National Garden, 2025 / Xiaomi 14 Ultra _ 2025

Photographic Essay

Approaching Landscape Architecture in the National Garden

The National Garden is not merely a green space; it is a cultural monument of landscape
architecture, a metropolitan lung of oxygen and memory, inextricably linked
to the course of modern Greece and to Athens’ evolution into a European capital.
Its philosophy is inspired by the ideal of a return to simplicity and nature
— “bring nature into the garden” — which replaced the strict geometric
order of previous centuries.

A closed garden, with dense evergreen planting and multiple layers of greenery,
the National Garden reveals itself gradually through pathways and unexpected corners.
Its structural elements, materials, plantings, and water features compose a mosaic
of culture, art, and technique — a living testament to our history.

In 2011, the Garden was officially recognized as a Historic Site by the Ministry of Culture
and as a Cultural Monument of Europe by the International Committee
of Historic Gardens.

Yet beyond titles and distinctions, it remains a deeply poetic place,
a space that invites us to pause, to listen, to remember.

As Henry Miller wrote in 1939:
“The park remains in my memory as no other park I have visited in my life.
The quintessence of a park is, as when one looks at a painting or dreams — to be in
a place that one can never actually go to.”

The National Garden is not merely a space within the city; it is a space of the soul,
where nature, history, and time meet in silence.