National Garden Athens

The National Garden, one of the first public gardens of modern Athens, is located in the heart of Athens, next to the Parliament building and close to the Presidential Palace and the Prime Minister’s Office.

The National Garden was originally designed as the gardens of the Royal Palace. Its planting began in 1839 with the creation of 2.5 hectares and by 1852 the garden covered an area of 15.8 hectares.

Queen Amalia (* 21 December 1818 in Oldenburg; † 20 May 1875 in Bamberg) is the most important figure in the history of the national garden. She brought the ideas of the ‘modern’ design of Western European landscape gardens from Germany to Greece and, with the help of specialists from various countries, adapted them to the climate, water and plants of Athens.

The garden is a fine example of 19th century landscape architecture (English style), with winding paths and open views of the surrounding landscape and artefacts. The rich vegetation includes trees, both evergreen and deciduous, shrubs, perennial herbaceous plants, climbers (vines), succulents and cacti, annuals, lawns and other ground cover. These include many typical Mediterranean species, but the garden is particularly notable for its high proportion of non-native species. The most typical examples of historic planting are the Washingtonias at the central entrance, some large pines, cypresses, yuccas, elms, plane trees, lilies of the valley and galluses.

The Peisistratus aqueduct (6th century BC) was rediscovered in 1860 and remains the main source of irrigation for the garden. This complex and ingenious system of surface channels and lakes carries irrigation water from the highest northern part of the garden to the lowest part and is one of the most important historical features of the garden.

In ancient Greece, the area surrounding the National Garden was called the Lyceum – an idyllic, lush suburb to the east of Athens, with shady groves and abundant water, close to the sanctuary of Apollo. In 335 BC, Aristotle founded the Lyceum of Aristotle in this area and taught there for some twelve years, the most creative period of his life. His successor at the Peripatetic School was Theophrastus, considered the father of botany for his studies of plants.

The NG was opened to the public in 1927, and since then its design and character have changed to accommodate the new uses of a public urban green space. The Municipality of Athens took over the management of the National Garden in 2004, and in 2011 the NG was officially declared a Historic Garden by the Ministry of Culture. The National Garden is managed by both the Municipality of Athens and the newly created municipal company, Green Athens SA.