In 2023, I spent several months in Greece. It began as a month-long trip in February to visit Athens, Sifnos, Thessaloniki, and Crete. In the last week of that stay, the worst rail tragedy in Greek history occurred south of Tempe Valley, between Thessaloniki and Athens, when a passenger train was sent down the wrong track and collided head-on with a freight train. The temperature inside the passenger train reached 2,370 °F. At least 57 people were killed and 80 injured, many of them young. Following the tragedy, vigils, protests, and strikes broke out all over Greece. The collision was the result of a failed system. The electronic warning systems hadn’t functioned for years.
Greeks took to the streets in one of the largest protests in the country’s history. One of those protests took place around Syntagma Square (Constitution Square), located in front of Parliament. I was at the Square waiting for a friend by the fountain as the crowd began to mobilize. Once it reached Parliament, police fired tear gas sending protesters stampeding down the stairs into the Square. It reminded me of the Odessa Steps scene from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin. As I marveled in shock of what was unfolding before me, my throat and eyes began to sting. I joined the mass fleeing.
Syntagma Square was constructed just after King Otto moved the capital of the Greek Kingdom from Nafplio to Athens in 1834. It was originally named “Palace Square,” until an uprising took place on September 3, 1843 to demand a constitution.
Later that fall when I returned for a residency, I found the fountain at Syntagma Square overflowing with bubbles. People delighted in it, picking up puffs of foam, photographing the fountain, kissing while taking selfies, and video chatting with loved ones. I don’t know if this was an act of defiance, mischief, or an accident, but it was a very different scene from that February clash: an intriguing layer added to the history of the Square.
Kelsey Bosch 