Panepistimiou Street (Eleftherios Venizelos Street)

Panepistimiou Street (Eleftherios Venizelos Street)

The street connecting Syntagma Square and Omonoia Square is the busiest street of the city with 70.000 cars passing through it daily and is one of the most beautiful avenues of the center of Athens along with Stadiou Street.

In the past the street was called Voulevartou Street (Boulevard Street). Today it has been renamed to Eleftherios Venizelos Street, after the first Prime Minister of Greece, Eleftherios Venizelos. The most Athenians call this street however Panepistimiou Street.

This is probably due to the existing buildings in the middle and on the right of the street, the Vallianios National Library, the University of Athens, and the Academy of Athens. These buildings, also known as the "Athenian Trilogy", are bright examples of neoclassical architecture.

They were built by the Danish architects, Christian and Theophilus Hansen, between 1839 and 1892, who had built a number of other buildings in Athens – such as the Zappeion Mansion in the National Garden.


Also, on Eleftherios Venizelos Street (Panepistimiou Street) are the Numismatic Museum (Iliou Melathron) and the Ophthalmiatreio (Ophthalmology Clinic) – another neoclassical building from 1847.

The street offers shopping for books, CDs, jewelry, clothes, etc. or a night outing to one of its movie Theaters.