WDEC 2026 in Athens

As part of the Week of Discovering European Cemeteries 2026, the Municipality of Athens invites visitors to participate in free guided tours at the First and Third Cemetery of Athens.

Programme

➤ 25 May 2026 | 16:00 – 17:30 | First Cemetery of Athens

Guided walk “The Poets’ Graves — The Greek Language Engraved in Memory”

A special guided walk through the graves of poets and writers at the First Cemetery of Athens, where literature encounters public memory and funerary inscriptions become precious traces of the Greek language through time.

The tour approaches the cemetery as an open cultural landscape and as a unique “anthology” of inscriptions: from archaic expressions and learned epitaphs to deeply moving dedications, personal testimonies, and even unexpected moments of subtle humour. Through monuments, words, and the stories attached to them, participants will explore the many forms of the Greek language, as well as the different ways society remembers its men and women of letters.

The route presents the graves of important poets and literary figures, the forms and symbolism of their funerary monuments, as well as the stories and “afterlives” associated with their memory and posthumous reputation.

The activity is addressed to secondary education teachers, within the framework of the blended-learning training programme “Teaching Greek Language and Literature in Lower and Upper Secondary Education.”

➤ 24 May 2026 | 17:00 – 18:30 | Third Cemetery of Athens

Guided tour “Remembrance Route 1940–1944”

A guided tour dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Occupation, famine, executions, and war, presented within the framework of the This is Athens City Festival.

The tour explores the historical landscape of the Third Cemetery of Athens and the traces of World War II preserved within it, highlighting the cemetery’s role as a place of collective memory and historical testimony.

More information is available here: This is Athens City Festival – A Remembrance Route for Those Who Didn’t Make It (1940–1944)

WDEC 2023 at the First Cemetery of Athens

Take a guided tour or observe the maintenance process of two bronze statues at the First Cemetery of Athens during the WDEC 2023.

28 May 2023: Spend time, walk, observe, feel, and share knowledge

Following the rhythm of the famous Athens City Festival in May, the City of Athens would like to invite you to a guided tour of the First Cemetery of Athens on 28 May 2023, at 17.30, on which we will explore the history and monuments of the most important Athenian open-air museum.

Located in the heart of Athens, just a 15-minute stroll from the Acropolis, the First Cemetery is open to anyone who wants to walk in a beautiful place full of cypresses and towering pines, majestic romantic and neoclassical sculptures. During a tour we can share knowledge, memories, and stories, and therefore, connect.

You can find more details at https://cityfestival.thisisathens.org/en/outdoor-28-en/.

1 – 4 June 2023: Preserving two female statues, representing great Greek figures of Arts and Letters

Starting from last year, the City of Athens established an annual collaboration with the University of West Attica, performing surface cleaning and maintenance on bronze sculptures during the WDEC. 

Thinking about the theme of WDEC 2023 (mental and physical health and well-being in the cemeteries), we prepared a conservation action for two bronze female sculptures in the central square of the cemetery: that of the actress Marika Kotopouli Tomb and the bust of the scholar Kalliroi Parren.

By talking about their biography and how these personalities are represented in the cemetery, we connect to the arts and letters, theater and witting that keep our memory, minds, and bodies active and contribute to our well-being. 

 The action will take place from 1 to 4 of June. Visitors as well as students will have the opportunity to observe, learn and connect.

Cemetery video

Discover the First Cemetery of Athens also through this promotional video made by the City of Athens / Department of Cultural Heritage.

Contact information:

City of Athens / Department of Cultural Heritage
T: +302103721596, 2103721555
E-mail: t.pol.klironomias@athens.gr

WDEC 2022 in Athens

Students of the University of West Attica will introduce you to the conservation profession and its contribution to the protection of cultural heritage.

Involving the youth

The First Cemetery of Athens has become a classroom, an amphitheater, a laboratory. Visits from Universities took place throughout the academic year 2021-2022. In this context, the First Cemetery of Athens became a place of teaching and practical training for students of the Department of Preservation of Antiquities and Works of Art of the University of West Attica. Their study concerns the documentation of the most important types of surface damage, causes and effects, as well as the establishment of a preservation management system.

From theory to practice (in situ)

From 3 to 5 June 2022, during the Week of Discovering European Cemeteries (WDEC), students of the University of West Attica will carry out surface cleaning and conservation of the sculpture "Mother of the Occupation period” in the central square of the First Cemetery. Visitors can watch live and get acquainted with the profession of conservator and his contribution to the protection of cultural heritage.

This initiative and collaboration not only benefits the monuments. It mainly promotes the systematic contact and interaction of young people with cultural heritage, as well as the development of skills and critical thinking for the sustainability of the cemetery landscape.

About the “Mother of the Occupation period” statue

The “Mother of the Occupation period”, made by Costas Valsamis (1908-2003), is a bronze sculpture that refers to the death from starvation during the years of the Occupation in Athens (1941-1944). The image of the dead mother lying on her back, skeletal, with her baby on her chest, was a real scene that the sculptor experienced in the winter of 1941. 

The mention of this tragic moment in an expressionist style in the cemetery is a monument of the sufferings of that period, but also of Motherhood. It was installed in 1979.

Contacts:

City of Athens / Department of Cultural Heritage
T: +30 2103721596, 2103721555
E-mail: t.pol.klironomias@athens.gr

First Cemetery of Athens (Greece)

The First Cemetery of Athens (A Koimitirio Athinon) was founded around 1837, when Athens was also established as the capital city of the modern Greek state.

About the cemetery

The First Cemetery of Athens spreads on the slope of the Ardittos hill, close to the Panathinaiko Stadium. Major Greek figures are buried in the First Cemetery, such as heroes of the Greek Revolution, politicians, poets, artists, etc. 

The style of the cemetery can be traced to the Romantic period. The collection of sculptures hosted in the cemetery can be considered as a most significant and genuine example of the quality attained in marble carving in Greece between 1850 and 1920. Memorial art flourished during the 19th century and marked the rebirth of the new Greek state. All kinds of monuments and ornamental patterns appeared which conveyed the influence of ancient times (stelae, columns, reliefs, sarcophagi, small neoclassical temples). Apart from funerary artworks based on ancient models, some samples can be found of Byzantine and Egyptian patterns, as well as a remarkable number of copper masterpieces.

Address

First Cemetery of Athens
Logginou 3,
Athina 116 36,
Greece

Contacts

Phone: +30 21 0922 1621