MONASTERAKI

It is one of the most characteristic quarters of the old Athens, with narrow and winding lanes and small buildings that date back to Byzantine and Ottoman period. There are many craft shops selling almost everything, from bronze objects to musical instruments, furniture to shoes. In Monasteraki and Plaka area, you will find many Byzantine churches (11th and 12th centuries). On Mitropolis square, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens (Megali Mitropoli). This is the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Athens and all Greece. Construction of the Cathedral began on Christmas Day, 1842 with the laying of the cornerstone by King Otto and Queen Amalia. Next to it the smallest church in the world, the pretty little church of Agios Eleftherios, also known as Mikri Mitropoli (“little metropolitan church”). On the parallel street of Ermou, exactly in the middle of the street that leads to Syntagma, the church of Panaghia Kapnikarea.

On Monasteraki square, the Tzisdaraki mosque, a historic Ottoman mosque constructed in 1759, houses now the Museum of Greek Ceramic Art.

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