All the narrow and wide streets between the two metro stations “Ampelokipoi” and “Panormou” contain layers of urban history of the 20th century with a certain depth. This is a fresh impression, since the entire territory of Ampelokipi, which was born with increasing density mainly in the interwar period and in the 50s, now has all those folds and mental qualities of neighborhood with narratives that have generational roots. Walking along the streets next to Alexandras and Panormou, Dukisis Plakentias, Phthiotidos, Aetolias, Amaliados will give you an indescribable feeling of satisfaction from the dense urban environment. In other words, I felt the aura of the middle of the 20th century, and the communication was fruitful.

I was drawn to the area by the news that a beautiful interwar house at 8 Gytheio Street in Ampelokipi has acquired an informative plaque about its historical affiliation. What wonderful news… I went to see it, knowing that this was another Monument event in cooperation with the 56th Gymnasium. This is a beautiful house of 1934, in which in 1949 a floor appeared according to the project of the architect Xenophon Aigidis. I looked at him and rejoiced in him, and his image added to what I already met as relics of the interwar period.

I also saw some images that surprised me. Like a tiny ruin on Theophanaus Street, with peeling stucco the color of a bright, rotten apple, with a single window peeking through plinths and weeds. It was an image that reminded me of the paradoxical cityscape of Athens, with so many contradictions, a source of intolerance and strife since the 19th century.

But on those streets of Ampelokipi that I walked along, the leading place in my eyes was occupied by the modernist Mesopolis, which I met in neighboring versions of various gradations. Its coexistence with the post-war 50s and 60s was somehow more sweet than turbulent, despite the difference in scale, and this osmosis left an aftertaste of urban patina.

I stood for a long time in front of a two-story house at 5 Eslyn Street. It is located not far from Alexandras and looks uninhabited and abandoned. Its position is such that it can be seen from afar and at an angle. I was sure that variants of the same design existed in all areas of Athens. I found houses of the same type more or less everywhere. In the photographs, I see similarities with the houses on Marathonos 67 in Metaxourgios, Maronias 17 in Kolonos, or even in Lamia, Evangelistria and Manolidou. Also similar to the demolished three-story building at Lampsaku 5-7, below Vasilissis Sofias. An ordinary guy on Eslyn Street. Shop on the ground floor, residential building on the second floor. Balcony on a bay window, with a built-in apron and a minimalist design on the railing. Athenian ocher on plaster. Art Deco diamonds on the front door, where I read on an old, worn iron sign that a doctor lived here.

On the ground floor, where there used to be a store and then a mortuary, I see an old inscription that needs to be preserved and restored. So we read that the Vineyard Athletic Association had their offices there. The ruins tower over the house today, the modern pride of 80 years ago.