greece, parte i, bits of tradition, beauty and music

If If you want to listen the Greek National Anthem,

Please click down and wait some seconds for the Real Player to download it :

The Greek National Anthem

Imagery and text : compiled from several Net sites

Conception and format : Delza Dias Ferreira delzadfer@gmail.com

Revision and English version : Flavio Musa de Freitas Guimarães

Musics : Nick Stoubis – Overture Melina Merkouri - Love theme from Phaedra

http://culturesandart.blogspot.com

Greece – Fokida - Delphi

The Center of the World

To the ancient Greeks, Delphi, with roots in Neolithic era (5000-3000 BC),

has been the mythical home of Gaia (Earth) and Chronos (Time). It was also identified as the “center of the earth”.

Column 450-330 B. C. photo by Aimilios

Petrou

1. Attica2. Central Greece – Continental3. Central Macedonia4. Crete5. East Macedonia and Thrace6. Epirus7. Ionean Islands8. North Aegean9. Peloponese10. South Aegean11. Thessaly12. West Greece13. West Macedonia

Greece (Greek: Ελλάδα ), officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country whose mainland and most of its islands are in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula.Ancient Greece is often referred to as "the cradle of Western civilization”. The first known Greek civilizations dates from 3000 B. C. Administratively, Greece consists of 13 peripheries subdivided into a total of 54 prefectures. There is also one autonomous area, Mount Athos (Agio Oros, "Holy Mountain"), in Macedonia Periphery.

Greece – Attica - Athens

Athens – parcial view with Acropolis and the Saronic Gulf.

Greece - Attica - Athens

The Acropolis and Lykavitos Hill - The Acropolis of Athens, so called

the "Sacred Rock“ of Athens, is the most important site of the city. The

first civilization remains on the Acropolis date from the Neolithic period.

Greece - Attica - Athens

Acropolis view

A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place

of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The best-known examples are

those of the six figures of the Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis at Athens.

Greece – Attica - Athens - Acropolis

Greece – Attica - Athens

The Parthenon, an octostyle, perinteral Doric temple with Ionic architectural features, housed the chryselephantine statue of Athena

Parthenos sculpted by Phidias and dedicated in 439/438 BC.

Greece - Attica – Athens

Hermes bearing the child Dionysus, by Praxiteles. Parian marble, H. 2.15 m., Archaeological Museum of Ancient Olympia. From the German

excavations of the Heraion at Olympia, 1877.

Greece - Attica - Athens

The Odeion of Herodes Atticus - After hard rain, the audience stands still at Jeremy Irons' musical of Camille Saint-Saens' Le

Carnival des Animaux.

Greece - Attica - Athens

From the Parthenon: two sides of Athens

Greece - Attica - Athens

Past and Present - The left door is from the Propylaea of Acropolis

and the right one is from the University of Athens.

Greece - Attica - Athens

Modernity in Athens...

Greece - Attica - Athens

Syntagma square and the Parliament.

Greece - Attica - Athens

Changing of the Guard Evzones in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma Square.

Greece - Attica - Athens

The National Archaeological Museum is the largest museum in Greece and one of the world's great museums. With more than 20,000 exhibits, his collections provide a

panorama of Greek civilization from the beginnings of Prehistory to Late Antiquity.

Greece - Attica - Athens

The National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

Greece - Attica - Athens

“Clandestine School “ – painting by Gysis, Nicholas. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, Greece came under Ottomans rule for 400 years; in

order to preserve the Greek culture and idiom, their children were educated in clandestine schools along 4 centuries.

Greece - Attica - Athens

The legendary and historic Grande Bretagne, Athens' first hotel. Located in Syntagma Square.

Stavros Melissinos - the Poet-Sandalmaker of Monastiraki

Greece - Attica - Athens

Greece - Attica - Athens

The Kalatrava bridge, at the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens.

Greece - Attica - Athens

Athens Olympic Stadium

Greece - Attica - Athens

Street market in Koukaki – olives.

Greece - Attica - Athens

Cafe, bars and restaurants in Kolonaki, district of Athens

Greece - Attica - Athens

Greek dance

Greece - Attica - Athens

Melina Merkouri - Greek actress and Minister. In 1981 she was made Minister of Culture where her primary objective was to have the Parthenon marble returned to Athens from the British Museum.

When she passed in 1994 she was mourned by thousands of nationals as the "last Greek Goddess".   

Greece - 1 Attica

Aegina port

Greece – 1 Attica

Kithira - natural window

Greece – 2 Central Greece

Parnassos – Amfikleia - An Easter day - The huge grill is called `lakos'. Each family in the neighborhood brings and

roasts its own lamb.

Greece – 2 Central Greece

Evia - Chalkis - This is the Monument for the Greek Resistance against the German and Italian occupation of

Greece during the 2nd World War.

Greece – 12 West Greece

Achaea - Mystras was a fortified town in Morea (the Peloponnesus), on Mt. Taygetos, near ancient Sparta.

Greece – 9 Peloponnese

Young sheperd with his flock.

Greece – 9 Peloponnese

Kapsia

Greece – 7 Ionian Islands

Corfu

Greece – 7 Ionian Islands

Corfu - the Achillion Palace

Greece – 7 Ionian Islands

Corfu - the Achillion Palace

Greece – 7 Ionian Islands

Kerkyra - Old town

Greece – 6

Epirus

Ioannina

Greece – 6

Epirus

Parga

Greece – 6 Epirus - Arta Bridge of Arachthos River - 3rd cent. B.C. -

reconstructed in 1612

It is the most famous bridge of Epirus and Greece in general. The relevant legend refers to the sacrifice of the master

builder's wife, which was necessary for the propping of the bridge.

Greece – 11 Thessaly

Kalambaka, between the rocks, and Meteora, one of seven world’s miracles. (in the picture, Meteora is at high right).

Greece – 11 Thessaly

Meteora - stairs to Monasteries

Greece – 11 Thessaly

Meteora monasteries

The End of Part I