The Athens square where citizens demanded a constitution
Cross Syntagma Square from the fountain to the former royal palace and see how a demand for a constitution gave central Athens its best-known political address.
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Athens, Greece
INTRODUCTION
Stand near the fountain in Syntagma Square and look uphill. The pale building beyond the traffic was once the home of King Otto and Queen Amalia. Today it houses the Hellenic Parliament. Between it and the square is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where the Presidential Guard changes sentries.
That short distance takes in three different uses of the same ground. A royal household once looked out over the square. Soldiers and civilians gathered here to demand a constitution, and later governments turned the palace into a place for parliamentary debate.
A walk between the fountain, the monument and the garden shows how much of the royal setting survives in the modern capital. For more places nearby, see our Athens history and travel guide.
KEY HISTORICAL MOMENT
Soldiers of the Athens garrison and civilians gathered outside the palace and demanded that Otto accept constitutional government. The royal couple had moved into the building only weeks earlier. Otto yielded, and a National Assembly produced a constitution the following year. The name Syntagma, meaning constitution, preserves the memory of the demand made outside his new home.
ORIGINS
After Greek independence, Otto of Bavaria became king and Athens became the capital. Several locations were proposed for the palace, including the Acropolis. The Bavarian architect Friedrich von Gärtner favoured a hill at the eastern edge of the growing city. The foundation stone was laid in 1836.
The building’s restrained façades gave the new capital a large, recognisable public landmark. Work brought together Greek and foreign builders, and the ancient quarry at Mount Pentelikon was reopened to supply marble. From the lower square, the rise in the ground still makes the choice of site easy to understand.
Otto and Amalia took up residence in July 1843. The palace had storerooms below, offices and service rooms on the ground floor, and reception rooms and royal apartments above. The throne room shared a floor with the dining and dancing rooms. Government business and the routines of a royal household occupied the same building.
PALACE TO PARLIAMENT
The constitution of 1844 created a system in which the king shared legislative power with a parliament and a senate. It set out protections such as the privacy of correspondence and the inviolability of the home. Otto still appointed ministers and retained substantial powers, but the terms under which he governed had changed. A separate electoral law opened voting to a broad male electorate.
The palace stayed a royal residence after Otto was expelled in 1862. His successor, George I, moved in the following year. The square’s name continued to recall an uprising against the monarchy while the building above it housed a new king.
In 1929 the government of Eleftherios Venizelos decided to move Parliament and the Senate into the former palace. Architect Andreas Kriezis replaced the central wing to create debating chambers and added a north entrance. The first parliamentary sitting in the new chamber took place on 1 July 1935.
The changes were more extensive inside than the view from the square suggests. The façades kept much of Gärtner’s design, while new offices, chambers and circulation routes allowed the building to serve a legislature. One surviving feature from the palace interiors is a long frieze depicting episodes from the Greek War of Independence, now in the Eleftherios Venizelos Hall.
ACROSS CENTURIES
After German forces withdrew from Athens in 1944, disputes over the future of the country and the disarming of resistance forces came to a head. On 3 December, police opened fire on demonstrators approaching Syntagma Square. Many were killed or wounded, and fighting spread across Athens in the days that followed.
The clashes became known as the Dekemvriana, or December Events. The shooting was an early episode in the conflict that led to the Greek Civil War. It gives the square a place in the history of liberation and its aftermath.
During the debt crisis, demonstrators occupied the square from 25 May 2011. The protests against austerity included open assemblies. The square gave people room to meet and organise within sight of the legislature, renewing a connection between the public space and the decisions taken across the avenue.
INTERESTING FACTS
A fire in 1909 destroyed the central wing and damaged adjoining parts of the palace. The royal family moved to Tatoi, and repairs proceeded slowly. When the former palace was later converted for Parliament, its central block had already suffered the most extensive damage. The familiar exterior gives little sense of what was lost inside.
Members of the royal family stopped using the palace in 1922. Government departments and relief organisations took up space as Greece received refugees from Asia Minor. The Greek Red Cross was among the occupants, and the building also housed an infant health centre and a hospital and orphanage run by Near East Relief.
Rooms once allocated to the court were divided to accommodate organisations that needed smaller spaces.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was unveiled in 1932. Its inscriptions include words from the funeral speech attributed to Pericles by Thucydides. One passage imagines the whole earth as a grave for distinguished men. The names of modern battlefields on the surrounding walls give those ancient words a new setting.
Construction of Syntagma station uncovered burials from several periods as well as a Roman bath complex and evidence of a Classical sculpture foundry. The finds put a much older map of Athens beneath the nineteenth-century square. Roads, waterworks and burial grounds had all left traces in the area before the palace was built.
The metro’s archaeological display gives passengers a chance to pause over that earlier history before emerging in the modern square.
WHAT TO SEE & DO
Begin in the lower square near the fountain. Face uphill to see how the former palace closes the view, then turn towards the entrance to Ermou Street. The two directions explain why people pass through here even when they have no business with Parliament.
From this distance, you can take in the proportions of the palace and see how the monument sits on a separate level in front of it.
Use a marked crossing to reach the Parliament side of Amalias Avenue. At the monument, look first at the reclining soldier in the central relief, then at the names on the flanking walls. The monument is dedicated to those who died in combat and remained unidentified.
Step back to watch the sentries if a change is due. Follow any barriers or instructions so the guards have room to move.
Look up from the memorial towards the long west façade of Parliament. Its repeated windows give the building a regular profile. The exterior is the part of the former palace you can examine on a walk, while the principal rooms for debate are inside the remodelled central wing.
If you want to see that contrast for yourself, plan an organised visit using Parliament’s official instructions.
Continue south along Amalias Avenue to the main entrance of the National Garden. Work began in 1839 while the palace was under construction, with Queen Amalia taking a close interest in its planting and design. The winding paths make a clear change from the straight lines and open paving of the square.
A short circuit is enough to see how closely the former royal garden sits beside the machinery of government.
WHY VISIT?
Syntagma is particularly rewarding if you want to connect the history of modern Greece with a place you can read on foot. A palace, a memorial and a public square share a line of sight. Each was built for a different purpose, and the shifts in level make their relationship unusually clear.
For a longer visit, continue to the Old Parliament House on Kolokotronis Square. Seeing the earlier parliamentary building puts the move to the former palace into perspective and makes it easier to follow how the institutions of modern Athens acquired their addresses.
The building now houses the National Historical Museum, whose collections follow the history of the Greek state.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Syntagma is in central Athens at the top of Ermou Street. The Syntagma metro station is served by Lines 2 and 3. Follow signs for the square or Amalias Avenue depending on which side you want to start from. Use designated crossings between the lower square and the Parliament frontage.
The square is a public space and the exterior route is free. The Presidency lists a change of guard on the hour and a larger ceremony with a band on Sundays at 11:00. Arrive a little early if you want time to read the memorial before people gather.
For interiors, check Parliament’s visit instructions. It publishes a procedure for booking English-language group tours. Entry to a plenary sitting requires a permit. The official group instructions ask visitors to book at least fifteen days ahead. A stop at the façade and memorial can be done independently.
Allow 30 to 45 minutes for the square and monument, plus time for the garden or the metro displays. The lower square and the Parliament frontage are separated by traffic and a change in level. Check the station’s lift information and the garden’s access and opening information when planning your route.
Location
Athens, Greece
Site type
Public square and parliamentary precinct
Palace construction began
1836
Key event
Constitutional uprising, 3 September 1843
First sitting in the former palace
1 July 1935
Look for
Former royal palace and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Admission
Free exterior visit
Suggested visit
30–45 minutes (editorial estimate)
Plan your walk around Syntagma Square and check arrangements for the guard ceremony and Parliament.
EXPLORE MORE
Continue exploring the streets, gardens and historic buildings around Syntagma.
Explore the city’s sanctuaries, meeting places and archaeological museums.
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