Euros).

There are still some dilapidated lots in Pláka, just waiting for a rich American to bring funds and start restoring. Ever hear the term, "money pit?"

As you descend into the Kato (lower) Pláka, you enter the popular tourist area, rife with restaurants and souvenir shops.

This is the Temple of the Winds, in which a water clock once measured the time. The Acropolis is in the distance.

Finally, the Athens flea market is worth a visit. In the 1950s, I remember this being filled with vendors of car parts, mufflers, old clothes, toys, used tools, and junk in general. It has been gentrified, and many of the stores sell pseudo-designer clothes, souvenirs, and miscellaneous modern junk. I did find a music store with a good collection of Maria Callas CDs.  We will explore the flea market in more detail later.

The equally colorful Central Market is only a 10-minute walk away towards Omonia Square.

Best wishes for a prosperous 2013 to all readers!