What was Athens like in the 19th century? What did one see when you first visited it? Are there traces of that time, visible even today?
These and many more questions are answered by the new digital tour of the Kalemkeris Museum entitled “Click on 19th century Athens”, presenting the history of the city through the history of its emblematic monuments. The rare photographic material from the Museum’s archive and the surviving stories of travelers from the beginning of the 19th century, formed the basis for a separate route in Athens with 10 + 1 stops at the most important monuments of the city, until today: Temple of Olympian Zeus, Arch of Adrian, Sponsored Monument of Lysikrates, Theater of Dionysus, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Parthenon, Erechtheion, Temple of Hephaestus, Horologion of Kyrrhestes, Gate of Athena, Hadrian’s Library.
Utilizing new technologies, the archival photographs of the monuments were transformed into short, original videos, giving a modern artistic look to the material and making the route more attractive to users of all ages. This tour triggers a new digital experience that tells the visitor the history of the ancient monuments of Athens, a small village that has just begun to become the capital of the Greek state.
The user of the tour faces the monuments free from the dense urban fabric, as captured by important 19th century photographers, Greek and foreign, and at the same time realizes the change of the urban landscape over time. The content of the texts presents three main categories of information: 1. the history of the monuments, 2. the history of the photographers who took each photo 3. information about the era and the city itself.
With the support of Clio Muse Tours and the grant of the Ministry of Culture and Sports