National Garden Athens

Right in the centre of Athens, directly behind the Greek Parliament Building, and a two-minute walk from the Arch of Hadrian and Syntagma Square, is the National Garden of Athens.

Formally known as the Royal Garden, it covers almost 38 acres (over 160.000 square meters). It is the most popular garden park in Athens.

The Royal Garden was commissioned by Queen Amalia in 1838 and completed by 1840. It was designed by the German agronomist Friedrich Schmidt, who imported over 500 species of plants and various animals, including peacocks, ducks, and turtles. Unfortunately for many plants, the dry Mediterranean climate of Athens proved too harsh, and they did not survive. 

A part of the upper garden behind the Old Palace was fenced off as the private refuge of the King and Queen. 

The Royal Garden was the scene of a turning point in Greek history. In 1920, at the end of World War I, Greece, under King Alexander, remained committed to the Megali Idea (Greek for The Great Idea) that Greece should gain control of portions of Asia Minor. 

In 1919, they began the Greco-Turkish War with the support of their former allies, Britain and France. While walking in the Garden on September 30, 1920, King Alexander was bitten by a pet monkey (whose pet it was, is unknown), and he died of sepsis three weeks later. His death ushered the return of his deposed father, King Constantine I, who had been deposed for his pro-German sympathies during the First World War.

In the 1920s, the park was opened to the public and renamed “National Garden”. In honour of Amalia of Greece, the entrance was moved to the 12 palm trees she planted. The street in front was renamed Queen Amalia Avenue. Since then, the National Garden has been open to the public from sunrise to sunset.

The American novelist Henry Miller was very fond of the garden and park, and in 1939 wrote:

It remains in my memory like no other park I have known. It is the quintessence of a park, the thing one feels sometimes in looking at a canvas or dreaming of a place one would like to be in and never finds.

In 2004 the Greek state gave the garden for 90 years to the city of Athens.

Spotted around the National Garden Athens are numerous ancient ruins, most of which are Roman. A Roman villa with a mosaic, large numbers of columns of all orders and sizes, structures connected with the Roman baths next to the Zappeion, and a large marble inscription about Ceaser Aelius ordered by Laius Aettius who was a Roman Legion staff officer from Epirus region and fought in battles against the Germanic tribes.

The numerous ancient ruins throughout the garden include:

• A Roman Villa with a mosaic
• Columns of all sizes
• Remains of the Roman baths next to the Zappeion
• Various sizes of marble inscriptions
• The palm trees
• A 200-foot arch archway covered over with multiple plants
• The pond with wildlife, including native birds.
• Visit the children’s library and playground

• Standing at either end of the 200-foot plant-covered arch walkway
• By the palm trees
• At the edge of the pond, where a lot of local birds settle for the day

The National Garden Athens is open to the public from sunrise to sunset. The main entrance is on Leoforos Amalias, the street named after the Queen who envisioned this park. 

You can also enter the garden from one of three other gates: the central one, on Vasilissis Sophias Avenue, another on Herodou Attikou Street and the third gate connects the National Garden with the Zappeion park area.

The main entrance is on Leoforos Amalias, the street named after the Queen who envisioned this park. 

You can also enter the garden from one of three other gates: the central one, on Vasilissis Sophias Avenue, another on Herodou Attikou Street and the third gate connects the National Garden with the Zappeion park area.