Anafiotika

You're in Anafiotika, a slice of Greek island transplanted to the foot of the Acropolis. Take a deep breath: there's no traffic noise here, only cats, church bells and conversations drifting through windows.

1Builders from a faraway island

The neighbourhood was born in the reign of King Otto, from the 1840s onwards. Athens was being rebuilt as a capital and needed labour. Carpenters and stonemasons came from Anafi, a small island in the Cyclades, to work on the new royal palace, today's Parliament. With no money to buy land, they settled on this rocky slope nobody wanted and recreated the architecture of home. Workers from other islands followed.

2Building before dawn

This is where legend comes in. It's said that an old law, inherited from Ottoman times, forbade the demolition of a house if its owner managed to put up the walls and roof between sunset and sunrise. The islanders supposedly built their first homes this way, in a single night. No such law has ever been found, but the story explains the improvised look of the neighbourhood very well.

What's certain is that they built without permission; the law of the night is the part the neighbourhood tells.

In 1950 houses were demolished to excavate the slope, and around forty-five remain today.

3What to look for

• The houses without street numbers: many are known only as Anafiotika 1, 2, 3…
• The Church of Agios Georgios tou Vrachou, “of the rock”, pressed against the Acropolis.
• The stairways that end in terraces looking out over the city.