Ermou street of Athens

Ermou Street was one of the first roads designed in modern Athens, according to the city plan drawn up by the architects Stamatis Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert in 1833. The street was originally a dirt road and in 1838 the 'macadam system' was paved, while later it was given sidewalks and a sewer and in 1910 it was paved with asphalt. In the section of Ermou between Monastiraki Square and Asomaton Street there was a plaster ornament of a four-storey house representing a giant hecatonchir holding a boulder. It was from this ornament that this section got the name 'Hecatonchir'. The Church of Panagia Kapnikarea, a Byzantine church of the 11th century, is also located in the middle of Ermou. In contrast to the section from Syntagma Square to Aiolou Street which has been a centre for retail, public services, hotels, and a pedestrian street since 1997, the section between Agioi Asomatoi Street and Piraeus Street was associated with the industrial use of Piraeus Street in the 19th and 20th centuries, with wholesale trade, the operation of the Attica Railway and the Piraeus and Iera Odos roads. Pictured: View of the starting point of Ermou Street in Athens from Syntagma Square in 1890. ©Municipal Photography Museum of Kalamaria ‘Christos Kalemkeris’.