National Garden of Athens, Public garden next to Parliament, Athens, Greece

The National Garden of Athens is a 15.5-hectare public park between Kolonaki and Pangrati, directly behind the Greek Parliament. Its geometric beds of low grass and small red, pink, white, yellow and purple flowers are bordered by low green hedges, with rows of tall, slender palms to the left and rear. At the centre, a pale stone pedestal with a flared square top and moulded base stands on a rectangular patch of bare earth.

Queen Amalia established this garden in 1838, hiring a German agronomist to bring over 500 plant species from around the world. From this royal project, it later transformed into a public space open to everyone.

This place began as a royal retreat and remains a spot where locals pause for lunch or rest during their day. The wide paths and shaded areas were designed to invite people to slow down and find relief from the city.

The garden lies just two minutes from Syntagma Square with free admission and opens from sunrise to sunset daily. The broad paths are easy to walk and offer plenty of shade from trees on hot days.

In 1920 King Alexander was bitten by a pet monkey while walking in the garden and died of sepsis three weeks later. Winston Churchill later wrote that it was perhaps no exaggeration to say a quarter of a million people died from this monkey's bite, referring to the political upheaval that followed.