Timeline / Before 1800 to 1880 / GREECE

Date Country Theme

1814 Greece Political Context

Foundation of the secret organisation Filiki Etaireia (Friendly Society) prepares the ground for the Greek Revolution.

1821 Greece Political Context

The Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire begins.

1825 Greece Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

The poets Alexandros and Panayotis Soutsos compile their first works, and introduce European Romanticism to a newly liberated Greece.

1827 Greece Political Context

The London Treaty: England, Russia and France suggest to the Ottoman Sultan that he should recognise Greek independence. This is the first step towards foundation of the Greek State.

1828 Greece Rediscovering The Past

Ioannis Kapodistrias oversees the establishment of Greece’s first museum, the Archaeological Museum of Aegina.

1828 Greece Great Inventions Of The 19th Century

The First Governor of the new Greek nation, Ioannis Kapodistrias, orders the foundation of the postal service.

1828 Greece Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

The poem Hymn to Liberty by Dionysios Solomos becomes the Greek National Anthem with music composed by Nikolaos Mantzaros.

1830s Greece Cities And Urban Spaces

Eduard Schaubert and Stamatios Kleanthis pioneer the urban redevelopment of Athens, initially under Ioannis Kapodistrias. They produce topographical plans of Athens and, in doing so, lay the foundations for the new capital.

1831 Greece Political Context

The First Governor of Greece, Conte Ioannis Kapodistrias, is assassinated.

1834 Greece Rediscovering The Past

The Numismatic Museum is established. In 1843, it is amalgamated with the National Library and housed in a room at the University of Athens. Date Country Theme

1834 Greece Cities And Urban Spaces

Athens becomes the capital of the newly established state.

1834 Greece Cities And Urban Spaces

In October, King Otto issues a decree for reconstruction of the city of Sparta. Over the ancient city Bavarian city-planners, headed by Fr. Staufert, design a city for 100,000 inhabitants based on the Ippodamia system, with wide roads and many squares.

1836 - 1862 Greece Cities And Urban Spaces

The Royal Palace (today’s Parliament) is erected under the auspices of the director of the Munich Academy of Arts and official architect of the Bavarian court, Friedrich von Gaertner.

1837 Greece Rediscovering The Past

The Archaeological Society of Athens is established. Its aim is to encourage archaeological-excavation management of antiquities in Greece.

1837 Greece Fine And Applied Arts

Athens School of the Fine Arts is established with three departments: the School of Crafts, School of Industrial Crafts and the School of Fine Arts.

1837 Greece Reforms And Social Changes

The University of Athens opens. It is the first university to be established in the eastern Mediterranean.

1841 Greece Economy And Trade

The National Bank of Greece is founded.

1843 Greece Fine And Applied Arts

The School of the Fine Arts becomes a five-year higher education institution under its director, the architect Lissandros Kautantzoglou.

1851 Greece International Exhibitions

Greece is represented by a small stand at the Great Exhibition in London among the Levantine states.

1853 - 1856 Greece Political Context

The Crimean War starts in October 1853. On one side is the Russian Empire and on the other the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, France and the Kingdom of Sardinia. Greece participates with a volunteer corps of 1,000 men as one of Russia’s few allies. Date Country Theme

1858 - 1859 Greece Great Inventions Of The 19th Century

Telephone communication is established between the cities of Piraeus and Syros (underwater), and Athens and Patras.

1860 - 1865 Greece Fine And Applied Arts

Both Nikolaos Gyzis and Nikiphoros Lytras win scholarships to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.

1860 - 1874 Greece Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos writes a five-volume History of the Greek Nation, a highly influential historiographical work about the continuity of Greek history since antiquity.

1864 Greece Political Context

The Ionian islands are incorporated within the newly established Greek State.

1866 Greece Fine And Applied Arts

Nikiphoros Lytras takes up a professorship at the School of the Arts in Athens.

1866 Greece Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

Emmanuel Roidis, one of Greece’s most influential authors, publishes his novel Pope Joan, which is translated into a number of languages.

1866 Greece Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

The poet Kostis Palamas publishes his first collection of verse entitled the Songs of My Fatherland. A major figure on the Greek literary scene, Palamas writes the Olympic Anthem and is nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1869 Greece Great Inventions Of The 19th Century

The railway line from the Thesion district in central Athens to the Port of Piraeus opens.

1871 Greece Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

Nikolaos Politis publishes the first volume of his pioneering work on Greek folklore, Study of the Life of Modern Greeks: Modern Greek Mythology.

1873 Greece Economy And Trade

Foundation of the Greek Stock Market.

1875 Greece Rediscovering The Past Date Country Theme

Excavations begin at Olympia under the German archaeologist Ernst Curtius; they continue under German leadership until World War II.