HELLENISCHE RENAISSANCE - The Architecture of Theophil Hansen (1813-1891)

Bilingual (Greek-English) illustrated edition. Soft cover, 27x21 cm, 368 pp., ill.: more than 180 original architectural drawings, most of them unpublished; net weight 1490 gr.

Theophilus Hansen (1813-1891) was born and educated in Copenhagen. During the nine-year stay in Athens (1837-1846) he composed the architectural language that characterized Athens in the 19th century, i.e. essentially he was the main creator of the Athenian Neoclassicism. In 1859 he conceived the so-called "Athens Trilogy" - the complex of buildings of the University, the Academy of Athens and the National Library - which is the most important architectural ensemble of the country after the Acropolis. He also designed the Observatory, the Zappeion Palace, etc. At the same time, he excelled in Vienna, where he designed a series of buildings, such as Parliament, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Greek Church, the Hall of the Friends of Music, etc. The work of Th. Hansen is characterised by an architectural idiom with "retroactive" characteristics, which he himself called "Hellenische Renaissance" (Greek Renaissance).