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The National Library of Greece is located close to the center of city of Athens. The library was designed by the Danish architect Theophil Freiherr von Hansen, as part of his popular Trilogy of neo-classical buildings even involving the Academy of Athens and the real building of the Athens University. The thought to create a National library sprouted from the philhellene Jacob Mayer, in an August 1824 article of his newspaper Greek Chronicles, published at Messolonghi, when the Mayer was intensely fighting for the independence of Greece.

His idea, however, finally materialized in year 1829 by the New Greek government of John Kapodistrias, that clustered the National Library with other intellectual institutions and properties like as schools, national museums, and printing houses. They all were kept at an Orphanage of Aegina, under the guidance of Andreas Moustoksidis who at the time was the president of the committee of the Orphanage, director of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, and director of the National School.

By the end of 1830, the library then known as the National Library, had 1,018 volumes of printed books, collected from the Greeks and philhellenes. In 1834, the Library switched to Athens, the new capital, and was for first preserved at the temporarily house in the    public bath at the Roman Market and then later in the Church of St. Eleftherios, close to the Cathedral and other such important buildings and structures. The collection at the library increased rapidly. Along with the purchase of the books from the private libraries in guidance of Dimitris Postolakas of about 1,995 volumes, the Library further accepted huge donations of the books as from the Christoforos and Konstantinos Sakellarios who donated about 5,400 volumes and from Markos Renieris who donated 3,401 volumes.

It was in 1842, the Public Library mixed with the Athens University library that has about 15,000 volumes and was kept along with the currency collection at the new building and structure of Otto’s University. On 16 March 1888 a neoclassical marble building for the library was founded. The Library remained in the University building until 1903, and was moved to the new building that was designed by Theophil Hansen and supervised by Ernst Ziller. Presently library too is located at the Vallianos building, as well as at other buildings as well as at Agia Paraskevi and Nea Halkidona.

The present building has also outmatched by the space and technology demands that a National Library should available there. To match with the present day demands of the library although the Vallianos building will remain to work as some of its current functions, however, bulk of his work will be transferred to new building on the  Phaleron Bay “Delta”. Italian architect Renzo Piano has devised a new plan for the National Library and the National Opera of Greece, and the project further will be funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and presented to Greek state as the “Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center”.

The Greek National Opera is the state operated lyric opera company, which is situated at 59 Akadimias Street in central Athens. It is a public corporation as constructed under the observation and supervision of the Greek Ministry of Culture and administration as regulated by the Board of Trustees and its Artistic Director.

The organization, therefore, is deemed responsible for a good number of activities like presentation of opera performances, ballet, and musical theatre. Moreover, it conducts symphony concerts, special presentations of opera and ballet performances for children. It also supervises many Opera and Ballet Studio that let young artists to gain professional standards in their life. The Greek National Opera also organizes a national archive of music , music library and a museum with costumes, stage models, musical scores  and many other items of great performances as showcased by the company.   The company performs locally in Italy as well as internationally. The company tours both within Greece and internationally while on the course of performing activities and subjects related to other issues.

The performances as scheduled by the Greek National Opera are generally held at the four stages like as Olympia Theater that has its Maria Callas Central Stage which is prominent location for organizing opera and ballet. Acropol Theatre along with its New Stage and the Children’ Stage shows performances for the children and elders as well. Next in the series of stages is The Lyric Stage that is an experimental studio theatre. And in a new development the Stavros Niarchos foundation has declared that it will fund the construction of a new venue for the Greek National Opera, the Greek National Library and a cultural and environmental park at the Faliron area in Attica that would be going to be the next performing stage for Greek National Opera.

Historically, it was at the 1880s, the first Greek Opera was presented at the old Bukura Theatre in Athens and it occurred between 1888 and 1890 and the Greek Opera even toured the regions around substantial Greek diaspora demographies like Egypt, Turkey and Romania, showcasing operas like as Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, Donizetti’s La favorite and Lucia di Lammermoor and Bellini’s La sonnambula.

It was after 1924, aftermath of the tour of the United States and forming a relevant cultural institution at home and abroad, the Greek government paced the company’s effort by given neutralize support. It was in around 1939 that the Greek National Opera was rightly formed under the management of Kostis Bastias, and from 1944 hence after as an autonomous organization in its present form and nature. The Chorus of the Greek National Opera is too much popular and is in existence from 1939, and is made up of  professional singers. More to its operational activities it also handles a wide variety of    Greek composers, operettas, oratorios and the musical works related to religious importance.

Athens International Airport which became operational since 29th March 2001 is a civilian airport that serves the city of Athens and region of Attica. Airport is the major center and base for Olympic Air, as well as for Aegean Airlines. The airport is regularly is serving around 16 million travelers. It is an important center for opening up and is a gateway for Asia and the Middle East. It also has established itself for regular investment in the leading flying technology Airbus A380 that is been certified as by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The airport that became operational from March 2001 to take place of the now-closed Athens (Ellinikon) International Airport. The airport is situated between the towns of Markopoulo, Koropi, Spata and Loutsa, and is about 20 km away from the east of central Athens by road. It is named so after the name of Elefthérios Venizélos, the noted prominent Cretan political figure and Prime Minister of Greece that made an intensive and prominent contribution for the contribution and development of Greek aviation and the Hellenic Air Force in the 1930s.

The airport presently is operational trough its two terminals the Main Terminal, and the Satellite Terminal approached by the foot-tunnel from the Main Terminal. The airport has two runways each having the length of about around 4 km (2.5 mi) approximately. The airport is thus designed and upgraded following years in order to accommodate the increasing level of air traffic and is upgraded in a and through six phase framework.

The first (current) phase in the start was allowed the airport to accommodate 16 million passengers a year, however later on increased to the capacity of about 21 million passengers a year. After the completion of six phase, the annual capacity of the airport would be somewhere about as many as 50 million passengers a year. It is also an airport that is accredited by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration for take-offs and landings of the biggest passenger jet worldwide. It is one of the Twenty Five busiest airports in Europe. Its two popular terminals are following as:

•    Main Terminal (Control Tower): Its main terminal handles all intra-Schengen flights, as well as several non-Schengen flights. There all check in desks is situated in the Main Terminal. It has three different and separate levels for arrival as well as departures.

•    Satellite Terminal: This terminal operates flying duties that are non-Schengen flights only. It can be approached with an easy access through an underground link that has a complete moving walkway. After 2009, a part of the Satellite Terminal is closed and a new above ground link to the midfield satellite terminal is under construction. It is expected to be completed in mid of 2011.

With long standing heritage Athens is considered as city with the longest thriving impressive cultural tradition among any city of the Europe. Athens not only is popular for its ancient culture as well is known for present day cosmopolitan culture and behavior of the city.

The present culture of the Athens has roots in the ancient culture of Athens and Greece and is known for providing the world some of the best play writers, poets, philosophers and orators. The city has a vast number of theatres, concert halls, big and small exhibition galleries etc. make new cultural history. The Athens has many big and huge number of international performance groups with a continued enthusiasm for the arts and can be felt at its best during June to September at the Athens Festival.  This prominent international festival was started in 1955 and merges music, modern and classical theatre, and contemporary and traditional dance along together. The Festival at Athens is being organized at Venues like he Roman Odeon of Herod Atticus, the open-air theatre on Lykavittós Hill, the Veákio amphitheatre in Piraeus and the amphitheatre at Epidaurus.

Tradition of Music and Dance in Athens

There are many restaurants in the city at Plaka area that showcases the display of music and dance in night. The displays are formed being lively and entertaining, keeping the interest of visitors in mind. The rather authentic Greek music in Athens is formed of dhimotiká the, folk songs consisted of guitar, clarinet and violin and rembetika.  The music there mixes the Middle Eastern and Greek influences and the lyrics there relates to the life of the poor and outsiders. The main orchestra town there is Athens State Orchestra that keeps many performances at the Mégaron Mousikis Athenon, Leofóros Vassilissis Sofías. The Dora Stratou Dance Theatre was developed around 40 years ago, by a dancer and enthusiast of Greek folk culture. There on every evening from May to September a band dressed in traditional costume showcases the exuberant Greek song and dance at an open-air theatre on Filopáppou (Philopapps Hill), opposite the Acropolis.

Theatrical culture in Athens

The tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripedes, and the comedies of Aristophanes symbolize are some of the best work that were created at Athens and thus are considered as the birth of the Western Drama. The initial presentation of Drama occurred at the Théatro Dionysou (Theatre of Dionysos), on the southern slopes of the Acropolis close to, the Odion Iródou Attikou that is a Roman theatre from the second century AD, and also known to be as the Herodeion. The auditorium generally opens on summer evenings for the Athens Festival and creates an unmatched atmosphere of classical music and drama.