Discover psiri the neversleeping neighborhood

Discover Psiri the neversleeping neighbourhood

The small neighborhood of Psiri lies in the historic center of Athens and it is one of the oldest in the city. It spreads around Psiri square or Heroon square, where lead the five main roads of the neighborhood: Miaouli, Karaiskaki, Agion Anargiron, Aristophani and Aischilou Its exquisite charm comes from Athinas street, Ermou, Piraios and of course from the fragrances of Evripidoustreet. If we take a time machine and go back, we will meet this area in the memories of Spon, who was an excursionist in 1678. He refers to it, as one of the 8 institutionalized neighborhoods of Ottoman Athens. During the Ottoman period, Psiri was full of people, it was the bustling are of craftsmen and small businesses. The upper middle class used to live there.

Despite Spon's reference, as a bustling neighborhood in the nonsignificant small town of Athens. The truth is that Athens was like that for 400 years. That is how long the Ottoman occupation lasted. So after the liberation, when Athens become the capital of the modern Greek state, merchants and the aristocracy chose Psiri as the place they were going to stay and they beautifully decorated it with neoclassical buildings which still today, retain their prestige.

As we move on in time, the taverns in Heroon Square, gathered people of the night who loved trouble and fighting. They were know as "koutsavakides", except trouble, they brought a bad reputation in the neighborhood, which had as a result its gradual decay.

It was some decades later, when the neighborhood close to the historic center, with the beautiful neoclassical buildings and the stores for leather processing, seemed very charming in the eyes of the contemporary bohems and artists who seeked something new. Therefore, within a few years, restaurants, design stores, galleries, bars and creative offices, gave a kiss of life to this neighborhood, which was transformed into a meeting place with intense nightlife.

Still today, traces of the old neighborhood can be found in Psiri, an example is the openair Easter Bazaar with Naxian farming products, which is set every year in the square, so to remind the visitors of its glorious past.