Panepistimiou Street
The Panepistimiou Street (named after the University of Athens which is on the upper corner) is a major street in Athens that runs one way for non-transit vehicles since 2002 from Amalias Avenue, Syntagma and Vasileias Sofias Avenue to Omonoia Square in which is now a pedestrian crossing and before an intersection. Its total length is about 1.2 km The street was known as Eleftherios Venizelos Avenue and it has six lanes, of which five are for traffic and one eastbound lane for transit buses only. Most of the street runs almost diagonally from southeast to northwest for 1 km.
Buildings beside the avenue includes the Bank of Greece, Athens Eye Clinic, the University of Athens, Athens Academy, the National Library and the Wendy's Metropolis. Scyscrapers as high as ten to fifteen stories are within this street. Old neo-classical buildings of no higher than two to three stories used to exist until the 1950s when construction lasted several years, only a couple remain to this day.
History
Originally a two-way street until after the Greek Civil War with bus lanes, traffic lights on major intersections as well as street lights were installed in the 1950s. Several classic films were shot in this street. Streetcar cables were reinstalled with stronger poles. The Attiko Metro Red Line runs underneath with stations linking with this street including the Panepistimiou station. During construction which lasted from 1997 to 2001, a part of the underground as soil were removed to make a underground subway system caused a hole 22 m below and sunk the street to about 4 m. Workers were filling the hole with concrete so traffic can resume. In the 2000s, the transit buses which can run eastbound can now run two way and is at the lower end of the street.
Intersections
- Kriezotou Street
- Voukourestiou Street
- Amerikis Street
- Omirou Street (major)
- Eduardo Lo and Sina Streets
- Korai Street
- Ippokratous Street (one way westbound)
- Pesmatzoglou Street
- Charilaou Trikoupi Street
- Santarosa Street
- Emmanouil Benaki Street
- Themistokleous Street
- Aiolou and Patissi Streets or 28 Oktovriou Street