Remarks
The central market of Athens still constitutes a spectacle with a quite extraordinary oriental ambiance. Note especially the meat house, the egg-sellers and, close to Sofokleous Street, the goldsmiths and moneychangers equipped with small scales. From the market you can walk down Evripidou Street to No. 72 where, at the bottom of a small square, hides the Chapel of St John of the Column (Ágios Giánis stin Kólon), built around a Corinthian column. The chapel has many visitors seeking a cure for fevers. Kodzia Square, to the north of the market, was the centre of Athens in the second half of the 19C: it was planted with palm trees and surrounded with individual residences, some of which remain. The National Bank of Greece, to the east of the square, was founded in 1842. In the centre of the square around 500 ancient tombs were discovered just outside the city walls. After the necropolis was abandoned, during the Roman epoch a district of potters was established, whose workshops and kilns have been found.