Friday, March 20, 2009

The National Gardens

Fernandez signed Bixente Lizarazu, the first French-born Basque to join the club, Ismael Urzaiz and José Mari. Athletic also began to recruit players from the canteras of other Basque clubs, leading to allegations of poaching. In 1995 Athletic signed Joseba Etxeberria from regional rivals Real Sociedad, causing considerable bad feeling between the two clubs. Although Lizarazu left after one season, Urzaiz, José Mari Garcia Lafuente and Etxeberria, were prominent members of the 1997/98 squad along with Rafael Alkorta, Julen Guerrero and Patxi Ferreira. The Panathinaiko or Panathenaic Stadium (also known as the Kallimarmaron, i.e. the "beautifully marbled") in Athens is the only major stadium in the world built fully of white marble (from Mount Penteli). It should not be confused with the Panathinaikos football pitch (officially called the Apostolos Nikolaidis stadium) at Alexandras Avenue. olympic Rings at Kallimarmaro Stadium

In ancient times it was used to host the athletic portion of the Panathenaic Games in honour of the Goddess Athena. During classical times the stadium had wooden seating. It was remade in marble by the archon Lycurgus in 329 BC and was enlarged and renovated by Herodes Atticus in 140 AD, to a seated capacity of 50,000. The remnants of the ancient structure were excavated and refurbished, with funds provided by Evangelos Zappas for the revival of the Olympic Games.[1] Evangelos Zappas sponsored Olympic Games that were held there in 1870 and 1875.[1] The stadium was refurbished a second time in 1895 for the 1896 Summer Olympics, with completion funding provided by the Greek benefactor George Averoff (whose marble statue now stands at the entrance), based on designs by architects Anastasios Metaxas and Ernst Ziller. The stadium was built long before dimensions for athletics venues were standardized and its track and layout follow the ancient hairpin-like model. It can seat about 80,000 spectators on 50 rows of marble steps.

It is located in downtown Athens, east of the National Gardens and the Zappeion Exhibition Hall, west of the Pankrati residential district and between the twin pine-covered hills of Ardettos and Agra. Up to the 1950s, the Ilissos River (now covered by, and flowing underneath, Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue) ran in front of the stadium's entrance, and the spring of Kallirrhoe, the sanctuary of Pankrates (a local hero) and the Cynosarges public gymnasium were nearby.

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