10 Urban Statues in Athens to add to your Instagram

Clytemnestra

The sculpture’s monumental size reflects the international star power of its creator, Chryssa—one of a handful of contemporary Greek artists to have shown at the Guggenheim, Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art, the Paris’s Musee d’Arte Moderne, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Featuring a trademark mix of neon, stainless steel, and plexiglass, this figure-eight sculpture is as hard to decipher as much of Chryssa’s work, forcing the viewer to pause and ponder. The twisted figure depicts the agony of the mythical queen, who murdered husband Agamemnon for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia—or perhaps in a fit of jealousy over Cassandra. Of course, you don’t need to get into knots over what the sculpture means to enjoy its clean lines and flowing form.

Athens Concert Hall grounds, Vas. Sofias and Kokkali streets

Photo by Thomas Gravanis

The Runner (Dromeas)

The eight-meter-high figure of a runner formed by staggered plates of green glass is as much a feat of engineering as aesthetics. It’s by no means the only work of sculptor Costas Varotsos, a Fulbright scholar, but it’s certainly the most visible and best-known. Originally installed in Omonia in 1988, this highly-snappable landmark was moved to its current location in 1994. It’s an apt site as it signals runners on the Athens Classic Marathon that they’re just minutes from the finish line. By using a universal symbol—the human form in perpetual motion—Varotsos makes post-modernist art more relatable to the public, underscoring his belief in art’s dynamic as a vehicle for social change.

Intersection of Vas. Konstantinou and Vas. Sofias streets

Photo by Thomas Gravanis

Eleftherios Venizelos

Yannis Pappas is among Greece’s most prolific sculptors. Yet his name is largely unknown outside art circles, even though his works are found in several public spaces and depict prominent Greeks. Chief among them, the preeminent 20th century statesman Eleftherios Venizelos. The life-size statue stands on the spot where he saw off the Greek troops to the Balkan Wars. There’s a small museum dedicated to Venizelos nearby in ‘Freedom Park’, named for the political detainees tortured by the junta at an interrogation centre on the grounds (now also a museum). This isn’t Pappas’ only statue of Venizelos; there’s another outside Parliament and a bust at the National Public Health School.

Parko Eleftherias

Photo by Thomas Gravanis

Zongolopoulos hydrokinetic statue at Omonia Square in Athens

Pentakyklo (Five Circles)

Yorgos Zoggolopoulos is among Greece’s best-known contemporary artists and while his most famous open-air sculpture, Umbrellas, graces Thessaloniki’s waterfront, a far more complex and compelling installation is the 15-meter-high stainless-steel hydrokinetic sculpture, Five Circles. Greece’s entry in the 2001 Venice Biennale,it was returned to its original location on Omonia Square in 2020. The water’s continuous flow mimics the around-the-clock stream of people and vehicles through this city hub. Brussels, Washington DC, Venice, and Berlin also host the talking-point public sculptures of this much-loved artist, who died in 2004.

Omonia Square

Photo by Thomas Gravanis

Holocaust Memorial

Stark simplicity amplifies the poignancy of this sculpture—a Star of David formed by seven marble blocks whose corners point to the Greek cities where Jewish communities once thrived (the cities are engraved on the sides). Created by DeAnna Maganias, a Greek-American artist living in Greece since the 1990s, it artfully suggests both dispersion through the star’s disconnected points and unification around its hexagonal centre. Installed in 2010, it’s framed in a fragrant Mediterranean herb garden that is surprisingly serene amid the bustle of this busy location.

Ermou pedestrian walk at the intersection of Evoulou and Melidoni streets, Keramikos

Photo by Thomas Gravanis

Theodoros Kolokotronis

This striking bronze of the helmeted revolutionary war hero pointing his troops to battle is distinguished by two fun facts: it’s the first modern statue of a figure on horseback and perhaps one of the few artworks vandalized by the artist who created it. Lazaros Sohos, the sculptor, was asked to replicate his statue of the general commissioned by Nafplio. Taking artistic license with his own work, he depicted Kolokotronis with his thick locks flowing around his shoulders. But the benefactors insisted he restore Kolokotronis’s signature helmet. Sohos did, but chiselled his objection on the statue’s pedestal. Look closely at the base and his protestation is faint but visible, just above his signature.

Outside the National Historical Museum, Stadiou street, Syntagma

Photo by Thomas Gravanis

Memorial of National Reconciliation

The Matisse-like quality of Vassilis Doropoulos’ massive bronze reflects both his status as one of Greece’s best-known Impressionists and the influence of his French education and extended Parisian sojourn. The three slender figures—each eight meters high—with arms extended overhead and fingers entwined conjure dancers. At first glance, this exuberance may seem incongruous with a sculpture whose subject is the Civil War; but ultimately it inspires with its symbolic coming together. The sculpture’s unveiling in 1989 was accompanied by the square’s renaming as ‘National Reconciliation Square’. The name never stuck. For Athenians, it will always be ‘Klafthmonos—or the “crying square”—after the sacked civil servants who came to beg the Interior Minister for their jobs.

Klafthmonos Square

Photo by Thomas Gravanis

Synthesis and Massification

Commuters usually rush through this park without a sideways glance at this pleasantly-shaded sculpture garden. Among them, Christos Kapralos’ Synthesis—an Expressionist study of a mother and two children cast in bronze using a technique known as cire perdue, or lost wax. Kapralos renders the human figure as flat and almost rectangular—a stark contrast to the bulk of Yorgos Lambrou’s Massification. It takes a few seconds to realise that what appears to be an undulating wave is actually a mass of bodies, roped together into a space that feels uncomfortably confining even outdoors. Zoggolopoulos’s last work, Column, is also here.

Rizari Park, Vas. Sofias street at Evangelismos Metro Station

Photo by Thomas Gravanis

Five Circles status in Omonia Square in Athens

Eat & Drink

Eat & Drink

Eat & Drink

Eat & Drink

Sculpture Culture: 10 Urban Statues in Athens for your Instagram

From post-modernist city icons to muscle-bound monarchs, track down these urban sculptures that have slipped the museums to enliven the streets and squares of Athens.