The conflict between ancient and modern is seen more clearly in Athens than elsewhere because one moment of its history is celebrated over any other

Take a seat at the cafe Mouses at the corner of Adrianou and Agiou Filippou streets in central Athens and, looking one way, you have a fantastic view of the towering Acropolis, crowned by the Parthenon, glowing amber in the evening light. Look the other way and, through a mix of plastic sheeting, wire fencing and green construction tarpaulin, you catch sight of a deep hole in the ground, with bits of ancient ruins visible five metres or so below modern ground level, butting up on every side against modern buildings that teeter perilously on the edge of the excavated abyss.

Central modern Athens is a battleground of an ancient versus a modern world, every building standing a victor

This is the kind of sight that confronts anyone who lives in, or visits, a city with a past. Parts of that past jostle side-by-side with the structures of more modern eras – each in various states of construction or repair, excavation or restoration. In Cairo, the modern city has grown to swarm around the Giza pyramids, once completely surrounded by desert. In Istanbul, the monumentality of the fourth century AD aqueduct bridge, built by the Roman emperor Valens, forces the modern road system to bend around and through it but is itself subsumed and built into by private housing at both ends.

Behind every mixed landscape of past and present is a series of decisions about what to prioritise. Given that most of the time the modern lies over the top of the ancient, to uncover the ancient usually requires the destruction of the modern. And leaving, or building afresh, the modern demands the ancient be subsumed within, or under, it.

In Athens, because there is one “moment” of its ancient past prioritised over any other – the fifth century BC as the origin of democracy and Athenian empire – we see this conflict more clearly than in cities like Cairo and Istanbul, where several different ages jostle for attention. Central modern Athens, covering as it does the remains of the ancient city of Athens, is a battleground of an ancient versus a modern world – every building standing a victor, with another, a loser, buried or destroyed, out of sight, out of mind.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A technician stands at the entrance of the Syntagma Metro station during a final flurry of preparations and polishing a few days before its official opening in 2000. Photograph: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

In the majority of such encounters – in Athens and elsewhere – the modern is the winner. The loss of the ancient may be mitigated by a fast-paced archaeological investigation of the remains built into the planning and construction process, perhaps with a design change here or there to avoid permanent damage to a particularly important ruin, or perhaps the addition of a glass floor or ceiling to allow it to be admired from afar.

Just occasionally, a more fruitful marriage of ancient and modern is the design goal from the outset: the construction of the second and third of Athens’ Metro lines from 1991 onwards was a masterclass in this more even-handed approach. The Metro stations of Athens are as a result a fascinating mix of ancient and modern.

But sometimes, such peaceful compromises are not possible – or indeed desired. And sometimes, just sometimes, the modern is not the winner. In the mid-19th century, when Greece sought, for the first time, to uncover and display its ancient past, as Europe fell in love with the idea of ancient Greece following the Greek War of Independence, the winner was without doubt the ancient world.

The Acropolis, for example, had been a place of dense habitation, but was thoroughly cleansed: the site was stripped back to its fifth century BC phase, revealing the Parthenon and other temples in all their glory while destroying not just the structures of the time, but those from most of the 2,500 years in between. At the turn of the 20th century, the French compensated, and built new homes for, an entire Greek village to make possible the excavation of the ancient sanctuary of Delphi (since the mid-19th century, it has been common practice for major archaeological sites to be excavated and studied by a foreign nation in conjunction with the Greek archaeological service).

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A scan of the Acropolis. Photograph: ScanLab Projects/BBC/ScanLab Projects

Another moment of victory, it seems, is about to be handed to the ancient world, in the vicinity of Athens’ ancient agora – the city’s ancient cultural, political, social and economic marketplace hub. The Americans have been the lead excavators at the agora since their excavations began there in 1931. The agora is now one of the most popular tourist sites in central Athens, complete with a rebuilt version of a grand ancient stoa (colonnaded building) along its east side that serves as the site’s museum and store rooms. It was rebuilt in the 1950s by the Americans at their cost (the money was donated by the Rockefeller family).

The problem is that while a large part of the agora has been exposed, an important part of its north side lies still hidden by not only modern buildings and streets, but also by the Athens-Piraeus Metro line, the very first train line in Athens, built in stages between 1869 and 1957. Up until two decades ago, the solution had been to expose small areas of this northern section where possible between the modern structures; small forlorn area of ruins can thus be seen butting up alongside the train tracks.

This victory of the ancient over the modern has not been without its struggle, or its detractors

At one point, it is recounted in Athenian archaeology folklore, archaeologists even started excavating underneath the train line – withdrawing every couple of minutes when a train rumbled by overhead before rushing back in to feverishly check that what they thought should be there from ancient descriptions of the site was indeed there, before covering it all back up again to ensure the train line did not collapse.

But in recent decades American archaeologists, with the Greek archaeological service and ministry of culture, have moved on the offensive. Nine modern buildings – in a popular tourist area bristling with shops, cafes and restaurants – have been bought up through compulsory purchase orders, their owners compensated, the buildings demolished and excavations conducted to reveal the ancient agora. In contrast to the 19th-century Acropolis cleanup, the project has also allowed for study of all the periods of history between the modern and the fifth century BC.

The cost of buying, compensating, demolishing and conducting the excavations lies with the Americans, with the Greek culture ministry leading (and paying for) the necessary court procedures. So far, the Americans have spent between $25m and $30m to uncover the northern end of Athens’ ancient agora.

This victory of the ancient over the modern has not been without its struggle, or its detractors. Several building owners have resisted the move to buy and demolish the properties, fighting the process in the courts. According to the director of the agora excavations, Prof John McK Camp II, only two more buildings now need to be demolished – and these have been the subject of the most recent court proceedings.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Michael Scott on the steps of the Erechtheion at the Acropolis. Photograph: Claire Tippett/BBC/Claire Tippett

In July this year the Greek courts finally ordered their demolition, handing victory once again to the ancient world. Nikos Vergetis, who rents a shop in one of these buildings, at Agiou Filippou 14, is sanguine about the result: “personal benefit must be set apart from the fame of ancient monuments”, he muses. In fact, his hope is that the sacrifice of the modern structures will lead to an “upgrade” of the whole area, as he feels the modern environment has been abandoned by the state, citing the graffiti on the walls making the area “repellent” to visitors.

The father and son who run the bar restaurant and bookshop within the same building, Haris and Giorgos Maroufidis, are not, however, so accepting of the court’s decision. They deplore the way the fifth century BC in Greece is prioritised over every other period of history. The building they are in, they claim, was itself a listed building, first constructed in the 1830s and a prime example of one of the earliest phases of Athens’ modern landscape.

As part of the campaign for its demolition, its listed status, they claim, was rescinded by the state. Others running businesses in the buildings affected by this latest court order were unwilling to comment publicly, but privately expressed their outrage at the decision. At stake, as they say, is not just (ancient or modern) bricks and mortar, but livelihoods, jobs and businesses.

Forget the Parthenon: how austerity is laying waste to Athens' modern heritage Read more

For the Greek state, the question is one of balance between providing tourists flocking to the area with bars, cafes, restaurants and shops (and thus Greeks running these businesses with jobs) and uncovering even more impressive ancient ruins that will attract those tourists in the first place.

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As if to underline the difficult choice ahead, as the recent Greek court order was announced this July the American archaeologists announced the very successful outcome of their latest season of excavation in this region: the uncovering of another part of perhaps the most famous building still to be excavated in the agora, the “Stoa Poikile” (“Painted Stoa”), complete with herm base (a herm was a kind of good luck statue placed around public spaces) in situ at its side.

And while only two more houses need to be demolished to uncover the key parts of the north section of the agora, the director of the American team has grand designs for linking up parts of the ancient agora currently separated by one of the main tourist streets: he wants to remove the street entirely.

He speaks too of an even grander archaeological project to create an archaeological park at the heart of modern Athens, linking up the agora and Kerameikos (the graveyard of the ancient city). The battle for Athens, ancient or modern, it seems, is far from over.

Michael Scott’s Ancient Invisible Cities is on BBC Two tonight at 9pm

Additional reporting by Constantinos Thanos

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