Panepistimiou: the neoclassical spine
The Athenian Trilogy — Academy, University, Library — and the great boulevard's arcades and squares. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Syntagma and the start of Panepistimiou
Begin at *Syntagma* (Constitution Square) and turn up *Panepistimiou*, the broad boulevard the new Greek state laid out to look like a capital. Walk on the north side; that's where the great buildings line up. The marble starts almost at once.

2. The Academy of Athens
The first and most theatrical of the Trilogy — Theophil Hansen's 1880s temple to learning, with Athena and Apollo on their columns and a painted frieze most people never look up to see. Stand back across the road to take in the whole pediment. The polychromy is a reconstruction of how the ancients actually painted their temples.

3. The University of Athens
Next door, the central building of the *Panepistimio*, older and calmer than the Academy, its portico frescoed with the rebirth of the arts and sciences under King Otto. Students still cross the forecourt. The middle panel of the Trilogy, and the reason the street is named as it is.

4. The National Library
The third building, a Doric temple behind a grand curving double stair — though the books have moved to the new library at the coast, the marble shell remains the closing note of the Trilogy. Walk up the stair for the view back down the steps.

5. Plateia Korai and the arcades
Cut to *Plateia Korai*, the sunken square with its café and the old wartime shelter beneath. From here the *stoes* (arcades) run — covered passages threading the blocks, lined with old shops and the last of the city-centre cinemas. Duck into one; they're cooler and full of small surprises.

6. Plateia Klafthmonos
End at *Plateia Klafthmonos* — the 'square of weeping', so named because sacked civil servants once gathered here to mourn their posts. Today it's calm, with the city's oldest surviving house, the Old Palace, on one side. Panepistimio metro is a minute away.

Panepistimiou: the neoclassical spine