Thodoris Gonis

National Garden
A stroll through learning and yearning

“This is how I view gardens”

Officially declared a historic site, the National (formerly Royal) Garden is the eye of the storm in central Athens: a calm oasis surrounded by the hubbub of the city, laden with memory and history. Visitors will walk amidst 500 hundred species of flora once brought from all parts of the world and cared for by Queen Amalia and her team of botanists. They will be greeted by marble statues of Dionysios Solomos, Aristotelis Valaoritis, Jean Moréas, Ioannis Kapodistrias, and Jean-Gabriel Eynard, great historical figures of Greece, a country which has enjoyed a fair share of enlightened leaders. Thodoris Gonis will present a tour drawing on texts and documents historically linked to the Garden’s permanent residents, all those who helped shape it at various times: the poets, politicians, agriculturalists, engineers, and even the 20-year-old Bavarian queen who once dreamt of this garden, her legacy to the people of Athens.

Starting point: Amalias Avenue Entrance, Sundial