The Academy of Athens

3D Model

The Academy was the philosophical school founded in 387 B.C. in Athens by the philosopher Plato near the sanctuary of the hero Academos to the south-east of present-day Kolonos district. The school, after nine centuries of functioning, was closed down in 529 A.D. by an imperial decree banning the teaching of philosophy. In Modern Greece attempts were repeatedly made, but it was only 1926 that the Academy of Athens was founded following the model of the European Academies. Since then, it has been active uninterruptedly.

The Academy building, of Ionic order, was erected according to the design of the famous Danish architect Theophil Hansen ( 1813-1891).