"cross) flag. On 7 February 1828 the Greek flag was internationally recognised for the first time by receiving an official salutation from British, French, and Russian forces in Nafplio, then the capital of Greece. After the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece in 1832, the new king, Otto, added the royal Coat of Arms (a shield in his ancestral topped by a crown) in the centre of the cross for military flags (both land and sea versions). The decree dated 4 (16) April 1833 provided for various maritime flags such as the war flag or naval ensign (set at 18:25),"
"private ""colleges"", as they called formally in Greece, as the establishment of private universities is prohibited by the constitution. Many of them are accredited by a foreign state or university such as the American College of Greece and the Athens Campus of the University of Indianapolis. Athens Athens (; , ""Athína"" ; , ""Athênai"" ) is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years and its earliest human presence starting somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennium BC. Classical Athens"
"Athens Athens (; , ""Athína"" ; , ""Athênai"" ) is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years and its earliest human presence starting somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennium BC. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state that emerged in conjunction with the seagoing development of the port of Piraeus, which had been a distinct city prior to its 5th century BC incorporation with Athens. A centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's"
"can stimulate the economy and promote development, when Patras was appointed European Capital of Culture. On the obverse is the logo for Patras 2006 around the words ""European Capital of Culture"". Patras Patras ( , Classical Greek and Katharevousa: Πάτραι , , ) is Greece's third-largest city and the regional capital of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foothills of Mount Panachaikon, overlooking the Gulf of Patras. Patras has a population of 213,984 (in 2011). The core settlement has a history spanning for four millennia; in the Roman period it had"
"Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (, ""Thessaloníki"" , also familiarly known as Thessalonica, Salonica, or Salonika is the second-largest city in Greece, with over 1 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of Greek Macedonia, the administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace. Its nickname is η Συμπρωτεύουσα (""Symprotévousa""), literally ""the co-capital"", a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα (""Symvasilévousa"") or ""co-reigning"" city of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, alongside Constantinople. Thessaloniki is located on the Thermaic Gulf, at the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. It is bounded on the west by"
"the Capital () or simply Athens (the most common use of the term), spanning over , with a population of 3,090,508 people as of 2011. The Athens Urban Area is considered to form the city of Athens as a whole, despite its administrative divisions, which is the largest in Greece and one of the most populated urban areas in Europe. The Athens Metropolitan Area spans within the Attica region and includes a total of 58 municipalities, which are organized in 7 regional units (those outlined above, along with East Attica and West Attica), having reached a population of 3,737,550 based"
"establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1834, include the Hellenic Parliament and the so-called ""architectural trilogy of Athens"", consisting of the National Library of Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Academy of Athens. Athens is also home to several museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world's largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108"
"Modern Greece."" Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture Series. Stanford Stanford University Press, 2016. 400 pp. . Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (, ""Thessaloníki"" , also familiarly known as Thessalonica, Salonica, or Salonika is the second-largest city in Greece, with over 1 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of Greek Macedonia, the administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace. Its nickname is η Συμπρωτεύουσα (""Symprotévousa""), literally ""the co-capital"", a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα (""Symvasilévousa"") or ""co-reigning"" city of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, alongside Constantinople. Thessaloniki is located on"
"in Greece granted a non-binary person the right to a gender-neutral name. In May 2018, the Greek Parliament passed a law granting same-sex couples the right to foster care children. Gay culture is vibrant in the capital of Athens, particularly in the gay neighbourhood of Gazi, in Thessaloniki and the Greek islands. The island of Mykonos is known worldwide for its gay scene. There are four LGBT pride parades held annually, in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras and Heraklion, the capital of the island of Crete. The largest of them, the Athens Pride, saw record participation in 2015, and the attendance of"
"while other facilities are still in use just as during the Olympics, or have been converted for commercial use or modified for other sports. Concerts and theatrical shows, such as those by the troupe Cirque du Soleil, have recently been held in the complex. The 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games was in Athens. The opening ceremony of the games took place on 25 June 2011 at the Panathinaiko Stadium and the closing ceremony was held on 4 July 2011. Over 7,500 athletes, from 185 countries, competed in a total of 22 sports. Athens is the financial capital of Greece,"
"Greeks. As the Minister of Foreign Affairs proclaimed in front of Parliament in 1844, ""The Kingdom of Greece is not Greece; it is only part of it, a small and poor part of Greece... There are two great centers of Hellenism. Athens is the capital of the Kingdom. Constantinople is the great capital, the City, dream and hope of all Greeks."" In some social situations Greeks can react negatively or be offended if the word Γραικός (""Greek"") is used in a situation where in the modern Greek language the word Έλληνας (""Hellene"") is considered the right word to use. Both"
"be used as an example by Greece's central government for a successful strategy in dealing with these problems. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece. It is an influential city for the northern parts of the country and is the capital of the region of Central Macedonia and the Thessaloniki regional unit. The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace is also based in Thessaloniki, being that the city is the de facto capital of the Greek region of Macedonia. It is customary every year for the Prime Minister of Greece to announce his administration's policies on a number of issues,"
"is under the control of the Ephorate of Prehistorical and Classical Antiquities of the Greek Ministry of Culture. The surrounding parkland is fenced, but the traveler can visit it free of charge at any time. Pnyx The Pnyx (; ; , ""Pnyka"") is a hill in central Athens, the capital of Greece. Beginning as early as 507 BC (Fifth-century Athens), the Athenians gathered on the Pnyx to host their popular assemblies, thus making the hill one of the earliest and most important sites in the creation of democracy. The Pnyx is located less than west of the Acropolis and 1.6"
"large City Centre of the Greek capital falls directly within the municipality of Athens, which is the largest in population size in Greece. Piraeus also forms a significant city centre on its own, within the Athens Urban Area and being the second largest in population size within it, with Peristeri and Kallithea following. The Athens Metropolitan Area consists of 58 densely populated municipalities, sprawling around the municipality of Athens (the city centre) in virtually all directions. For the Athenians, all the urban municipalities surrounding the city centre are called suburbs. According to their geographic location in relation to the City"
"Urban Area. The rapid expansion of the city, which continues to this day, was initiated in the 1950s and 1960s, because of Greece's transition from an agricultural to an industrial nation. The expansion is now particularly toward the East and North East (a tendency greatly related to the new Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport and the Attiki Odos, the freeway that cuts across Attica). By this process Athens has engulfed many former suburbs and villages in Attica, and continues to do so. The table below shows the historical population of Athens in recent times. Athens became the capital of Greece in"
"Patras Patras ( , Classical Greek and Katharevousa: Πάτραι , , ) is Greece's third-largest city and the regional capital of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foothills of Mount Panachaikon, overlooking the Gulf of Patras. Patras has a population of 213,984 (in 2011). The core settlement has a history spanning for four millennia; in the Roman period it had become a cosmopolitan center of the eastern Mediterranean whilst, according to the Christian tradition, it was also the place of Saint Andrew's martyrdom. According to the results of 2011 census, the"
"Central Greece (region) Central Greece Region (, ""Periféreia Stereás Elládas"", properly translated as ""Region of Continental Greece"") is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. The region occupies the eastern half of the traditional region of Central Greece, including the island of Euboea. To the south it borders the regions of Attica and the Peloponnese, to the west the region of West Greece and to the north the regions of Thessaly and Epirus. Its capital city is Lamia. The region was established in the 1987 administrative reform. With the 2010 Kallikratis plan, its powers and authority were redefined and"
"decline. Following the Greek War of Independence and the establishment of the Greek Kingdom, Athens was chosen as the capital of the newly independent Greek state in 1834, largely because of historical and sentimental reasons. At the time, it was reduced to a town of about 4,000 people in a loose swarm of houses along the foot of the Acropolis. The first King of Greece, Otto of Bavaria, commissioned the architects Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert to design a modern city plan fit for the capital of a state. The first modern city plan consisted of a triangle defined by"
"the building, while the great central hall of the National Assembly is used for conferences. Old Parliament House, Athens The Old Parliament House (, ""Paleá Voulí"") at Stadiou Street in Athens, housed the Greek Parliament between 1875 and 1935. It now houses the country's National Historical Museum. The site was occupied originally by the house of the Athenian magnate and politician, Alexandros Kontostavlos. After Athens became the capital of Greece in 1833, King Otto selected it as temporary residence, pending the construction of the Royal Palace (which houses Parliament currently). In 1835, a large dance and banquet hall was added"
"as several Roman, Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures. The city's main university, Aristotle University, is the largest in Greece and the Balkans. Thessaloniki is a popular tourist destination in Greece. In 2013, ""National Geographic Magazine"" included Thessaloniki in its top tourist destinations worldwide, while in 2014 ""Financial Times"" FDI magazine (Foreign Direct Investments) declared Thessaloniki as the best mid-sized European city of the future for human capital and lifestyle.<ref name=""European Cities and Regions of the Future 2014/15""></ref> Among street photographers, the center of Thessaloniki is also considered the most popular destination for street photography in Greece. The original name of"
"National Garden, Athens The National Garden (formerly the Royal Garden) () is a public park of in the center of the Greek capital, Athens. It is located directly behind the Greek Parliament building (The Old Palace) and continues to the South to the area where the Zappeion is located, across from the Panathenaiko or Kalimarmaro Olympic Stadium of the 1896 Olympic Games. The Garden also encloses some ancient ruins, tambourines and Corinthian capitals of columns, mosaics, and other features. On the Southeast side are the busts of Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first governor of Greece, and of the Philhellene Jean-Gabriel Eynard."
"capital to Athens. Tourism emerged slowly in the 1960s, but not to the same degree as some other Greek areas. Nevertheless, it tends to attract a number of tourists from Germany and the Scandinavian countries in particular. Nafplio enjoys a very sunny and mild climate, even by Greek standards, and as a consequence has become a popular day or weekend road-trip destination for Athenians in wintertime. Nafplio is a port, with fishing and transport ongoing, although the primary source of local employment currently is tourism, with two beaches on the other side of the peninsula from the main body of"
"Holy Trinity Cathedral, Athens The Holy Trinity Cathedral ( ) also called Greek-Catholic Cathedral of Athens Is the name given to a religious building affiliated with the Catholic Church which follows the Byzantine or Constantinopolitan rite and is located in the city of Athens the capital of the European country of Greece. Not to be confused with the Catholic cathedral of Latin rite a Basilica Dedicated to St. Dionysious, nor with the Catholic cathedral of Armenian rite dedicated to St. Gregory the Illuminator. It functions as the seat of the Greek Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Greece (""Exarchatus Apostolicus Graeciae"") that"
"the country's national railway system (OSE), connecting the capital with major cities across Greece and abroad (Istanbul, Sofia and Bucharest).The Port of Piraeus connects Athens to the numerous Greek islands of the Aegean Sea, with ferries departing, while also serving the cruise ships that arrive. Two main motorways of Greece begin in Athens, namely the A1/E75, which crosses through Athens's Urban Area from Piraeus, heading north towards Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki; and the A8/E94 heading west, towards Patras, which incorporated the GR-8A. Before their completion much of the road traffic used the GR-1 and the GR-8. Athens' Metropolitan Area"
"1834, following Nafplion, which was the provisional capital from 1829. The municipality (City) of Athens is also the capital of the Attica region. The term ""Athens"" can refer either to the municipality of Athens, to Greater Athens, or to the entire Athens Urban Area. Athens is twinned with: The oldest known human presence in Athens is the Cave of Schist, which has been dated to between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. Athens has been continuously inhabited for at least 7000 years. By 1400 BC the settlement had become an important centre of the Mycenaean civilization and the Acropolis was"
"and having faced lots of delays, the station's expansion promises to significantly increase its capacity and increase the number of platforms. Athens railway station Athens railway station () is the main railway station of Athens, the capital city of Greece. It is located in the central quarter of Kolonos. It resulted from the merger of the city's two main railway terminals, the Larissa Station () of the Piraeus–Platy railway line towards central and northern Greece, and of the Peloponnese Station (, ""Stathmós Peloponnísou"") of the Piraeus–Patras railway line linking Athens with the southern Peloponnese peninsula. The station is still colloquially"
"capital is the town of Aegina, situated at the northwestern end of the island. Due to its proximity to Athens, it is a popular vacation place during the summer months, with quite a few Athenians owning second houses on the island. The province of Aegina () was one of the provinces of the Piraeus Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Aegina and Agkistri. It was abolished in 2006. <mapframe latitude=""37.7235"" longitude=""23.4819"" zoom=""10"" width=""200"" height=""131"" align=""left"" />Aegina is roughly triangular in shape, approximately from east to west and from north to south, with an area of ."
"in 2009 by politician Stelios Papathemelis and professor Kostas Zouraris to run for the 2009 European Parliament elections, which is affiliated with several Macedonian diaspora organizations. Macedonians (Greeks) The Macedonians (, ""Makedónes"") are a regional and historical population group of ethnic Greeks, inhabiting or originating mainly from the Greek region of Macedonia, in Northern Greece, which incorporates most of the territories (and the two capitals) of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia. Today, most Macedonians live in or around the regional capital city of Thessaloniki and other cities and towns in Greek Macedonia, while many have spread across Greece and"
"thermometers. Attica Attica (, ""Attikḗ"" or ; or ), or the Attic peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Sea, bordering on Boeotia to the north and Megaris to the west. The history of Attica is tightly linked with that of Athens, and specifically the Golden Age of Athens during the classical period. Ancient Attica (Athens city-state) was divided into demoi or municipalities from the reform of Cleisthenes in 508/7 BC, grouped into three zones: urban (""astu"") in the region of Athens main city"
"Macedonia (Greece) Macedonia (; , ""Makedonía"" ) is a geographic and historical region of Greece in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region, dominated by mountains in the interior and the port cities of Thessaloniki (or Salonika) and Kavala on its southern coastline. Macedonia is part of Northern Greece, together with Thrace and sometimes Thessaly and Epirus. It incorporates most of the territories and the two capital cities of ancient Macedon, a kingdom ruled by the Argeads whose most celebrated members were Alexander the Great and his father Philip II. The name Macedonia was"
"modern Greece and its enduring cultural significance make it an opportune setting for Harvard students as well as for visitors from Greece and across the globe. Nafplio neighbors with many archaeological sites in Greece such as Mycenae, Mystras, Epidaurus, Olympia, Tiryns, etc. Nafplio was the first capital of modern Greece after independence and a port during the Mycenean period. The Center for Hellenic Studies’s facility in Nafplio has been equipped with a Digital Library which provides access to Harvard Library's electronic resources and a number of additional databases. Access is open to all researchers and visitors of the Center, regardless"
"of the Greek volleyball championship and plays in the city's indoor sports stadium, ""Klisto Gimnastirio Alexandroupoli"", next to the football stadium. Alexandroupoli Alexandroupoli (, ) or Alexandroupolis is a city in Greece and the capital of the Evros regional unit in East Macedonia and Thrace. It is an important port and commercial center of northeastern Greece. Alexandroupoli is one of the newest cities in Greece, as it was only a fishing village until the late 19th century. However, the modern city is located at the site of ancient Sale (Greek: Σάλη), a Greek city of the classical era founded by"
"instrumental in creating institutions which are still the bedrock of Greek administration and education. Important steps were taken in the creation of the education system, maritime and postal communications, effective civil administration and, most importantly, the legal code. Historical revisionism took the form of de-Byzantinification and de-Ottomanisation, in favour of promoting the country's Ancient Greek heritage. In this spirit, the national capital was moved from Nafplio, where it had been since 1829, to Athens, which was at the time a village. Religious reform also took place, and the Church of Greece was established as Greece's national church, although Otto remained"