A bit of history!

As you know, the history of Olympics Games began in Greece. The KALIMARMARO STADIUM also known as PANATHINAIKO STADIUM is a huge marble stadium, built by Lycourgos in 330-229 b.C. for the athletic competitions of "Panathinea" - the greatest festivities in ancient Athens - and had been rebuilt three times since then. The site of the Panathenaic Stadium was originally a small natural valley, between the two hills of Agra and Ardettos, over Ilissos river. It was first reconstructed by Hadrian in 76-138 a.d. to hold Gladiators competitions. The second time was restored by Herodes Atticus between 140 and 144 a.C., who gave it the form how it was found at the 1870 excavation “a horseshoe construction” out of white marble. Over the next 1800 years the stadium was mined for marble and left in despair. The third and present construction was in 1895 when Georgios Aerof restored it for the first modern Olympic Games which began in Athens – Greece on the 5th April 1895. It has a seating capacity of 60.000 people. When I was there in 2006 you were not allowed to get inside.

FILIPIDES was a Greek soldier, who had the task of going from Marathon – Greece to Sparta, a 240 km distance, to request Spartans aid, when the Persian army came to destroy Athens in 492 a.C. He ran 240 km in two days to receive a “no” answer from the Spartans so he had to return Athens with the bad news. In 490 a.C. he ran 42 km between Marathon – Athens to announce that Greece had won the battle. When he got to Athens shouting “We have won”, he died not from exhaustion, but from battle wounds. It is a modern Filipides Statue which seems to be in movement. It was taken from a poem written by Robert Browning “Filípides” in 1879, which inspired Pierre de Coubertin who founded the modern Olympics Games to the foot race called marathon: “Then, when Persia was dust, all shouted: "To the Acropolis! It runs, Filípides, a race more! You will have your reward! Athens has been saved thanks to Bread. It sees and grítalo! " It threw his shield, saeta ran again like one; and all the extension between the field of hinojo (battlefield) and Athens was left-overs, a field again that crossed one saeta, until it announced: " Regocijaos, we have won! " As wine that filters in clay, the happiness that flowed by its blood exploded to him the heart: the ecstasy! LOOK SIDEWAYS.