Schinkel 'in Athens'.

• VerfasserIn: Karidis, Dimitris N.,; Leduc, Diane,
• TeilnehmendeR: Leduc, Diane,
• Place / Publishing House: Oxford : : Archaeopress,, 2022.; ©2022.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (295 pages)

This book offers a fresh appraisal of Karl Friedrich Schinkel's urban design legacy and his involvement in the design of modern Athens in the 1830s. It challenges the common perception of Schinkel's proposed palace atop the Acropolis of Athens (1834) as a utopian scheme, detached from the realities of nineteenth-century Greece.

Table of Contents

Cover -- Ruins of Athens -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents Page -- Quote -- Preface -- On the Narrative and the Meta-narrative -- On the nature of 'Biography' -- Karl Friedrich Schinkel -- George Christian Gropius -- Eduard Schaubert, Stamatios Kleanthes and 'their' plan of Athens -- Introduction (A) -- Introduction (A) -- Back to Euclide's Elements of Geometry -- Figure 1. -- Late Ottoman Athens plan -- The plan is drawn according to the 1831-1832 survey plan, scale 1:2000 -- (1-7, clockwise, from top, the gates of the 1778 fortification wall) -- (author's re-drawing). -- Figure 2. -- The new Athens plan, ratified in July 1833, -- attributed to Stamatios Kleanthes and Gustav Eduard Schaubert -- (author's re-drawing). -- Figure 3. -- The 'geometry' of the 1833 Athens plan - design priorities and local understanding. -- Pa: the Royal residence, St: the Panthenaic Stadium, L: Hadrian's Library. -- 'd' indicates the relation of the vertical axis of the synthesis to the north-south axis, -- (drawing by the author). -- The north-south and east-west axes anchoring the plan -- Figure 4. -- The two main axes of the design in relation to the old town and its focal points. -- A: Agioi Asomatoi, K: Kapnikarea, H: Horologion, E: Erechtheion, 1-7: the gates of the 1778 wall. -- (drawing by the author, the vertical direction is aligned to the North). -- Figure 5. -- The Tower of the Winds and Eόlou street behind, just opened, running to the north, c. 1843. -- 'Elgin's Tower' appears on the left and the 17th century Ottoman 'medrese' is depicted on the right. -- Figure 6. -- The church of Kapnikarea (10th-11th c.), c. 1840. -- Along with another Byzantine church, the Agioi Asomatoi, several metres to the west, -- Kapnikarea defined the route of the long east-west axis of Ermou street, -- prominently featuring in the new 1833 Atrhens plan.

The over-estimated Propylaia and the under-estimated Library of Hadrian in reading the 1833 plan -- Figure 7. -- The west side of Hadrian's Library (132 AD), -- and part of the small church of Ag.Asomatos (12th c.) attached to it. -- Also, partly seen on the left, an 18th century mosque. -- Within a few square centimeters of paper three different historical periods, -- spanning almost two thousand years, are 'conveniently' located. -- Figure 8. -- Detail from a panoramic view of Athens (1850-1860), -- as seen from the northern wall of the Acropolis. -- Eόlou Street runs from bottom left to top centre. -- A new plan or an extension plan for the old town? -- Figure 9a. -- Plan of Athens, 1843 -- Figure 9b. -- Plan of Athens by von Stranz, 1862. -- An Urban Interlude on 17th-19th c. European Extension Plans -- Copenhagen -- Introduction - Interlude -- Figure i. -- Copenhagen, extensions of the medieval town to the 19th century. -- 1-a: The medieval town -- 2: the 17th century 'Kongens Nytorv' (the King's New Plaza) and Charlottenborg palace behind -- -- 3: the 18th century Amalienborg district. -- Introduction - Interlude -- Figure ii. -- Copenhagen, the Amalienborg district with the four detached palace buildings, -- located on four sides of the octagonal square -- -- (the drawing indicates the mid-20th century building layout). -- Berlin -- Figure iii. -- 'Stadtplan mit einer Rekonstruktion von Alt-Berlin entsprechend dem Stand von 1688'. -- A 1688 map of Berlin indicating: the original, medieval nucleus of Berlin-Cöln and Friedrichswerder (A, B, C on the map), encircled by a wall with 13 bastions and a moat, and the first western extension, Dorotheenstadt (E on the map), named after the mona -- Figure iv. -- 'Friedrich Wilhelm I. besichtigt die Bauarbeiten in der Friedrichstadt'.

Berlin, King Friedrich Wilhelm I (the 'King Sergeant', 1713-1740) observes construction in Friedrichstadt, -- after an 1890 lithograph (painting by Hugo Vogel, 1855-1934). -- Vienna -- Figure v. -- A 1740 map of Berlin by J.Homann (the North is downwards). -- The three emblematic squares, with the octagonal 'Achteck' in the middle, -- define the western side of Berlin. -- The circular square on the top is the 'Rondel'. -- This is cartography and map making at its best. Vivid colours appear on the original version, enhancing the town-country antithesis. Homann was a renowned German cartographer, later Imperial Geographer and member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. -- Figure vi. -- Vienna, Opernring with the Opera House in the centre, in 1905. -- Mainz -- Figure vii. -- On the left: the Vienna Altstadt in the early 19th century, -- indicating the location of the Hofburg Imperial Palace. -- On the right: part of the Vienna 'Ring' at the end of the same century, indicating the 'infill' -- and extension of the town, and the majority of principal new public buildings -- neighbouring the Imperial palace. -- Clockwise, 1: The Opera -- 2: The Museums of Natural History and Art History -- 3: The Parliament -- -- 4 -- The Burgtheater (new location) -- 5: The Rathaus (Town Hall). -- (The north is to the top - Scale: 1:40,000). -- Figure viii. -- Mainz, plan of the city in 1898. -- (a: the old town - from the Middle Ages to the 1870s -- b: the 'Neustadt' -- - 19th century extention of the city). -- The two parts are united by means of two axes indicated in black: 'Kaiserstrasse', in a sw-ne direction and 'Hinderburgstrasse', in a nw-se direction. -- (Cardinal points are indicated on the top left of the map, along with the scale of design). -- Nancy -- Figure ix. 'Plan de Nancy en 1633 d'après Anthoine de Fer' -- -- 'Ville Vieille' and 'Ville Neuve'.

(The North is on the left, upwards by approx. 30o, -- the length of the 'Place de la Carrière', the long square in the 'Ville Vieille', is approx., 250 m). -- Figure x. -- 'Plan general des deux villes de Nancy' (1754). -- Nancy, the layout of the old and new towns as a single unity. -- (a: Ville Vieille -- b: Ville Neuve -- 1: Place de la Carriere -- 2: Place Stanislas -- 3: Stanislas str.). -- Cologne -- Figure xi. -- Alternative design patterns in a part of the late 19th century Cologne extension plan. -- Figure xi (a). -- The two white lines, on top, indicate the in-between them early Cologne extension area, -- following the 1881 demolition of the fortification wall. -- (C: the Cathedral). The area indicated by the white circle is the one shown in Figure xi. -- Figure xi (b). -- 'Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring - Stadterweiterung, Blick Westseite (1886)'. -- Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring, city extension, west side (1886). -- Figure xi (c). -- Buildings along the Hohenzollernring, in 1896 Cologne, -- fifteen years after the demolition of the fortification walls. -- The street-lay out on the left indicates the star-shaped pattern adopted in the extension plan. -- Barcelona -- Figure xii. -- Details from the Barcelona extension plans of 1854. -- On the left, the Cerdà plan (implemented), on the right the Rovira plan (rejected). -- In both cases, the new building plots are indicated in black. -- (Author's redrawing after Lavedan, 1952: 240). -- Figure xiii. -- Rovira y Trias Plan that won the 1859 City of Barcelona competition for an expansion plan. -- Figure xiv. -- Ildefons Cerdà i Sunyer: extension plan for Barcelona, ordered and approved by the Government of Madrid -- The Athens Extension Plan - 1830s to 1860s -- Figure 10. -- Plan of Athens, Chenavard, 1843. -- Introduction (A) -- Figure 11. -- Detail from the 1862 von Strantz Athens plan.

The building plots constructed until the 1860s appear in black (author's redrawing). -- (1: Town Hall, 2: Municipal Theatre, 3: Mint, 4: Covered market, 5: The Royal Stationery Office). -- Figure 12. -- John Nash's Regent Street superimposed on Horwood's London map of 1792. The compulsory purchase scheme in this predominantly Crown property area -- took a relatively long time to complete. -- Almost 780 houses had to be demolished. -- Figure 13. -- Regent Street front in 1827. -- Figure 14. -- Eólou Street, c. 1900. -- The street focuses on the Tower of the Winds and the Erechtheion on the Acropolis. -- The photograph was taken from a point half-way between the far-end of the street below the Acropolis and Omonoia Square behind the photographer. -- The junction of Eolou Street with Kolokotroni Street, commented in the text, is but a few metres ahead on the left. The junction appering here: Eolou Street / Evripidou Street. -- Figure 15. -- A paradigm of the Greek version of compulsory purchase of land in 1862, -- for a straight new street (Kolokotroni) cutting through the built-up environment. -- (Bastea, 2000: 117). -- Figure 16. -- Detail from the Stauffert - Schaubert 1836 plan of Athens. -- The scheme shows (on its right side) the intended extension of Kolokotroni, -- as a straight thoroughfare, until it meets Eólou street below. -- Figure 16a. -- The 1833 plan of Athens in relation to the modern city. -- 'L'and 'H' in the centre stand for Hadrian's Library and the 'Horologion'respectively. -- The small buildings in black refer to churches. -- Figure 17. -- Athens, c. 1850, looking from the west. -- Τhe Royal Palace is in the far background, on the right - and impossible to miss. -- The street on the left, running to the north towards the palace, is Ermou.

The train and tracks are part of the first railway connection of Athens with its future port, Piraeus.