Schaubert, a German, created modern Athens

[TrueMacedonian]

I always thought that there were ethnic "greeks" that built their own cities let alone there most famous classical city

[Risto the Great]

Not Schaubert ... I have it on good authority his name was actually Sobertis and he danced the rembetika over every square kilometre of the planned city.

[Dejan]

lol i can just picture him dancing at the parthenon

[Pelister]

Only 5,000 inhabitants. The average Macedonian village was bigger.

[osiris]

gee pelister are you sure macedonian villages were on average 5000 plus people, i find that very hard believe.

[Pelister]

The Macedonians were pretty dispersed.

Take the Greek census of Egej in 1921, which showed 500,000 Macedonians. Most of these lived in villages, not the larger urban centres. Solun was mostly Jewish, and Turkish.

Only in the very late 19th century was there a move to urban centres in their district.

If you look at the census data of villages in the Macedonian Republic, as far back as they go, you see a village of 5, 6, or 7 thousand inhabitants even 50 or 60 years ago, gradually dwindle or decline to only a few dozen people, today.

[Daskalot]

TM, you are an onslaught on the feeble Greeks minds.....

[osiris]

i am not doubting you pelister but i dont know of one village with that many inhabitants.

[TrueMacedonian]

TM, you are an onslaught on the feeble Greeks minds.....

I like to disappoint there fantasies

[Tribunal]

This is yet another example of numerous history 'engineering' resulting in a mass delusion of an entire country.

As the book quoted by TrueMacedonian says,the original blueprint for Athens was drawn up by the German architect Eduard Schaubert,who was assisted by French citizen of Greek origin Stamatis Kleanthis.Schaubert's original plan envisioned a drastic reconstruction(or invention) of Athens.Acropolis was to be the centre of roundabout ,with the main street lined with trees,40 meters wide,stretching all the way up to the ancient stadium.If Athens was built as planned it would truely have been an masterpiece.However,when the Greeks started the construction the result was a mess which anyone can see today,resembling anything but the original idea.
From here starts the actual tragedy of an outright manipulation.
There are currently 2 versions of 'history' which are narrated in Greece.
According to the mainstream 'history',Athens as it is today was the 'original' plan.The credit for drastically changing this lonely townlet was given to Kleanthis.The name of Schaubert is hardly mentioned today,and even if it is,his role is relegated to that of an assistant.
Another version of 'history' does actually recognise the original city plan.But a third party (Bavarians) was exclusively blamed for the mutilation of the original city plan,and again,even in this version most of the credit for the original plan was given to Kleanthis.All this falsification resulted merely in re-enforcing the urban legend that 'if everything went on as the Greeks envisioned,everything would have been perfect'.

BTW,Kleanthis was born in Velventos,Kozani.

[Daskalot]

This is yet another example of numerous history 'engineering' resulting in a mass delusion of an entire country.

As the book quoted by TrueMacedonian says,the original blueprint for Athens was drawn up by the German architect Eduard Schaubert,who was assisted by French citizen of Greek origin Stamatis Kleanthis.Schaubert's original plan envisioned a drastic reconstruction(or invention) of Athens.Acropolis was to be the centre of roundabout ,with the main street lined with trees,40 meters wide,stretching all the way up to the ancient stadium.If Athens was built as planned it would truely have been an masterpiece.However,when the Greeks started the construction the result was a mess which anyone can see today,resembling anything but the original idea.
From here starts the actual tragedy of an outright manipulation.
There are currently 2 versions of 'history' which are narrated in Greece.
According to the mainstream 'history',Athens as it is today was the 'original' plan.The credit for drastically changing this lonely townlet was given to Kleanthis.The name of Schaubert is hardly mentioned today,and even if it is,his role is relegated to that of an assistant.
Another version of 'history' does actually recognise the original city plan.But a third party (Bavarians) was exclusively blamed for the mutilation of the original city plan,and again,even in this version most of the credit for the original plan was given to Kleanthis.All this falsification resulted merely in re-enforcing the urban legend that 'if everything went on as the Greeks envisioned,everything would have been perfect'.

BTW,Kleanthis was born in Velventos,Kozani.

Good first post Tribunal, one thing is for sure, Athens was nothing at the time of its rejuvenation.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Thanks for that information Tribunal. Do you have any more information on the Kleanthis character? Welcome to the forum.

[osiris]

it still isnt much in my opinion its one of the ugliest cities of europe, drag grey 5 to 10 story concrete blocks.

[Spartan]

All in all, I would agree with you Osiris. Athens is overcrowded and has a very "concrete" feel to it. However, there are very nice areas in Athens as well. Ugliest cities in Europe is a bit of a stretch imo though. The city was upgraded bigtime in the years before we got the Olympics. Public transportation was a major problem, but a great subway system(metro) was built, and the city has beneffited greatly from this as it is very easy to get around now...
However the city is still grossly overpopulated, and there are too many bloody strikes/protests that contribute to the 'bad image' of the city.

[Tribunal]

Thanks for that information Tribunal. Do you have any more information on the Kleanthis character? Welcome to the forum.

Thank you for the welcome.
I have a feeling that I know what you actually want to know about Kleanthis.
Velvendos is located on the eastern side of lake Polyfytos,on the right bank of the river Bistrica(today's Aliakmonas).One of the closest town is Serfice(today's Servia).Usually,this region south/east of Polyfytos was considered exclusively Greek.As you can see,when you are talking about Greece,there is no such thing as 'only' or 'always'.So,just in case,I naturally tried to find any kind of statistic geographic Macedonia showing the ethnic composition of the 'other side' of the lake.Maybe I didn't look properly,but to my surprise,I could NOT find anything from both the Greek and Bulgarian side.It is likely that the region around Velvendos was not considered Macedonia by the Greeks during 19th century.The only vague mentioning of the village was found in the works of Vasil Kunchov.He did not made any statistics on the region,but he did make a brief description.Here again,Kunchov described the region as border between Macedonia and Thessaly.As for the population,the only thing he said was that the Greek population was 'prevailing'.Why he did not say 'entirely','exclusively','purely' etc.,one can only guess.
As for Kleanthis himeslf,he was born in 1802.The family moved to Bucharest where he got his first education. Interesting to note is that there was already a community of 'Greeks' from Velvendos in Bucharest.Considering that the cities where Greek community prospered the most in those days were Istanbul,Izmir,Trabzon,and Odessa,Bucharest was rather an 'unusual' destination....unless you understand the language of the locals.I hope you understand what I'm saying.
Besides all this,there is nothing interesting about his life other than the fact that he participated in Ypsilantis's adventure,fled north and studied architecture in places such as Leipzig and Berlin.Also,he didn't went to Greece with 'patriotism' to 'rebuild Athens to it's former glory' as the Greeks like to believe.He was originally working in Aigina,and was appointed to the Athens task by Capodistrias.