National Observatory of Athens, Athens

The National Observatory of Athens is the cross-shaped research building before you, designed by Theophil Hansen and completed in 1846. Its compact form is arranged along the horizon, with a small telescope dome rising from the middle of the structure. The building belongs to an institution founded in 1842, making it Greece’s oldest research organization and one of Southern Europe’s oldest.

Its creation began with the astronomer Georgios Konstantinos Vouris, who persuaded banker Georgios Sinas to finance an observatory for the newly established Greek state. The foundation ceremony took place during a solar eclipse on June 26, 1842, with the king, government officials, and church representatives attending. Vouris became its first director and assembled advanced instruments, including a refracting telescope made in Vienna.

His work included a catalogue covering 1000 stars observed from Greece. Later, Julius Schmidt spent 25 years here studying the Moon, planets, comets, and variable stars. He made more than 70,000 observations of variable stars and produced a detailed map of the lunar surface. Look at the dome and the building’s unusual cross-like plan: this is where Athens’s long scientific story remains visible in stone.