Panepistimiou Street

Panepistimiou Street is the second major axis in central Athens, running about 1.3 kilometres between Syntagma Square and Omonia Square. It takes its name from the University of Athens, whose neoclassical main building forms the central part of the so-called Athenian Trilogy, framed by the Academy and the National Library; all three buildings were begun in 1839 to designs by the Danish brothers Theophil and Christian Hansen. Once a tram axis, the street is now a key bus corridor and is slowly being calmed for pedestrians; the south side strings together former bank palaces and the Numismatic Museum in Heinrich Schliemann's old house. Walking from Syntagma toward Omonia gives you a compact lesson in 19th-century Athens beyond antiquity.