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54-406: Amaliada was named after Queen Amalia of Greece in the 1830s, and formed by merging two communes, Kalitsa and Dervitselepi. It features a city square with pine trees and a fountain. Most of the streets are in grid order running almost due north, south, east, and west. On the east side, Amaliada has a public sports stadium (mainly used for soccer). The hospital and the monastery of Frangavilla are in

108-474: A British warship, with the Greek royal regalia that they had brought with them. It was reported in the press that the royal courtiers weren’t aspersed, however, the queen's controversial favorite, Wilhelmine von Plüskow , was exposed to sarcasm from the crowd when she left. It has been suggested that the king would not have been overthrown had Amalia borne an heir, as succession was also a major unresolved question at

162-531: A feat made possible only by his considerable expertise. The foundation of the building was laid on January 25 (Old Style) / February 6 (New Style), 1836, in the presence of Ludwig I and the ambassadors of the Great Powers. In March, Gärtner returned to Munich, leaving the supervision of the construction to Bavarian lieutenants Sloter and Hoss. From his office in Munich , Gärtner completed the detailed studies, producing

216-514: A queen in 1837, she had an immediate impact on social life and fashion. She realised that her attire ought to emulate that of her new people, and so she created a romantic folksy court dress, which became a national Greek costume still known as the Amalía dress . It follows the Biedermeier style with a loose-fitting, white cotton or silk shirt, often decorated with lace at the neck and cuffs, over which

270-406: A richly embroidered jacket or vest is worn, usually of dark blue or claret velvet . The skirt was ankle-length, unpressed- pleated silk , the color usually azure. It was completed with a soft cap or fez with a single, long, golden silk tassel, traditionally worn by married women, or with the kalpaki (a toque ) of the unmarried woman, and sometimes with a black veil for church. This dress became

324-573: A second time in 1861–1862, when Otto visited his family in Bavaria to discuss the succession crisis. Her political influence was controversial. Her favorites were considered to have influence over her, notably her principal lady-in-waiting Baroness Wilhelmine von Plüskow was widely rumored to influence state affairs, particularly in matters relating to Austria, through both the queen and the king, which exposed her to controversy. When she arrived in Greece as

378-480: A symbol of Greece’s political power. The square to the west of the palace was named "Constitution Square" (Πλατεία Συντάγματος, Syntagma Square ) in honor of this event. After Otto’s abrupt departure and abdication, George I became the new King of Greece in 1864. He moved into the palace with his family but decided in 1868 to relocate the heir apparent, known as the Diadoch , to another building. For this purpose, he had

432-556: A total of 247 designs related solely to the Athens palace building. These designs are now part of Munich’s large Moniger collection, while a small number have been donated to the Parliament Museum, demonstrating the care put into every detail. The primary materials used in the building’s construction were stone, marble, and wood. The stone mainly came from Hymettus , Lycabettus , and the "Pinakota" area near Strefi Hill in Athens, while

486-454: A unit of the Greek army known as the Evzones . The Evzones wear traditional Greek uniforms, with the most distinctive feature being the fustanella. The changing of the guard occurs every hour. The Old Palace, according to Gärtner’s designs, is a massive rectangular three-story building, including the ground floor, with two axes of symmetry. The main axis runs East-West and aligns with Ermou Street,

540-527: A variety of government and public services in the 1920s, functioning as a makeshift hospital during World War II , a refugee shelter for Greek refugees from the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) in 1922, a museum with the personal effects of King George I (now part of the collection of the National Historical Museum ), and other uses. In November 1929, the government decided to relocate

594-542: Is the seat of Koroivos which plays in A1 Ethniki . The town also hosts the football team Asteras Amaliada F.C. with earlier presence in Gamma Ethniki. Amaliada is twinned with: Amalia of Oldenburg Amalia of Oldenburg ( Greek : Αμαλία ; 21 December 1818 – 20 May 1875) was a Oldenburg princess who became Queen of Greece from 1836 to 1862 as the wife of King Otto Friedrich Ludwig . She

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648-603: The Crown Prince's Palace constructed. At the same time, George I had two summer residences built: the Tatoi Palace , about twenty kilometers north of Athens, and the Mon Repos villa on the island of Corfu . The royal palace was devastated by a terrible fire in 1909. The king and his family then moved to Crown's Prince palace, from then on known as the "New Palace". Even after the reconstruction, George did not immediately return to

702-861: The Hellenic Parliament . Other buildings associated with the Parliament include the Tobacco Factory (housing the Parliament’s Library and Archives), the building on Vasilissis Amalias Avenue (for administrative services), the buildings at 4 Voulis Street and 2 Mitropoleos Street (offices for regional Members of Parliament), the Exhibition Hall of the Parliament Foundation, part of the Arvanitis Mansion (for administrative services), and

756-586: The Fifth National Assembly on 1 July 1935. Although the monarchy was restored that same year, the building has housed Parliament ever since. The transformation of the building into the Parliament was carried out by architect Andreas Kriezis. On 25 March 1932, the unveiling of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier , which had begun construction in 1929, took place. Today, the building serves as the headquarters of

810-638: The German couple Clemens von Weichs-Glon and Dorothea von Weichs-Glon, her favourite companion being Julie von Nordenpflycht . The queen's sister, Princess Frederike, lived with her in Greece for several years until she left after the September revolution of 1843. The diarist Christiane Lüth described the queen in 1839–40: The Queen was small, beautiful and with a lovely figure. She was lively, almost too lively, spoke of various subjects and complimented Greece in favor of

864-541: The Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv in Oldenburg, Germany. Old Royal Palace The Old Royal Palace ( Greek : Παλαιά Ανάκτορα Palaiá Anáktora ) is the first royal palace of modern Greece . It is neoclassical building situated at the heart of modern Athens , facing onto Syntagma Square . It was constructed between 1836 and 1843 to serve as the main residence of the Greek royal family and has been

918-552: The Nordic countries, and was certain that we would very soon be accustomed to this beautiful nation with its lovely climate. [...] The Queen was very superstitious, she did not sit down thirteen people at dinner, and was convinced that a white or a black lady appeared before her when an event of importance occurred in Bavaria or Oldenburg. She also believed in reincarnation, and her firm character made it hard to dissuade her from something once she had made up her mind. Christiane Lüth describes

972-519: The Orthodox religion of Greece. On 14 February 1837 she arrived in Athens, in Greece. In the early years of the new monarchy, Queen Amalia, with her beauty and vivaciousness, brought a spirit of smart fashion and progress to the impoverished country. She laboured actively towards social improvement and the creation of many gardens in Athens, and at first won the hearts of the Greeks with her refreshing beauty and

1026-579: The Parliament to the royal palace from its previous location in a neoclassical building on Stadiou Street, the Old Parliament House , now the National Historical Museum. This move marked a significant transformation of the building’s role, with the republic overshadowing the former monarchy. After more extensive renovations, the Senate convened in the "Old Palace" on 2 August 1934, followed by

1080-513: The Vice Presidents, the Cabinet meeting room, the Parliament's television channel, and administrative services. It is accessible by public transportation via the bus and metro networks ( Syntagma station ). The building was constructed between 1836 and 1847, intended to become the palace of King Otto, following the transfer of the state’s capital from Nafplio to Athens in 1834. It was erected at

1134-423: The biggest crises of Otto's reign, as well as Amalia's unpopularity, was the succession crisis. The cause of the childlessness of Otto and Amalia has been the cause of debate. During this time period, infertility was commonly considered the fault of the woman, and Amalia's frequent dancing and riding were blamed for it. She was exposed to various fertility treatments until her 35th birthday. Otto's brothers were given

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1188-508: The building at 1A Sekeri Street (for administrative services). In 2003, new statues were unveiled to honor two prominent Prime Ministers of the country, Charilaos Trikoupis and Eleftherios Venizelos, further enhancing the republican image of the Palace. An exhibition tracing the building’s history from its origins was held in 2009. In front of the Parliament, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded by

1242-501: The building’s wings, Gärtner had designed many plans featuring rich decorations, most of which focused on the western facade, which was the most formal. When submitting the designs for approval to King Ludwig, who was also the financier of the building, the king rejected them, citing reasons of economy and a preference to avoid shifting from classical simplicity to a Renaissance style. As Oswald Hederer notes in his book Friedrich von Gaertner: "...when King Ludwig (of Bavaria) crossed out all

1296-524: The columbine Aquilegia amaliae . Queen Amalia's letters to her sister-in-law, Princess Mathilde Caroline of Bavaria , Grand Duchess of Hesse, written between 1837 and 1861, are preserved in the Hessian State Archive (Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt) in Darmstadt, Germany. Queen Amalia's letters to her brother Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg , written between 1861 and 1862, are preserved in

1350-517: The continuation of the construction and the interior decoration, bringing with him renowned historical painters of the time, Johann Schraudolph, Ulrich Halbreiter, and Josef Kranzburger. These artists were responsible for the large murals depicting scenes from Greek mythology and the Greek Revolution of 1821, especially in the Trophy Hall. After a three-month stay, Gärtner returned to Munich, leaving

1404-460: The court in Athens as a small community full of gossip: "The least pleasant thing was that there was always a German lackey on the servant seat who heard every word said; for the entire court staff was with few exceptions German. There was endless gossip, as the Queen felt an interest for the least important things, so that everything which could be forwarded to her by lackeys, lady's maids and chamber maids

1458-403: The decorative elements of the facades with a red pencil, Gärtner is said to have remarked, somewhat indignantly, 'Well, now, Your Majesty, it looks like a barracks!'" Despite the imposed simplicity, Gärtner managed, with a few well-chosen elements, to give the massive building an imposing yet serene appearance. He used two bands, like threads, to connect the windowsills around each floor, breaking

1512-470: The eastern and western facades, creating two pediments at the edges. The central sections of the northern and southern wings are recessed by approximately 3.80 meters from the eastern and western facades. The projections of the central wing and the recesses of the side wings create a distinctive plasticity with a heavy classical tone, giving the building a unique architectural character. Both the eastern and western facades are approximately 90 meters long, while

1566-460: The engineer Riedel in charge, who successfully completed the building in 1847. King Otto and Queen Amélie moved into the royal palace in 1843. On 3 September of the same year, General Dimitrios Kallergis , with his men and a large part of the population, presented themselves at the windows of the sovereign to compel him to grant a constitution to the Kingdom. This peaceful revolution made the building

1620-509: The expense of King Ludwig I of Bavaria , as a personal loan to Otto. The final selection of the site for the construction of the old palace was made by Gärtner himself at the end of 1835, after rejecting the proposals of Kleanthis , Schaubert , Klenze , and Schinkel , who had suggested locations in Omonoia , Kerameikos , and the Acropolis , respectively. Ludwig, Otto’s father, had also objected to

1674-451: The latter. Specifically, the area proposed by Gärtner for the construction was at the junction of Stadiou Street (then a peripheral road) and Ermou Street , on a small and gentle hill. In addition to its healthy climate, the location overlooked Athens from its easternmost edge. Thus, Gärtner was instructed to draft the building’s plans, a task he accomplished in a short time during his brief stay in Athens (from December 1835 to March 1836),

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1728-459: The longest street in Athens at the time, while the secondary axis, running North-South, aligns with the western slope of Lycabettus and the columns of the Temple of Olympian Zeus . The building consists of four wings (one on each side) and a central interior wing along the main axis, flanked by two internal courtyards (atriums). The central wing, with a double-pitched tiled roof, extends 0.58 meters beyond

1782-541: The marble came primarily from Penteli , with smaller quantities from Hymettus, Tinos , Paros , Naxos , and a few from Carrara and Genoa in Italy . Lastly, the wood was sourced from Evia. Notably, many locals, especially islanders such as those from Tinos, Sifnos , Paros, and Naxos]], volunteered to work on the palace’s construction without pay. Once the walls were completed in November 1840, Gärtner returned to Athens to oversee

1836-518: The military stood in a threatening position ready to fire on command. Thousands of people filled the great square and you could hear them call: "Live the Constitution!" [...] The Queen was with the King all the time and told him, that there was but two alternatives: entweder underschreiben oder entsagen (either sign or abdicate). Lüth described the queen as nervous and pessimistic during the days following

1890-613: The official royal residence until 1910, when George I chose to move to the Crown Prince's Palace nearby, which now houses the presidency of the Hellenic Republic . On the west side of the building, the site was transformed into the Monument to the Unknown Soldier . Today, the palace houses the Hellenic Parliament ( Greek : Βουλή των Ελλήνων ), the office of the President of the Assembly,

1944-402: The other two facades are about 80 meters each. The entire building is elevated by 1.5 meters from the surrounding area. All the exterior wings have a ground floor and two upper stories. The height of the ground floor is 7.16 meters (gross), the first floor is 7.11 meters (gross), and the second floor is 5.5 meters. In contrast, the central wing has a basement, a ground floor with the same height as

1998-418: The other wings, but only one upper story, which is 14.20 meters high (taller than the combined heights of the first and second floors of the other wings). This space housed the official reception rooms, the "reception-ball-games" hall, and the grand dining hall. It was the most richly decorated area of the palace, adorned with murals, paintings, maps, furniture, and other decorations. For the exterior facades of

2052-468: The palace, unlike his wife, Queen Olga , who remained there after her husband’s assassination in 1913. Constantine I neglected the palace, and his successor, Alexander , chose to reside at Tatoi. In 1924, a referendum abolished the monarchy, and the Second Hellenic Republic was proclaimed. The royal family was forced into exile. The palace was then used for many different purposes: housing

2106-589: The patriotic love she demonstrated for her new home country. Amalia was the first to introduce the Christmas tree to Greece. During her first years in Greece, Athens was a relatively small town; the king and queen resided in a small house while the Old Royal Palace was being built. Having few exceptions, the Royal Household was made up of mostly Germans. The queen's chamberlain and principal lady-in-waiting were

2160-427: The queen became more politically involved, also. She became the target of harsh attacks when she became involved in politics. She remained a Protestant in an almost universally Orthodox country throughout her husband's reign. Christiane Lüth describes the role of the queen during the 3 September 1843 Revolution : Uhlan continually circled around the [p]alace on horseback, to ensure that no one escaped, and all of

2214-483: The queen's name day no ball was given at the Palace: "... it was not seen wise, one would not risk having a Gustav III Masquerade. There are daily rumours that Athens will be set alight on all four corners, so to speak, and everyone massacered." Initially, Queen Amalia's Lutheran religion was not given much attention, but the aversion to it grew when she did not give birth to a child which could be raised Orthodox. One of

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2268-450: The revolution. She did not wish to hear sermon and had her books packed ready to leave if necessary, and advised her sister Princess Friederike to leave Greece since she could no longer guarantee her safety. The king and queen wrote to King Louis of Bavaria to ask for his assistance, but the queen remarked that they could not expect a response for six weeks, and by that time „und Gott weiss wo wir dann sind“ ['God knows how things stand']. On

2322-479: The right to the throne after him, but it was rumoured that queen Amalia wished to have her own half-brother Elimar of Oldenburg appointed heir instead. The queen was eventually given more influence. Amalia was given the right to govern as regent in the case of the absence or incapability of the monarch or the heir to the throne. She acted as Regent of Greece in 1850-1851 when Otto was in Germany for health reasons, and

2376-455: The seat of the Parliament since 1929. In 1836, King Otto I commissioned the Bavarian architect Friedrich von Gärtner , recommended by his father, Ludwig I of Bavaria , to design a palace that would house not only the royal family but also the ministerial cabinet. At the same time, the architect planned the future National Garden adjacent to the palace with Queen Amélie . The building served as

2430-611: The second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria , Prince Otto of Bavaria had been appointed king of the newly created Kingdom of Greece in 1833. Otto visited Germany to find a bride after he had been declared to be of legal majority. He then met Amalia in Marienbad in Bohemia. Amalia was Lutheran and Otto was Catholic, and they were wed in both a Lutheran and Catholic wedding ceremony. It was an understanding, that while they were allowed to keep their religion, any child born to them would be raised in

2484-496: The southeast. Amaliada has a train station on the line from Patras to Pyrgos. A street in Amaliada's west side is named Hiroshima in memory of the victims of the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima at the end of World War II . Kourouta and Palouki are the beaches of Amaliada, about 6 km southwest of the town centre. The municipal unit Amaliada is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets): Amaliada

2538-559: The target of harsh attacks—and her image suffered further as she proved unable to provide an heir to the throne, She and her husband were expelled from Greece in 1862, after an uprising. She spent the rest of her years in exile in Bavaria . She acted as Regent of Greece in 1850–1851, and a second time in 1861-1862 during the absence of Otto. To Amalia is attributed the creation of the “romantic folksy court dress,” which in return became Greece’s national costume. Duchess Amalia Maria Frederica

2592-515: The time of uprising. It is also true, however, that the Constitution of 1843 made provision for Otto to be succeeded by his two younger brothers and their descendants. Otto and Amalia spent the rest of their years in exile, at home in Bavaria . They decided to speak Greek each day between 6 and 8 o'clock to remember their time in Greece. Otto died in 1867. Queen Amalia survived her husband by almost eight years and died in Bamberg on 20 May 1875. She

2646-417: The usual attire of all Christian townswomen in both Ottoman Empire -occupied and liberated Balkan lands as far north as Belgrade . In February 1861, a university student named Aristeidis Dosios (son of politician Konstantinos Dosios ) unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate the queen. He was sentenced to death, though Queen Amalia intervened and he was pardoned, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He

2700-617: Was "gefundenes fressen" (fig. "low hanging fruit") and that the queen was a "master" of gossip. Queen Amalia loved to dance and ride, arranged balls at court and could be seen riding in and around Athens, and in other leisure activities which was common for upper-class women in Western Europe but new in Greece, where women had normally lived in seclusion during the Ottoman Empire. As King Otto and his Bavarian advisers became more enmeshed in political struggles with Greek political forces,

2754-776: Was born on 21 December 1818 in Oldenburg to Duke Paul Frederick Augustus of Oldenburg and his wife Princess Adelheid of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym as their first child. She was less than two years old when her mother died, on 13 September 1820. Her father remarried in 1825 to Princess Ida of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym , though she soon died in 1828; his last marriage was with Princess Cecilia of Sweden in 1831. Due to her father’s marriages, Amalia had 5 siblings, 4 being born as half-brothers : Duchess Frederica, Grand Duke Peter II , Duke Alexander, Duke August, and Duke Elimar . On 22 December 1836, Duchess Amalia of Oldenburg married King Otto Friedrich Ludwig in Oldenburg . Born as

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2808-662: Was buried beside the king at the Theatinerkirche in Munich . The cause of the royal couple's infertility remained contested even after an autopsy was performed on the queen. Queen Amalia founded the National Gardens of Athens in 1839, and an orphanage in Amaléion in 1855. The town of Amaliada in Elis and the village of Amaliapolis in Magnesia were named after the queen, as was

2862-467: Was hailed as a hero for his attempt by certain factions, but the attempt also provoked among the people spontaneous feelings of sympathy towards the royal couple. Just over a year later, an uprising took place in Athens while the royal couple were on a visit to the Peloponnese . The Great Powers , who had supported Otto, urged them not to resist, and Otto's reign came to an end. They left Greece aboard

2916-447: Was loved widely by the Greeks due to her patriotic love for the country and her beauty. During her tenure as queen, she was dedicated to social improvement and the founding of many gardens in Athens, and she was the first to introduce the worldwide Christmas tree to Greece. When she arrived in Greece in 1837, she at first won the hearts of the Greeks with her refreshing beauty. After she became more politically involved. She then became

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