Denis Roubien

Abstract: In king Otto’s Athens, in contrast with what happened in other European capitals, public buildings preceded the other elements of urban network. In consequence, instead of the urban plan defining their location in the city, the opposite happened. Most of the public buildings were built in locations completely different from those predicted by the general urban plans, which led necessarily to those plans’ modification, so that the latter would be adapted to the buildings. Although under king George I the situation tended to a more rational relation between public constructions and urban plan, Athens, during the whole 19th century, preserved a particular relation between the urban plan’s evolution and public architecture.