Greece’s oldest literary society, the Parnassos cultural club, stands opposite a church on one of Athens’s oldest squares. Its neoclassical facade and monumental columns were designed to impress. The society, named after the home of the Muses, had a single objective: to promote the nation’s “intellectual, moral and social improvement” as Greeks, newly freed from the shackles of Ottoman rule, sought to pursue the course of other European states.
It was here that poets and writers came, that Maria Callas first sang, that every artist of every hue first exhibited, and royals and prime ministers flocked. It is also why Parnassos’s fortunes have reflected those of Greece.
It was here that poets and writers came, that Maria Callas first sang, that every artist of every hue first exhibited, and royals and prime ministers flocked. It is also why Parnassos’s fortunes have reflected those of Greece.
