Omonia square: from space to words

In the days following the King’s dethronement, Omonia appears in the articles of newspapers sometimes with a capital sometimes with a small first letter. The titles of three articles in consecutive issues of the newspaper Ethnofylax are a typical example thereof: ‘Invitation to omonia’ (16.10.1862), ‘The order and omonia’ (18.10.1962), ‘We need Omonia’ (20.10.1862) (Photo 4). In 1861, Athens had a population of 41.258 residents and 4.212 buildings (ETVA, 1991) a few of which surrounded Omonia (Photo 3). After that, the ‘post-revolutionary’ square witnessed, in the name of concord, the apex of (at least) two politically restless decades that would complete the revolution of September 1843, in expectation of the future; better or worse.

Photo 4: Issue of the newspaper Ethnofylax: ‘We need Omonia’ (20.10.1862)

And while October’s revolution successfully and bloodlessly removed the King’s name from the square, the renaming of Place Louis XV in Paris to Place de la Concorde , was achieved gradually and cost the royal couple something more than the throne. A few months after the fall of the king and the establishment of the French Republic in September 1792, the King was found ‘guilty of conspiracy against public freedom and of plotting against national security’ by the National Convention of the Montagnards and the Girondins that condemned him to death. Louis Capet and Marie Antoinette (and others) were decapitated in 1793 in the Revolution Square, that took its name by the second revolution, but not before his predecessor’s statue was replaced with guillotines [6]. The name Concorde was given for the first time to the square after the French Directory fell and Napoleon arrived together with the French Consulate in 1799, aspiring to leave the monarchy behind ‘for good’ and to pass a new Constitution [7]. In 1814 or in 1818, the square was renamed again to Place Louis XV, in 1826 to Place Louis XVI and finally to Place de la Concorde in 1830 [8] after the July Revolution that led to a liberal constitutional monarchy and the fall of King Charles X.

Photo 5: Execution of Louis XVI in the Place de la Révolution (Source: Bibliotheque Nationale de France)

Accordingly, Athens’ Omonia square, was at the centre of semantic tensions, either hypothetical or actual, although the name did not change and remained stable since 1862. The statue of the king, which a 1859 resolution proposed to be erected in the square, would probably have been destroyed by the revolutionaries but was never actually erected (AION 17/10/1862).This did not prevent King George I from having Ziller design there, on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the 1821 revolution, a quadrangular column that would bear the landing of Otto in Greece (Paligenesia, 26.3.1870) on one side. Nor did it prevent Hoffmann in 1908, within a wider urban planning recommendation, to propose the building of an obelisk with the statue of King George in its base in Omonia (at the time, Luxor Obelisk had already been placed in the Place de la Concorde, in Paris).

Things may have been different if young Dosios had succeeded to assassinate Queen Amalia in 1861 in this same square (ATHENS 15.12.1863) and maybe then the square would have been named after the revolution. Or even if on February 1863, a few months after the fall of the king, the Greek Montagnards and Girondins did not end the military conflict in February (at least until June), on the way to the Second National Assembly, with a new oath of concord taken in the same square. And if, after the enactment of the new constitution by King George in 1864 [9], the new government had restituted the tributes to the allegedly ‘philhellene’ Otto… If. Eventually, by resolution of the Municipality of Athens in 1884 (Decree 266) that aimed to settle the naming of streets and squares in Athens, the name Omonia Square is established in writing and with it all the changes in the names of squares and streets. The renaming of the extension of Athinas Street beyond Omonia Square, which after its full opening was to be called Athinas (e.g. in Masson’s plan), was also dealt with in the resolution. King Otto Str. and 3rd September (Tritis Septemvriou) Str. appear as possible alternatives. The latter eventually prevailed, although marginally, by eight 8 against 7 votes [10]. It was not considered appropriate to have Otto’s name attached to the square, the name of which was now firmly established in writing as Omonia.

Figure 3: Name changes and semantics of the urban triangle (Source: F. Kafantaris)

In 1884, the first semantic cycle of the planned, though mostly unbuilt, area of Omonia Square closes and the next one opens. This urban core sought its identity in the footprint of its residents as it was moving away from its first significance, more labyrinthine and multilevel, silent or obvious, mounted in the modern reality of the buildings and of the moves of the city around it. Omonia square became a proper name. It became, as often stated, the square of ‘everybody’ as it gradually turned into a general entry point to the centre, the capital, the country. Steam and electric cars came and left, it had an uncovered underground train station and later a covered one, it was the port and railway network terminal of the city, it had intercity bus stations around, buses and even trams. It became a recreation area, hosting crowded cafes and bars, sometimes shops. It was at the core of the hospitality industry with hotels surrounding it for more than a century and a place of any type of meetings, social or political, with overcrowded buildings around it. It was where bloody conflicts, repression, control, demonstrations and celebrations took place; it still is. It is found in poems and film noirs; it became the setting for films with or without a neon background. Omonia Square quickly became a synonym of Athens’ centre, and there, as the words hung on the crowd walking on it, featuring the co-presence of people in the open public space, the square stayed strangely silent and often selectively inhospitable; the field for each type of centrifugal movement. Dictionaries were re-written.

[1] Dickens Ch., (1859 )A Tale of Two Cities, trans. Agapitou A., Trapali V., (1989), Exantas: Athens.

[2] The western part of the square, which nowadays is called Syntagma Square, used to be called for years ‘Kipos ton Muson’ (Garden of the Muses). The name Syntagma Square was referring to the eastern part thereof (int. see Georgiadis Ath. S., 1923 – Second Edition, Athens Plan D.S. of Athens)

[3] For furtrher information regarding this period and the political protagonists see History of the Greek Nation, Volume XIII, chap.: The Greek state from 1862 to 1881, 218- 253.

[4] This plan is generally recorded with date in 1860 [e.g. Biris, K. I. (1966), Athens, (5^th 2005, p.112)]. From our investigation until now we conclude that the release date of the project is in 1863 according to the annual publication of the Royal Institute of British Architects/ RIBA in 1864 (Papers – Session 1863-1864, London: RIBA, p.25) with the note ‘the most recent map of Athens from topographical print(sic) ‘. Emmanouil Kalergis is the son of Dimitrios Kalergis, leader of the 1843 revolution and ambassador in France. This relationship might leave room for more assumptions where appropriate.

[5] AION newspaper on5.9.1851 tentatively calls, for the first time, the square in front of the palace as ‘the so-called Syntagma Square’. In previous issues it is referred to as ‘Anaktoron Square’. By this we shall assume a gradual introduction and acceptance of the new name.

[6] Reg. the French Revolution and the founding of the French Republic in particular see Lefebvre, G. (2003 Books 3-5)

[7] The Message of Napoleon on 24 Brumaire (14.11.1799) states: ‘France needs something great and lasting. Instability led it to loss; it is seeking stability. It does not desire the monarchy, this has been proscribed. ” Lefebvre, G. (2003, 596)

[8] On the denominations of the Place de la Concorde see Pugin, A. & Heath, C. (1831, 9) and in Baedecker, K., (1878, 154-155).

[9]  For more information, see History of the Greek Nation, Volume XIII, p. 224. Kyriakidis in its Historia, recapping the events of this period, calls such trends to copy the French revolution ‘childish’ while adding and underlining the obvious loan of the names of the two political factions; Montagnards (Ορεινοί) and Girondins (Πεδινοί). Kyriakidis, Ε.Κ. (Κυριακίδης 1892, 221). The Mountain members used to call Valley (Πεδιάδα) or Swamp (Βάλτος) the conservative members of the parliament that denied to align themselves to one party. Lefebvre, G. (2003, 858)

[10] Municipality of Athens, Athens Municipality Historical Archive, Proceedings of City Council, 29th Session/17-01-1884, No. 266 Act of City Council.