Old Parliament House, Athens
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The Old Parliament building (Greek: Παλαιά Βουλή, Palaia Voulē) at Stadiou Street in Athens, housed the Greek parliament between 1875 and 1932. It now houses the National Historical Museum (Εθνικό Ιστορικό Μουσείο).
[edit] History of the site
The site was originally occupied by the house of an Athenian called Konstostavlos. After Athens became the capital of Greece in 1833, King Otto selected it as his first residence, pending the construction of the Royal Palace (which houses Parliament today). In 1835, a large dance and banquet hall was added to the house. After the September 3rd 1843 Revolution, which forced King Otto to grant a constitution, the National Assembly convened here. In October 1854 however, the house was burned down in a fire. A new building started being constructed in August 1858, with the foundation laid by Queen Amalia, according to the plans of Francois Boulanger. Construction was halted the next year, due to lack of funds, and not restarted until after Otto's overthrow in 1863. The plans were then modified by the Greek architect Panagiotis Kalkos, and construction finished in 1871. In the meantime, the Parliament was housed in a brick building on the back of the square, hastily erected in 1863, which became colloquially known as "the Shanty" (η Παράγκα).
The Hellenic Parliament would remain in the building from 1875 until its move, in 1932, to its current location in the Old Palace. As such, it housed some of the most turbulent and important events in modern Greek history, including the assassination of Prime Minister Theodoros Deligiannis on the Parliament's steps on 13 June 1905, or the declaration of the Republic on 25 March 1924. After the parliament was moved, it housed the Ministry of Justice. In 1961, finally, the building underwent extensive restoration and became the seat of the National Historical Museum, under the supervision of the Historical and Ethnological Society.
In front of the building stands a large equestrian statue of General Theodoros Kolokotronis, cast in bronze. It was sculpted by Lazaros Sochos in Paris in 1900, and erected in its current place in 1904. Its base features bronze reliefs of the Battle of Dervenakia and a session of the Peloponnesian Senate during the Greek Revolution.
