Athens

=== Modern history ===
{{Main|Greek War of Independence|Kingdom of Greece|Republic of Greece}}
[[File:Peter von Hess - The Entry of King Othon of Greece in Athens - WGA11387.jpg|thumb|''The Entry of [[Otto of Greece|King Otto]] in Athens'', [[Peter von Hess]], 1839]]

In 1822, a Greek insurgency captured the city, but it fell to the Ottomans again in 1826 (though Acropolis held till June 1827). Again the ancient monuments suffered badly. The Ottoman forces remained in possession until March 1833, when they withdrew.

Following the [[Greek War of Independence]] and the establishment of the [[Greek Kingdom]], Athens was chosen to replace [[Nafplio]] as the second capital of the newly independent Greek state in 1834, largely because of historical and sentimental reasons.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vb2xAAAAIAAJ&q=otto+move+capital+athens |title=Planning and Urban Growth in Southern Europe |last=Wynn |first=Martin |year=1984 |publisher=Mansell |isbn=978-0720116083 |page=6 |language=en}}</ref> At the time, after the extensive destruction it had suffered during the war of independence, it was reduced to a town of about 4,000 people (less than half its earlier population) in a loose swarm of houses along the foot of the Acropolis. The first [[King of Greece]], Otto of Bavaria, commissioned the architects [[Stamatios Kleanthis]] and [[Eduard Schaubert]] to design a modern city plan fit for the capital of a state.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}
[[File:Olympic flame at opening ceremony.jpg|thumb|The [[Olympic Flame]] at the [[2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony|opening ceremony]] of the [[2004 Summer Olympics]]]]

The first modern city plan consisted of a triangle defined by the Acropolis, the ancient cemetery of [[Kerameikos]] and the new palace of the Bavarian king (now housing the [[Greek Parliament]]), so as to highlight the continuity between modern and ancient Athens. Neoclassicism, the international style of this epoch, was the architectural style through which Bavarian, French and Greek architects such as Hansen, Klenze, Boulanger or Kaftantzoglou designed the first important public buildings of the new capital.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} In 1896, Athens hosted the first modern [[Olympic Games]]. During the 1920s a number of [[Greek refugees]], expelled from [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]] after the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)|Greco-Turkish War]] and [[Greek genocide]], swelled Athens's population; nevertheless it was most particularly following [[World War II]], and from the 1950s and 1960s, that the population of the city exploded,{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} and Athens experienced a gradual expansion.

In the 1980s, it became evident that smog from factories and an ever-increasing fleet of automobiles, as well as a lack of adequate free space due to congestion, had evolved into the city's most important challenge.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} A series of anti-pollution measures taken by the city's authorities in the 1990s, combined with a substantial improvement of the city's infrastructure (including the [[Attiki Odos]] motorway, the expansion of the [[Athens Metro]], and the new [[Athens International Airport]]), considerably alleviated pollution and transformed Athens into a much more functional city. In 2004, Athens hosted the [[2004 Summer Olympics]].