Georgiou I Square () is the central square of

Patras Patras (; ; Katharevousa and ; ) is Greece's List of cities in Greece, third-largest city and the regional capital and largest city of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foot of Mount Panachaiko ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. The square is named after King

George I of Greece George I ( Greek: Γεώργιος Α΄, romanized: ''Geórgios I''; 24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913) was King of Greece from 30 March 1863 until his assassination on 18 March 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was born in Copenhage ...

. It is crossed by Maizonos, Korinthou and Gerokostopoulou streets. The neoclassical Apollon Theatre is situated on the northeast side of the square.

History

Georgiou I Square was built under the Kapodistrias government as a part of the 1829 plans by Stamatis Voulgaris to rebuild the devastated centre of Patras after the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...

. Unlike the old city, the new city was built according to a

grid plan In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogon ...

with several large squares. The square has been renamed several times: Dimokratias at first, then Kalamogdarti, Othonos, Kentriki, Thomopoulou, Ethniki, Palligenesias and since 1863 ''Georgiou I''. In the square there are two fountains, constructed in Denmark.

Gallery

Image:Patrascentralsquare.JPG, Georgiou I Square in the early 20th century File:Patra1910.jpg, The square in 1910 File:Patras City 02.jpg, Detail of the one fountain File:Patras - panoramio (1).jpg, A view File:Ι.Ναός Αγ.Ανδρέα 06.jpg, View File:Apollon Theatre, Patra (2).jpg, Apollon Theatre

References

*''The first version of the article is translated and is based from the article at the Greek Wikipedia ( el:Main Page)'' {{Streets and squares in Patras Streets and squares in Patras Tourist attractions in Patras Neoclassical architecture in Greece George I of Greece