Youtube / Vincenzo Di Biase
Unique in the world: Panathinaikos Stadium
In ancient Greece, the home of the Olympic Games, the period between the two festivals of the most prepared athletes was called the Olympics. It lasted four years. When the games took place, the wars were interrupted. Peace reigned. The modern games were renewed in Athens in 1896. They were not at the end of the Olympics only when peace was broken in modern civilization.
Olympism suffered because of the First and Second World Wars. Today, in peacetime, the war of humanity with the corona virus has taken its toll.
For the first time in history, the competitors will not be reflected in the leap year, but in the so-called idle. Tokyo was supposed to host the XXXII Olympic Games 2020, but necessity postponed the celebration of a healthy body and a healthy spirit for this summer (July 23 – August 8)
The efforts of the wealthy and respectable Greek Evangelis Zapas to renew the Olympic Games, which would last for four years, were extinguished by his death. He died in 1865, but left a huge fortune. Since he did not give birth to heirs, he intended it for the construction of sports facilities in Athens and the holding of competitions. The legacy was managed by his cousin Konstadinos Zapas (1814-1892). He headed the next Olympics in 1870, but not at the Athenian agora. About 30,000 people could be accommodated on wooden benches at the excavated and cleared “Panathinaiko” stadium, which was a large number at that time.
Zapejon in the heart of Athens
Thanks to Zapas’ money, the organization was much better than 11 years earlier at the first national event similar to the ancient games. Uniformly trained competitors, in leather-colored sandals, took an oath to fight fairly. Previously, they were provided with three-month preparations. The games opened on November 1, but due to bad weather, some competitions started only two weeks later. As in 1859, the winners received money. The awards were given to them by King George I, who ascended the throne in 1863. The ceremony was accompanied by fanfare. The three first place winners received a laurel wreath and an olive branch. The judges were professors at the University of Athens. The Olympic anthem was played, especially composed for the occasion.
It is said that the next Zapas Olympics was held in 1875, although it started as early as 1871. It was managed by the director of the Public Gymnasium, Ioannis Fokianos, who included only students in the games. Although his efforts were impeccable, dissatisfaction with the organization lingered. He was finally broken by the critics, so he resigned from the main position. For that period, the most significant detail was the beginning of the construction of Zapejon, the first new facility in the history of modern Olympism. The Greek parliament donated a large state plot in the heart of Athens, and the money was provided from Zapas’ legacy. Construction began in 1874, when the foundations and buildings of the Austrian parliament in Vienna were laid. Both buildings, almost twins, were designed by the Danish architect Theophilus Edward Hansen, a representative of neoclassicism who was inspired in architecture by the monumentality of ancient Greece and ancient Rome.
Zapejon was completed in 1888, four years after the Austrian parliament. At the First Olympic Games in 1896, fencing competitions were held there.
Benefactor Averof
In later years, the Greek government and the custodians of Zapas ‘legacy argued over whose Zapas’ money was. Finally, in 1890, Crown Prince Constantine, the eldest son of King George, signed a decree that the Olympic Games would be held every fourth year beginning in 1892, but that remained a vain promise due to a lack of money in the state coffers.
At that time, in the last decade of the 19th century, Coubertin was taking crucial steps in his country to renew the Olympic Games. Through Alexander Merkatis, a close friend of Konstadinos Zapas, he tried to persuade the Greek government to invest Zapas’ legacy with state money in the first games of the modern age. Although he was not clear whether the historical competition should be entrusted to Athens due to the reservations of its authorities, the French baron, inspired by the values of ancient Greek civilization, held that the first Olympic Games were due to their existence. To his satisfaction, a new Zapas appeared in Greece. It is as if Olympus himself sent a wealthy benefactor, George Averof (1815-1899), when Prince Konstadin asked him to give his money for the final renovation of the Panathinaikos Stadium, which he did.
Saxon architect Ernst Ziller and his colleague from Greece, Anastas Metaxas, set to work to give the heart of the later first Olympic Games an antique look. The wooden benches were removed, and the entire stadium was made of white marble from Mount Panteli northeast of Athens, from which the Acropolis was also built. Even today, it is the only sports facility in the world. The 50 rows of concentric ellipses could hold 80,000 people. The original price was 585,000 drachmas in gold, and the final 920,000.
The memory of Averof is kept by a white marble statue in front of “Panathinaiko”, where archery competitions were held in 2004. These were the XXVIII Olympic Games, the first in Athens after their infancy in 1896.
Triumph of Serbian basketball players
At the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer, basketball 3-on-3 will be played for the first time, and the Serbian men’s team placed directly on the basis of the placement on the FIBA list. He will be our great trump card for the most brilliant medal, since he has won gold four times in six previous world championships. So it was at the first World Cup 2012 in Athens. The basket on which Marko Savić, Marko Ždero, Dušan Domović Bulut and Milan Bošković defeated the French in the final with 16:13 was placed in front of Zapejon itself, 124 years after the construction of the magnificent building.
Kalimarmaro
The stadium “Panathinaiko” or Kalimarmaro (white marble) was built in 566. In 1896, racing competitions were held there, which he suffered criticism. The track was too narrow due to the ellipsoidal shape of the stadium. The soft slag had an ascent to the goal, and the bends were too steep due to the slope of the arena along one edge.
Comments are closed.