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Gemeente-waterleidingen (City Waterworks), and Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf (City Transport Service).

From 1874 the City Council gave financial support to housing construction. The Housing Act of 1901 helped improve housing conditions by giving local authorities greater powers to regulate house-building and also to build cheaper housing themselves. The Act also gave local authorities the power to declare housing unfit for habitation and required the authorities in all towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants to prepare ten-year development plans. An indirect result of the Housing Act was H. P. Berlage's plans for the enlargement of South Amsterdam (1917). In 1915 the City Council elaborated its own housing construction plan.

The city raised buildings of central importance: the Central Station (P. J. H. Cuypers and A. L. van Gendt, 1879 – 89); the Rijksmuseum (P. J. H. Cuypers, 1885); the Stedelijk Museum (A. W. Weissman, 1892 – 5) inspired by the Dutch and French Renaissance architecture of the 17th century. The Concertgebouw (A. L. van Gendt, 1883 – 6) was reminiscent of contemporary Viennese architecture.

As in the other European countries in the 19th century, the Neoclassical, Neogothic, and later Jugendstil (art nouveau) became dominant in Amsterdam. The squares and parks of Amsterdam were mainly laid out in the 19th century. Dam Square is the oldest and best-known square in Amsterdam, near the dam across the River Amstel. At the beginning of the 20th century it was decided to give the square a more grandiose air; several older buildings were demolished and office buildings and department stores put up in their stead. The square gained a more monumental air but also emptied, since many pubs and small shops disappeared. Of the other squares, the Leidseplein, Wecsperplcin and Haar-lemmerpleinwere old stage-coach stations, the Rembrandt plein was originally the buttermarket. The first gradually developed into an amusement centre. The Waterlooplein came into being in 1882 when the Leprozengracht and Houtgracht were filled in. Till 1977 a famous flea market was held there until it had to make way for the future building of the city hall, to the designs of the Viennese architect Holzbauer.

The Museumplein, originally a vacant area between the Rijksmuseum and the Concertgebouw, was created in the 19th century and received its present form in 1952.

In the first half of the 19th century, the stadsrooimces-ters were in charge of inspecting building and demolition work by private builders. In 1858 the bouwopzichters (building superintendents) took their place. In 1901 a special City Building and Housing Inspectorate was set up. The Inspectorate, until 1915, also supervised the housing associations, the oldest of which dated from 1852.

To prepare extension plans for the city, the public works department set up a city development department in 1928 with the task of designing new extensions

of the city. Basis for Amsterdam's expansion was provided by the Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan (General Extension Plan) of 1934.

In the 20th century the old centre ha changed both in outward appearance and function. Living and working, which existed side by side in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, have become separated by increasing distances. The residential houses along the canals were transformed into offices, while the population living in the narrow streets between the canals and in the older residential areas like the Jewish Quarter and the East and West Islands decreased. In 1928 a Voorlopige Monumentlijst (Register of Monuments) was introduced and symbolized a different, more positive appraisal of the old city. But it was only a schedule - owners were under no obligation to apply for planning permission from the city before pulling a historic monument or building down. The situation changed only after the bombing of Rotterdam in 1940. Thereafter scheduled historic monuments and buildings, and even their entire environment, enjoyed state protection. Some parts of Amsterdam were scheduled as Beschermd Stadsgezicht (Protected City Area). Seven thousand dwelling houses and 200 public buildings were scheduled in the Monumentenlijst van Amsterdam (List of Amsterdam Monuments), to which have now been added the most important buildings of the I9th and 20th centuries.

Since 1953 the independent City Bureau Monumen-tenzorg (Office of Monument Protection) has been in operation, with its own budget for restoration work. A third of Amsterdam's monuments have been restored. In 1969 Parliament passed a Monuments Act. Nevertheless, between 1945 and 1970, the pattern of some streets in the eastern part of the city, like Weesperstraat and Jodenbreestraat, were altered to improve traffic flow. The preparations for the building of the new City Hall at Waterlooplein and the construction of the first underground railway led to many streets being pulled down. Several hundred houses were demolished to make way for a new cross-town highway, the Haarlemmer Houttuinen, but it was decided to modify the project after the climate of public opinion changed. The loss of so many buildings in the old quarters since 1970 has brought a greater emphasis on the protection of architectural monuments; it has been decided to build narrower streets and to restore many houses. It has also been decided to abandon plans for a complete underground railway system, since it would have involved too much demolition.

The small scale of the inner city cannot handle large volumes of traffic, which has led some industrial and commercial concerns to move to the new southern and western parts of the city, nearer to the highway that encircles the city. A number of separated traffic-free tram-lanes have been made in the city.

Several associations have been founded for the preservation of monuments, and the restoration of old housing has gathered momentum since 1950.

Athens

Athens, the capital of Greece, lies at latitude 37058/ north and longitude 23043/ east, across a plain starting about 6 km. from the sea, at a height of 100 m. above sea level.

The city is surrounded on three sides by mountains and opens towards the sea only on the western side. The surrounding mountains are Parnes( 1,440 m.), Pentelicon (1,108 m.), Hymettos (1,026 m.) and Aigaleos (476 m.), with four passes giving access to the rest of Greece.

The present area of Greater Athens is 433 sq.km. with a population of about 2,540,000, which is about 38% of the population of Greece. Greater Athens belongs to the Nomos of Attica and consists of 99 demes (municipalities) and communities.

The green belts of Greater Athens now cover only 1.8% of the total area. Most of the mountains are barren rock with no vegetation. The water output of the small rivers known since ancient times (the Kephissos and the Ilissos) is today insignificant; water supplies come primarily from the reservoire created by the Marathon Dam and from Lake Hyliki and, in the near future, will also be supplied from the Mornos River.

The earliest signs of human habitation on the site of the present city date back to around 4000 BC, the late Neolithic Age.

The ancient nucleus of the city, the fortified dtadel on the Acropolis, later known as the Upper Town, is still the symbol of Athens. Little is known about the extent and layout of the settlements developed around it in the Neolithic Age. Apparently the inhabitants engaged in agriculture, cattle-breeding, manufacture of pottery and trade. Traces of Neolithic settlements have also been found in the area which later became the site of Plato's Academy, on Strephi Hill and in the Olympieion region. There are also traces of 30 Neolithic settlements all around Attica (Nea Makri, Palaia Kokkinia and others).

In the Early Bronze Age (also known as the Early Helladic period, 2600 – 2000 BC) the population of Athens increased steadily and there is evidence of strong influence from the Cyclades.

In the Middle Bronze Age (the Middle Helladic period, 2000 – 1600 BC) the area of the city grew continuously. Traces of dwellings have been found on and around the Acropolis, on the hill of the Areopagus, and at the sites later occupied by the Ancient Agora, the Kerameikos and the Olympieion area.

Several important routes developed in Athens itself. One of them led from the area of the Agora, the later civic center, to the site which later became Plato's Academy. A second route, the ancestor of the later Panathenaic Way, connected the southern part of the later Agora with the approach to the Acropolis, while another road branched off towards the south slope of the Acropolis. Other roads along hilltops and river valleys were destined to link Athens with the surrounding settlements of Attica. Since the roads followed the contours of the terrain, they remained essentially unchanged during the centuries.

Athens' importance grew in the Late Bronze Age (Late Helladic or Mycenaean Age, around 1600 – 1100 BC). The Mycenaean fortification wall on the Acropolis, 4 – 6 m. wide, the remarkable Mycenaean Spring Stairway in the Acropolis' North Slope and a second outer fortification wall protecting the western approach to the Acropolis were built between 1240 and 1200 BC. The fortification walls together and separately were called the Pelargikon. In the i3th century BC Athens was surely the centre of a Mycenaean-type kingdom. Judging by the tholos tombs excavated at Thorikos, Spata,

Marathon and Achamai, it may be assumed that the territory of Atdca comprised several kingdoms. In the Mycenaean period the royal palace of Athens and houses were built on the Acropolis.

The area occupied by Athens expanded during the last phase of the Mycenaean period. Settlement continued on the site of the Olympieion and new residential districts developed to the south, at the end of present-day Dimitrakopoulou St. The unification of Attica into a single homogeneous state was ascribed to Theseus in the mythical tradition. This probably happened at the end of the 8th century BC. Even so, it is thought that in the 13th century BC the inhabited area (the Acropolis and surroundings) already amounted to about 90,000 square metres. At this time there were about seventy settlements throughout Attica. In all probability, the endeavours to centralize had led to wars and Athenian myths preserve numerous instances of conflicts. However, the Athenians attributed the unification of the scattered settlements to their favourite hero, Theseus, and celebrated the event with the Synoikia festival and the Panathenaic festival. According to legend, Athene or Kranaa or Kekropia, the later city of Athens, was the most important of the twelve small Attic states. The town was named Athinai (Athens) in the plural after the merger of the different kingdoms. Today the city still goes by the ancient name.

During the Mycenaean period the burial ground of the inhabitants of the Acropolis was on the north-eastern dope of the hill named Areopagus. Material excavated from the rich chamber tombs is exhibited in the Agora Museum. There were other burial grounds at the northern foot of Philopappos Hill, south of the Acropolis and along still surviving roads leading to the sea.

The most important remains of the Mycenaean period are on the Acropolis. The huge dimensions of the fortifications made them appear impregnable and

the ancient Athenians later considered them to be the work of the superhuman Cyclops. Only small sections of the Cyclopean wall so much respected by the inhabitants of the city are extant, the most spectacular being east of the temple of Nike, from the south wing of the Propylaea to the Acropolis wall built in classical times.

After Theseus had united the city, the Acropolis became known as the polls, the Greek equivalent of the word city, while another Greek word: asty, was used to denote the Agora and other parts of the lower town.

At the very end of the Mycenaean period (the turn of the 12th – 11th centuries BC), a large burial ground developed in the Eridanos river valley in north-west Athens in what is now the Kerameikos Excavations. The Sub-Mycenaean, Protogeometric and Geometric finds from graves excavated here represent the most important sources for the history of the city between the end of the Bronze Age and the archaic period (around 1100 – 700 BC). Attica was spared the devastations of the socalled Doric migration. The population of the city increased rapidly and the unification of the Attic settlements under the leadership of Athens at the end of the 8th century BC greatly contributed towards this development.

As an institution, the kingdom showed a marked decline. The king was divested of most of his powers which were transferred to nine regents (archons). The Acropolis lost its significance as a royal seat. The main organ of the aristocratic government was the Areios Pagos, a council of nobles composed of archons who had served their terms of office. The Council of the Areopagus met on the barren rocks of Ares' Hill, beside the Acropolis.

During the 11th – 8th centuries BC the foundations were laid for prosperous growth and Athens flourished economically, politically and artistically. Athenian cultural supremacy in Greece is exemplified by its superb ProtoGeometric and Geometric pottery.

Excavations at the Kerameikos, at the ancient Agora and in other parts of Attica have yielded rich harvests of Protogeometric and Geometric artifacts, almost without exception found in graves. Consequently, the methods and rites of burial at that time are much better known to us than, for example, architecture and sanctuaries and daily life.

During the 8th century BC a temple to the goddess Athena Polias was built on the Acropolis. Two stone bases for wooden columns, still visible inside the foundations of the Old Temple of Athena, belonged to the 8th century temple. The territory south of the Acropolis as far as the Olympieion was the nucleus of contemporary Athens. The building materials used had a very short life. Metals were scarcely available, save for iron, which was used primarily for weapons.

During this period Athens became the religious and administrative centre of Attica.

Comparatively little information is available on the settlement pattern in

Athens during the Geometric period. It may be assumed that the administrative centre was north of the Acropolis at the Agora of Theseus. Though the palace still stood – we have no information about its destruction - the Acropolis was gradually becoming a religious rather than a secular centre. Historical sources point to the Olympieion area as another religious centre. The remains of a Late Geometric building (Sacred House) with a highly intricate ground-plan were found in the Academy area. An oval enclosure which dates from the 9th century BC was found on the north slope of the Areopagus. We know from written sources that in the 8th century BC high-ranking families moved from the country into the city, choosing the sorroundings of Pnyx Hill and nearby Melite as a place to live, thereby beginning the development of a residential area in the city.

During this period the city's water supply came from springs on the slopes of the Acropolis or from wells. The discovery near Syntagma Square of a rock-cut aqueduct and a well point to the square having been an open-air sanctuary of some kind. Later the Lyceum and the Garden of Theophrastos may have occupied the site. The Dissos and Eridanos rivers also supplied water.

More detail is known about the Athenian constitution and political history from the beginning of the 5th century BC. The first list giving the names of the annually elected archons dates from 682 BC.

The nine archons were the basileus (matters of religion), the polemarch (military leader), the eponymos (after whom the year was named) and six thesmothetai (legislators). The Areopagus (Council of Nobles) was primarily a law court but they also supervised the archons' exercise of executive power and monitored the application of the laws.

The development of Athens as a commercial and industrial force during the 5th century BC brought with it political conflicts and the old social system was thrown out of balance. The artisans and peasantry attempted to secure political rights from the nobles, who had earlier taken over the royal powers and divided the hereditary offices amongst themselves. The situation was worsened by a severe plague.

A nobleman called Kylon tried to take advantage of this popular dissatisfaction. With his adherents he occupied the Acropolis in 636 BC but failed to gain sufficient support from the people to succeed in a coup d'etat. However, the class struggle continued. One basic popular demand was for codification of the law, and this was done by Dracon in 624 BC on the commission of the nobles. However, the severity of the Draconian Code left everyone still unsatisfied. In 594 BC Sokm was elected archon and given special powers to amend the form of government. A major grievance had been that a creditor might sell his debtor into slavery if he defaulted. Solon's first measure was to cancel all debts where this had been made and to forbid enslavement for debt. He promulgated a new constitution which consolidated the newly arisen

class system called the Timocracy, based upon property distinctions and income. There were four classes: the Pentakosiomedimnoi (those with an income equivalent to 500 medimnoi of grain), the Hippeis (knights with an income of 300 medimnoi), the Zeugitai (yeomen, owners of a pair of oxen) and the Thetes. He limited the Council of the Areopagus to judicial matters and instituted a Council of Four Hundred (Boule) to take over its deliberative functions and ensure continuity of government. However, election to archonship was still restricted to the highest class - the Pentakosiomedimnoi - although an archon no longer needed to be of noble birth. Solon gave teeth to the Assembly (ekklesia) which became the supreme controller of public affairs and to which the Thetes were also admitted. To ensure impartial administration of justice, tribunals (heliaia) were set up with 5,000 full and 1,000 supplementary members. The Thetes were also admitted to these, while junior public office could be held by the Zeugitai. The Thetes were exempted from taxes and public works were financed entirely from levies on the richest two classes.

Solon's epoch saw the first attempt at systematic town-planning in the area north-west of the Acropolis.. The main square was transferred to the north of the Areopagus and the outlines of the Solonian Agora began to take shape. The oldest Council House (Bouleuterion) was built in Solon's time.

Several private houses were pulled down in the area allocated for the Agora and burials were forbidden there.

During the early decades of the 6th century, after the implementation of Solon's reforms, three political groups developed in Athens: the old landowners of the plains (pediakoi); the coastal inhabitants (paralioi) including the merchants and mariners; and the inhabitants of the surrounding hills (diakrioi), the poor people of the Attic mountains, mostly wood-cutters, charcoal burners and cattle-breeders. The latter group was headed by Peisistratos, who in 561 BC seized the Acropolis and established autocratic rule (tyrannis) over Athens. He made it his concern to remedy the wrongs of the poor; he had roads built to provide easy access to the administrative centre of the city and granted credits to the farmers. He also introduced income tax, set mobile courts to administer justice in the villages, gave active support to trade and the crafts, and promoted the development of shipping, so that Athens turned into a major economic and cultural centre during his time.

Under Peisistratos the Athenians had their first coins minted when the Corinthian monetary system was founded in 575 BC.

It is believed that a shrine to Athena Nike was built just outside the Acropolis gates in 566 BC. Between 560 – 550 BC a large Doric temple dedicated to Athena was built on the Acropolis, perhaps on the site later occupied by the Parthenon. At around 566 BC the Greater Panathenaia, celebrated every four years, became the main festival of Athens for a thousand years.

A building resembling a house, erected in the south-west corner of the Agora

near the Council House in the mid-6th century BC, on the site later used for the Tholos, may have been the residence of Peisistratos himself. The temple of Apollo Patroos on the west side of the Agora was also built around the middle of the 6th century BC. Another important building was the office of the basileus. the archon whose task was to direct the state religious ceremonies and preside over certain trials. The Stoa Basileios, erected at the end of the archaic period, was also the office where the ancient laws of Athens were preserved and where the Nine Archons took the oath to observe them. The sons of Peisistratos began the building of a huge temple to Olympian Zeus which was not completed until the 2nd century AD. The Old Temple of Athena was built on the Acropolis, south of the Erechtheion, between 525 and 520 BC. Only the foundations are still in place but enough of the architecture and sculpture has been found to permit an accurate reconstruction.

Around 520 BC the South-east Fountain House in the Agora and the Altar of The Twelve Gods were completed.

At this time Athens had three gymnasia: the gymnasium at the Academy; the Lykeion (Lyceum) named after Apollo Lykios; the Kynosarges gymnasium with a sanctuary of Herakles near the present-day church of St Panteleimon.

We know little about how Athens was laid out as a city at that time. Traces of private houses have been found south-west of the Agora by the modern road Leophoros Apostolou Pavlou. These finds clearly show that the streets were irregular and unauthorized building often took place as the strict building regulations issued later by Hippias confirm. The Peisistratid aqueduct served the Athenians for several hundred years. The residential area soon spread beyond the city walls, where the richer. Citizens built their homes.

The tyranny took a turn for the worse under the sons of Peisistratos. One of them, Hipparchos, was murdered at the Panathenaic festival of 514 BC, which spurred the other son, Hippias, to still greater despotism. The fight for power ended with victory for the people of Athens who in 510 BC drove Hippias into exile; he went to the court of the king of Persia.

With Kleisthenes' rise to power in 508 BC Athens entered upon a period of democracy: his constitution put an end to the rule of the aristocracy. Most of the civic buildings needed for the legislative and administrative functions of the democracy were put up in the Agora. The Assembly met on nearby Pnyx Hill.

The city flourished, trade and the crafts developed and there were plenty of opportunities open both to Athenians and immigrants. However, the new democracy soon had to fight for survival against the despotic eastern empire of Persia.

During the Persian Wars Athens leading statesman was Themistocles, who put comprehensive military plans into action, gave Athens a strong fleet and developed the harbour of the Piraeus. When the Persians advanced in 480 BC he ordered the evacuation of the dty. The Persians entered Athens and devastated

the Acropolis. After their defeat at Salamis in 479 BC a new dty wall was built. Piraeus and its harbour were also fortified. The debris of private houses and public buildings and even tombstones were used as building material. Besides providing for the defence of Athens, the idea was to ensure uninterrupted communication between Athens and Piraeus in case of war, and so the Long Walls - the North Long Wall and the Phaleron Wall - were started to provide safe access to the port of Athens. However, the implementation of the project extended well into the second and even into the third quarter of the 5th century BC. It is estimated that the walls around Athens and Piraeus endosed an area of 15 million square metres.

While Themistocles gave top priority to fortifying the dty, Kimon, the leading statesman of the second quarter of the century, concentrated on reconstruction. He built the Tholos and Stoa Poikile in the Agora and also the Theseion, the shrine containing the bones of Theseus.

After Kimon's expulsion from Athens in 462 BC, the administration of the dty passed into the hands of Pericles. Under his government democracy in Athens reached the peak of its development. In 448 BC Pericles set about his main building project on the Acropolis.

The main gateway of the dtadel, the Old Propylon, may have been built around 500 BC; it was replaced by the Periclean Propylaia built in 432427 BC.

The Older Parthenon had begun after 490 BC and was destroyed by the Persians while it was under construction. In 448 – 432 BC it was replaced by the new Parthenon, a votive temple dedicated to Athena Polias, the architectural culmination of the Doric style. The Erechtheion, an Ionic temple with the old cult statue of Athena Polias, was built after the death of Pericles. The graceful Ionic temple of Athena Nike was the last building erected on the Acropolis in the 5th century BC. At the same time important building operations were in progress within and outside Athens.

In the age of Pericles Athens was the scene of bustling artistic activity. Outstanding personalities like Pheidias, Agorakritos, Kallimachos, Iktinos, Thukydides, Anaxa – goras, Kallikrates, Mnesicles and Hippodamos lived and worked in the city.

The Acropolis was decorated with votive statues and steles. New public buildings were erected in the Agora. The surroundings of the Acropolis and the Agora were so densely populated that dwelling houses occupied almost all the area enclosed by the city wall. Outside the dty wall every road radiating out of Athens was flanked by grave monuments; the State Burial Ground was in the Kerameikos. A meeting – place for the Assembly was laid out on Pnyx Hill at the beginning of the 5th century BC. Towards the end of the 5th century BC Athens had a population of about 36,000 living in some 6,000 private houses; the area within the city wall amounted to 2.15 sq.km. and there must have been but little open space within this area.

In 431 BC the Peloponnesian War broke out. It consumed the power reserves of the opposing sides and in the Battle of Aigospotamoi, 404 BC, the Athenian fleet suffered a crushing defeat. The victorious Spartans and their allies destroyed the walls of Athens and Piraeus, seized all but ten ships of the fleet and put the harbour out of use by filling it up with earth.

In 394 BC, with Persian aid, the general Konon destroyed the Spartan fleet and rebuilt the fortification walls of Athens and Piraeus. Building operations were restarted in the Agora. The Panathenaic Stadium was built on the left bank of the Hisses around 330 BC. The stone Theatre of Dionysos was erected on the south slope of the Acropolis about the same time. Plato's Academy was founded in the sacred grove of the Hero Akademos.

During the second half of the 4th century BC the city walls were restored and fortified on several occasions. An outer defence wall known as the proteichisma and a dry moat strengthened the defences of the city wall. At the end of the 4th century BC the city wall and the Long Walls were rebuilt; the Dipylon Gate, the largest gate in Greece, was completely reconstructed. The line of the city wall was shortened by means of a cross-wall, the diateichisma, running from the Hill of the Nymphs, along the ridge of the Pnyx, to the top of Philopappos Hill.

In the 4th century BC internal strife sapped the strength of the city-state. In the second half of the century King Philip II of Macedonia pushed himself into the league of the Greek city – states and came into conflict with Athens. In the Battle of Chaironeia in 338 BC Philip defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes. After the Lamian War of 322 BC the Macedonians placed a garrison in Athens.

Between 317 and 307 BC the philosopher Demetrios ofPhaleron ruled the city with the support of the Macedonians and the economic situation of Athens improved temporarily. Drama, philosophy, painting and sculpture flourished again.

Athens then entered into an alliance with Sparta and Egypt against Macedonian rule. As a result of the Chremonidean War (267 – 261 BC) the city was again garrisoned by the Macedonians. The archons were replaced by a Macedonian governor known as the epistate. It was not until 229 BC that the Athenians succeeded in regaining their independence with the aid of an alliance with Achaia.

The expansion of the Roman empire began in the 2nd century BC. At this time Athens was going through a period of economic recession, although it was still the centre of scholarship and its schools were attended by many foreigners including Romans. New public buildings and temples were erected.

On the Acropolis the votive offerings of the kings of Pergamon decorated the south wall. The most famous of them represented the victory over the Celtic Galatians.

Attalos II, king of Pergamon, donated a large stoa built on the east side of the