Georgiou I Square - Information

Information

It was completed during the Capodistria government with the plan envoyed under Stamatis Voulgaris in 1829. The plan saw the light from the beginning in which Patras was destroyed during the battle of the Greek Revolution. The plan included the creation of the new city next to the old with grid and horizontal streets and new large squares. During that time, the square began as Dimokratias (Δημοκρατίας), it later changed to Kalamogdarti (Καλαμογδάρτη), Othonos (Όθωνος) after Otto I of Greece, Central Square (Κεντρική Kentriki), Thomopoulou (Θωμόπουλου) after Thomopoulos, Ethniki (Εθνική, literally the national Square), Palligenesias (Παλλιγενεσίας) and since 1863, Georgiou I. Landmarks next to the square include the Apollo Theatre, which was completed by Ernest Schiller. It was reconstructed several times, the last of which was in 2006. In the square, Periklis Kalamogdartis had its first constitution of Greece and it was named after him for a while.

Many neoclassical buildings ceased to exist during World War II and the Greek Civil War, mainly in the northeastern, the eastern and the southwestern sections. They have been replaced with eight to nine storey buildings completed in the 1960s. Since the 1950s, the GR-8 and the GR-9 run through the square in which are now secondary routes, its primary route is to the west and the superhighway and the perimeter since 2001 are further east. Traffic lights were installed in the 1960s in Korinthou at the southeast side and Maizonos at the northwest side.