First Cemetery of Athens

The First Cemetery of Athens (in Greek proto Nekrotafío Athinón Πρώτο Νεκροταφείο Αθηνών ) is the oldest burial ground in use of the municipality of Athens. Since its installation in 1834, he is the final resting place of numerous important Greeks and foreigners. It has historical significance as original art ensemble of many mausoleums and grave sculptures from the period of Greek neoclassicism.

History

During the time of the Ottoman Empire, Orthodox Christians were buried around the churches in Greece to churchyards. Non- Orthodox Christians, especially foreigners found around the Church of Saint George in the ancient Temple of Hephaestus in Athens and Capuchin Monastery final resting. Only the Muslims were buried not only the mosques, but also on specially constructed cemeteries. With the transfer of the capital of the autonomous since 1829 Greece to Athens in 1833 the entire court of Otto I and a large number of Bavarian officials moved to the city. The new city attracted many artists and merchants from the Aegean area and western Europe who settled here. The now numerous Catholics initially gathered in a converted Tekke on the site of the Roman Agora and received 1842-1844 with the Church of Saint Luke by Hans Christian Hansen in Iraklio a new church building. For the Anglican church of St Paul was built in 1838-1843 in the center of Athens, 1853-1887 followed by Leo Klenzes Catholic Bishop St. Dionysius in the immediate vicinity of the University.

The funeral of Orthodox Greeks to the churches was banned by royal decree of 1834, which for the dead to be built cemeteries were placed under community supervision. The newly decreed funeral order further required that each cemetery had to be in at least a hundred meters of urban settlement. For Athens a site beyond the Ilisos was elected on the southwest slope of Ardittos Hill, the ancient trail linkage by Sounion few hundred meters from the southern boundary of the settlement then 4000 inhabitants was counted town east. Even in their city planning Athens 1833 Eduard show Bert and Stamatios Kleanthis had the area designated for the cemetery south of town.

Since that time, the Athens cemetery appears in the Maps, the earliest plan of the cemetery itself dates from Athens city builder Armodios Vlachos 1896. Here are a central axis of the entrance building to the central Lazarus Church, where the graves were prominent, as well as two from the square to to recognize the church Y -like branching off the main roads, which the systems of major European cemeteries, notably that of Père Lachaise in Paris is similar. The park-like grounds of the cemetery can be imagined only from another plan of 1910. Extensions of the cemetery up the hill to the northwest followed 1859-1943. On the cemetery and Catholics ( the oldest preserved tombstone dated 1860) were after the rededication of the Temple Hephaistos in a landmark buried around 1880 separate areas for Protestants and Jews were established.

Plant

The site is accessed from the north-west towards the town and entered through an entrance building, which was built in 1939 by Aris Konstantinidis and Andreas Ploumistou. Just to the left is the built 1899-1901 by architect Armodios Vlachos Church of St. Theodore. From here, a initially very wide main street, which - similar to the Processional Way of Ceramicus cemetery in ancient times - lined with tombs of important personalities supplies to the Church of St. Lazarus, which was built in 1840 as the first and in 1859 moved into its present shape. Behind it is a Byzantine -sounding charnel house of the architect Emmanouil Lazaridis of 1928. South of the small square around the church the road leads off that tapers at the Catholic Chapel of St. Charles, which was built in 1925. Outside of the oldest part, which is approximately rectangular, the area to the east and south was expanded. The Protestant Cemetery is located to the east on a slope and is separated by a wall from the surrounding area. It is now administered by the States, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom every four years. The southern edge of the cemetery grounds houses the Jewish cemetery, which is no longer being operated today.

Significant works of art

Many Grabmausoleen are art-historically significant examples of neo-classicism. Particularly well known is the mausoleum executed by Ernst Ziller Heinrich Schliemann, which is designed as a Doric temple with surrounding frieze about the proportions of the Athens Nike temple and dominates the entrance of the cemetery.

The grave sculptures were mostly carved from marble sculptors from Tinos. The most famous is the sculpture of lying Sofia Afendaki the sculptor Giannoulis Chalepas that is influenced as many sculptures in the cemetery from the classicism of Antonio Canova.

Other artists who made ​​grave times or sculpture, were Lysandors Kaftandzoglou, Ioannis Vitsaris, Lazaros Fytalis, Georgios Vidalis and Dimitrios Fillipotis.

Tombs of famous personalities

On the First Athens Cemetery following persons are buried:

• Georgios Averof (1815-1899), Greek businessman
• Sotiria Bellou (1921-1997), Greek singer
• Christodoulos I. (1939-2008), Archbishop of Athens and Head of the Church of Greece
• Richard Church (1784-1873), Irish Philhellene and general in the Greek Revolution
• Jules Dassin (1911-2008), American film director
• Adolf Furtwängler (1853-1907), German archaeologist
• Humphrey Jennings (1907-1950), British filmmaker
• Constantine Kanaris (1793-1877), Greek politician
• Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770-1843), a Greek freedom fighter in the revolution of 1821
• Alexandros Koumoundouros (1817-1883), Greek politician
• Melina Mercouri (1925-1994), Greek singer, actress and politician
• Andreas Michalakopoulos (1876-1938), Greek politician
• Alekos Panagoulis (1939-1976), Greek resistance fighter against the junta, politician and poet
• Andreas Papandreou (1919-1996), the first socialist Prime Minister of Greece
• Georgios Papandreou (1888-1968), Greek politician
• Katina Paxinou (1900-1973), Greek actress
• Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890), German archaeologist
• Giorgos Seferis (1900-1971), Greek poet and Nobel Prize winner
• Andreas Syngros (1830-1899), Greek banker
• Vassilis Tsitsanis (1917-1984), Greek singer, composer and bouzouki virtuoso
• Sofia Vembo (1910-1978), Greek singer
• Aliki Vougiouklaki (1934-1996), Greek singer and actress
• Terence Hanbury White (1906-1964), British writer
• Ernst Ziller (1837-1923), German - Greek architect, architectural historian and archaeologist

• Georgios Averof
• Adolf Furtwängler
• Theodoros Kolokotronis
• Melina Mercouri
• Alekos Panagoulis
• Andreas Papandreou
• Andreas Syngros
• Sofia Vembo