Strefi Hill

Strefi Hill rises as a jagged, pine-covered outcrop above the dense concrete of the Exarcheia neighborhood. Once a private quarry owned by the Strefis family, the site supplied the limestone for many of the neoclassical buildings constructed in Athens during the late nineteenth century. The family eventually gifted the land to the city in nineteen thirty-six, and workers planted thousands of trees to transform the scarred rock face into a public park. Local residents still debate whether the steep paths should remain wild or become paved.