By Venia Pastaka

Art Historian

On the occasion of the publication of the new volume “Athens 200+ Years 200+ Buildings,” edited by architect Manolis Anastasakis, the National Library of Greece hosted an exhibition that tells the story of the modern city through its architecture. The volume, published in Greek and English, brings together more than 200 selected buildings in Athens, organized into chronological sections: Public buildings, residences, industrial shells, and contemporary architectural interventions compose a polyphonic portrait of the city, highlighting the ongoing negotiation between historical continuity and urban change. The publication serves not only as an architectural archive, but also as a tool for understanding the social, political, and cultural development of Athens.

Running from December 31, 2025, to January 9, 2026, the exhibition recorded extremely high visitor numbers and intense public interest. It is a visual and historical journey spanning two centuries, highlighting Athens’ relationship with collective memory and its spatial transformation. The exhibition’s content is a documented record of the capital’s history from the establishment of the modern Greek state to the present day, highlighting the role of architecture in shaping urban identity and collective memory.

The exhibition at the Tower of the National Library at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center was curated by architect and professor at the University of West Attica, Dr. Panagiotis Pagkalos, who designed a unified and comprehensive exhibition space with a clear narrative flow. With photographic material, short explanatory texts, and archival references, visitors follow the city’s development not as a linear narrative of progress, but as a synthesis of successive layers of history, ideology, and everyday life. Of particular importance is the way in which the exhibition combined analog and digital modes of reading information, highlighting buildings as living carriers of memory. Each architectural example is linked to specific social conditions, political choices, and ways of living, revealing how the city was shaped by needs, visions, and contradictions. Architecture is approached not only as an aesthetic view, but as a reflection of collective experience and historical circumstances.

At the same time, the exhibition discreetly raised questions about the management of architectural heritage and the future of urban space. The coexistence of old and new buildings, loss and preservation, reuse and abandonment are issues that emerge from the material, inviting visitors to reflect more broadly on the relationship between the contemporary city and its past. After all, as the curator argues, Athens is a “city without territory,” a city-idea, an example of immaterial power, which as a bearer of values and an archetype of the city is always everywhere, precisely because it belongs nowhere.

The exhibition “Athens 200+ Years 200+ Buildings” is not limited to a record of architectural examples, but functions as a multi-layered narrative of the city. Its hosting at the National Library of Greece at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, with free admission to the public, reinforced its open and public character, as it was aimed at architects, scholars, and students, as well as any resident or visitor to the city who wishes to get to know it through the buildings that have shaped its character.

Organisation team

Chief curator – Exhibition design

Panayotis Pangalos

Curation of exhibition material 

Manolis Anastasakis

Production

Yorgos Mylonas

Editorial support

Nasos Dafnos

Coordination

Jimmy Chitas

Christos Kourtidis-Vlachogiannis

Spyros Seliotis

Public relations and press office

Chrysa Matsagani

Chrysanthi Georgantidou

Creative partners

EPIKYKLOS Construction Company 

 Production company

Εntertain.gr

Event organization

 NPO Citylab

 Co-organization

 gr.ad review / National Library of Greece

Exclusive sponsor: AVAX Group