Modern Athens is a particular example of urban development. History showed a certain respect, and the city did not sustain destruction from earthquakes or battles, as did many other cities both within and outside Greece. Some neighborhoods escaped systematic reconstruction and today constitute a breath of fresh air in the dense urban web of the city.

This book aspires to reassemble, with the help of rare photographic material, the oldest images of the city of Athens from the mid-19th century to the first years following WWII. Many iconic Athenian buildings, long since displaced from the center of interest, now claim a place in the memory of the readers and help them to mentally reproduce the older form of the city, as its inhabitants and its visitors experienced it in the past.