Historic site

Tower of the Winds

Name: Tower of the Winds
Address: Athens, GR

78 locals recommend,

Location

Athens

Tower of the Winds

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Tips from locals

Daphne

October 14, 2019

This area is magical... The old streets of Plaka, little coffee shops and tavernas as well as The Ancient Agora nearby. Beautiful.

Dorothea

June 16, 2014

The Tower of the Winds is an octagonal Pentelic marble clocktower in the Roman Agora in Athens that functioned as a horologion or "timepiece".

Πανωραία

September 20, 2022

The square has taken its name by the monument Horologion of Kyrrhestes (Tower of the Winds), an octagonal marble building with representations of the winds on its pediments. On its northern side stood until 1898 the madrassas of Athens, the Islamic seminary which during the reign of Otto has been converted into prisons and a place of executions. As a matter of fact there was a platanus tree, where they hanged those that were convicted, and they had to salute the tree, something that gave rise to a famous Greek phrase.

Magda

July 16, 2017

A graceful stone tower dating back to the first century AD.

Konstantinos

May 7, 2019

The Tower of the Winds also known as the Horologion of Andronicus of Cyrrhus, the Tower of the Winds is an octagonal monument at the site of the Roman Forum. Built by the Greek astronomer Andronicus in the 1st century BC, the building functioned as a weather vane and sundial. The personifications of the eight winds are carved on its eight surfaces and weather vane. During the second phase of the Turkish occupation the monument was converted into a Dervish teke, a Muslim religious institution visited by members of the order from every corner of the Empire. After the Revolution of 1821, the Dervish order abandoned the monument. Later, once Athens became the capital, the surrounding area was named Aerides, or 'The Winds', after this notable monument.