Vouleftikon

The Vouleftikon is the squat, domed building on the east side of Syntagma Square — originally the Agha Pasha Mosque, built in 1730. After Greek independence the new republic borrowed it as a meeting place for the first elected national assembly.

The interior is usually open to visitors and contains a small exhibition on the early days of the Greek state. The architecture is the main interest: the central dome and four flanking half-domes, the slim minaret demolished long ago, the simple stone niche where the mihrab used to be. It is one of the few well-preserved Ottoman buildings in southern Greece.

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A story
The first Greek parliament met here in January 1826, in a former Ottoman mosque. The members sat on the floor in the central prayer hall and argued about a constitution while Ibrahim Pasha's army was burning villages thirty kilometres away.

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